Caleb Etienne will be the first one to admit it.
The 6-foot-8 offensive lineman’s first season in Provo hasn’t gone as well as he would have liked, after transferring to BYU from Oklahoma State last spring amid criticism from OSU coach Mike Gundy that Etienne made the move because he feared he was losing his starting left tackle spot with the Cowboys.
“Not really. I am still holding that in. At the end of the day, we just gotta go out there on Saturday and just get the win, really, no matter what. It is all love at the end of the day. But by the time we hit the field, we gotta go.” — BYU OL Caleb Etienne on returning to Oklahoma State
“It didn’t go how I planned it, but I know God has something planned for me,” Etienne said last week as the Cougars prepared to face Oklahoma. “I just gotta believe and trust in it and hopefully everything will get better. I just gotta keep working, really, and keep my head up.”
Although he lost his starting right tackle spot a couple games into the 2023 season at BYU, was moved to right guard, and is now a backup there behind Weylin Lapuaho, Etienne is back in the spotlight this week. That’s because the Cougars face his former team on Saturday (1:30 p.m. MST, ABC) in Stillwater, where he started in all 13 games in 2022.
“I am pretty excited,” Etienne said. “I get to play my old team. … I feel like it will be a good opportunity for us to show them that we still got something in the tank. We are trying to get better each and every day.”
Etienne said the move to guard has energized him, given him some hope for the future. And yes, those future plans include remaining at BYU next season, when the starting left tackle spot will presumably open up with Kingsley Suamataia declaring for the NFL draft.
“I have been playing guard lately, so hopefully that might be a position for me next season, or whatever,” Etienne said. “I just gotta keep on believing and stay with it and just trust it. … I can play both, inside or out. But since I got switched to guard I have been doing way better. I feel like I am more focused and it is more comfortable for me. So guard is my position looking like right now.”
Center Connor Pay, who has also played tackle and guard during his BYU career, said he’s not sure why Etienne seems to play better at guard than tackle, but he has noticed the improvement.
“Obviously it is a big adjustment regardless of what position you are playing. But I think his size and his physicality gives him an advantage when he is playing guard because he is so big and he is so strong,” Pay said. “And at guard you kinda have a smaller space to work with, so he can put that power to use and just go after people. I think he has done a good job with it.”
Etienne participated in Senior Day ceremonies with 29 other Cougars after the 31-24 loss to Oklahoma, but said “the plan” right now is to return in 2024 and get his degree in sociology.
“I want to come back and graduate (next August),” he said.
But first things first.
The Cougars (2-6, 5-6) need a win at OSU to get bowl eligible. The Cowboys (6-2, 8-3) are still in the hunt for a berth in the Big 12 championship game.
Etienne wants that to be the focus, and not on his return or what Gundy said back in April when he hit the portal.
“Caleb just felt like he got beat out. So he left,” Gundy said. “But that is his choice.”
Gundy proceeded to rag on the transfer portal, using Etienne’s case as an example, further publicly embarrassing the former junior college transfer.
“So as of now we have one guy, which would be Caleb, that didn’t feel like he was going to start here, and he was going to lose his job, so he wanted to go somewhere else,” Gundy said.
In an interview with the Deseret News last June, Etienne took the high road and declined to comment on the veteran coach’s pointed remarks.
“Honestly, you just gotta let that one be,” he said, while acknowledging that the game in Stillwater was “most definitely” circled on his calendar.
Things have changed a lot since then — for him, his family and the Cougars.
Now that the game is just days away, does Etienne feel any differently? Is he ready to unleash verbally on Gundy?
“Not really,” he said. “I am still holding that in. At the end of the day, we just gotta go out there on Saturday and just get the win, really, no matter what. It is all love at the end of the day. But by the time we hit the field, we gotta go.”
