BYU (0-0) vs. Sam Houston (0-0)
Kickoff: Saturday, 8:15 p.m. MDT.
Venue: LaVell Edwards Stadium.
TV: Fox Sports 1.
Livestream: https://www.foxsports.com/live.
Radio: KSL 1160 AM/102.7 FM/BYU Radio Sirius XM 143.
Series: First meeting.
Weather: Partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the low 70s in the evening with 40% chance of rain.
The trends
For BYU: The Cougars defeated SMU 24-23 in the 2022 New Mexico Bowl to finish the season with an 8-5 record and have won four straight.
For Sam Houston: This is the Bearkats’ first game as a Football Bowl Subdivision program and Conference USA member after they went 5-4 last year in the FCS ranks.
What to watch for
The big question for the Cougars all offseason has been whether or not former Weber State head coach Jay Hill, who replaced former BYU defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki, can reconstruct a BYU defense that was a big reason why the Cougars had a nightmarish October in 2022 and fell into a lower-tier bowl game.
How will more than 50 newcomers, a good portion of them on defense, blend together and get the Cougars started on the right foot in the Big 12? The most-watched of those new faces belongs to former USC and Pitt quarterback Kedon Slovis, who makes his LaVell Edwards Stadium debut — at least in a BYU uniform — after transferring in last January.
There are all kinds of other storylines for the Cougars, who will unveil several other offensive weapons — such as running back Aidan Robbins, receivers Darius Lassiter and Keelan Marion.
For Sam Houston, new offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen makes his play-calling debut, after having been Virginia Tech’s OC in 2021. The Bearkats stumbled down the stretch in 2022, but word out of Huntsville, Texas, is that several key players redshirted and younger guys saw action in the final two games in an effort to be ready for this game Saturday and contests with Air Force and Houston later in September.
Key player
Ben Bywater, Jr., BYU linebacker: Having led the Cougars in tackling the past two seasons, the redshirt junior from Salt Lake City missed spring ball after shoulder surgery but is back and will be counted on heavily to stop Sam Houston’s vaunted rushing attack.
The Cougars struggled mightily to stop the run the past two seasons, which new DC Jay Hill says is a must in 2023 if BYU is to regain some of its defensive prowess from years gone by. Bywater will be joined by fellow returner Max Tooley and AJ Vongphachanh, a transfer from Utah State, in giving the Cougars an experienced linebacking corps in 2023, but beyond those three the unit is untested and inexperienced.
Quotable
“Our best means making sure we are playing 60 of our best minutes on the field, regardless of who is out there. It is not just the guys on the field, it is the coaches, everyone who is involved in the game, making sure that we are definitely operating at our best. That’ s the focus. I can’t tell you what the result will be, what the final score will be. We don’t have a lot of these opportunities. Now that it is here with the first one, we need to make sure we take advantage of it.” — BYU coach Kalani Sitake.
“We’ve always recruited at a high level, but it’s a whole new level of players we’re now getting. We now believe that if we’re up against a Group of Five school from outside the state of Texas, we should win those battles 90 to 10. We were not winning those battles before at that high of a rate.”— Sam Houston coach K.C. Keeler to the Houston Chronicle.
Next up
BYU: vs. Southern Utah on Sept. 9.
Sam Houston: vs. Air Force on Sept. 9.
BYU schedule
Aug. 31 — vs. Sam Houston (8:15 p.m., FS1).
Sept. 9 — vs. Southern Utah (1 p.m. MDT, ESPN+).
Sept. 16 — at Arkansas (5:30 p.m. MDT, ESPN2).
Sept. 23 — at Kansas (TBA).
Sept. 29 — vs. Cincinnati (8:15 p.m. MDT, ESPN).
Oct. 14 — at TCU (TBA).
Oct. 21 — vs. Texas Tech (TBA).
Oct. 28 — at Texas (TBA).
Nov. 4 — at West Virginia (TBA).
Nov. 11 — vs. Iowa State (TBA).
Nov. 18 — vs. Oklahoma (TBA).
Nov. 25 — at Oklahoma State (TBA).