BYU is reportedly paying Jay Hill around $1 million a year to leave Weber State and come to Provo to resuscitate a defense that was downright awful in 2022.
The new defensive coordinator was certainly worth the money Saturday night in front of 59,006 at LaVell Edwards Stadium, as the Cougars shut out Sam Houston 14-0 in a season opener in which BYU’s offense looked like it borrowed a page from last year’s defense.
A win is a win, as they say, but this one was as unsatisfying as any in recent memory, right up there with that 20-6 win over Portland State in the 2017 season opener. We won’t remind you of what happened to the Cougars, and then-offensive coordinator Ty Detmer, when that woeful season finally ended.
“It is nice when you can win games and everybody is disappointed about it,” said BYU coach Kalani Sitake.
Talk about a defensive struggle. There were more interceptions, three, than touchdowns, two.
It was the fewest points scored by BYU in a victory since a 6-3 win over Utah State in 2012. There were worse performances by Big 12 teams Saturday. Just ask Baylor and Texas Tech.
On the more positive side, it was the Cougars’ first shutout since they crushed Savannah State 64-0 in 2014 and first over a Football Bowl Subdivision (FCS) opponent since they blanked Hawaii in 2012.
“Overall, just happy we got the win,” Sitake said. “… Too many long faces in the locker room. Had to cheer them up a little bit.”
The fans could probably use a pep talk, too, with 10 straight Power Five opponents looming after next week’s matchup with FCS Southern Utah, which doesn’t look like as much of a cakewalk as it did three days ago. The Thunderbirds nearly knocked off Arizona State late Thursday night, falling just 24-21.
“Really happy with what our defense did,” Sitake said.
So let’s focus on that, a night that will be known as the time the defense — cornerback Jakob Robinson to be more specific — bailed out the offense by holding the visiting Bearkats to 185 yards. Sam Houston crossed the 50-yard line only once, and never in the fourth quarter.
The other time the Bearkats were in BYU territory came after one of the most puzzling decisions in the Kalani Sitake era, a fake punt in which all-everything punter Ryan Rehkow — more on his performance later — was told to tuck the ball and run with it with the Cougars up just 7-0 on their first possession of the second half.
Rehkow didn’t have a chance on the fourth-and-6 play, losing 5 yards, and Sam Houston took over at the Cougars’ 20.
“That’s on me,” Sitake said, noting that it wasn’t Rehkow’s fault in the least. “That was my error.”
Sitake said he thought his team needed a spark, and that would give it to them. Guess again.
Three plays later, after a controversial pass interference penalty gave the visitors the ball inside the BYU 5, Robinson jumped a route and picked off Sam Houston QB Keegan Shoemaker, a play that, if it didn’t win the Cougars the game, it certainly saved them and their coaches from some major embarrassment.
“It is nice when you can win games and everybody is disappointed about it.” — BYU coach Kalani Sitake.
“Watching film last night, I just say that they do those rub routes a lot, and I just jumped it,” said Robinson, who also came up with a pick on Sam Houston’s next possession, as replay officials let stand an iffy call of an interception on the field.
A starter last year who was the hero of the New Mexico Bowl with a stop on SMU’s potential game-winning two-point conversion try, Robinson also said something interesting about preparation, noting that “this is the most prepared we’ve ever been.”
If that’s not an endorsement of Hill’s value to the program, and an indictment of released defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki’s backsliding in his final few years, then nothing is.
OK, enough bouquets for the defense, which gave up only three plays of 20 yards or longer.
On offense, the Cougars just didn’t have it — aside from touchdown drives at the start of the first quarter and end of the third quarter.
“We will get it fixed,” Sitake said, a sentiment echoed by starting quarterback Kedon Slovis, who scored the first two rushing touchdowns of his career, but was shaky throwing the ball throughout the contest. Slovis was 20 of 33 for 145 yards, for a passer rating of 97.5.
“Pretty harshly,” is how Slovis said he would evaluate his performance. “I’m not happy with it.”
If you had Slovis rushing for two TDs and true freshman LJ Martin rushing for a game-high 91 yards and rescuing the Cougars in the second half when Aidan Robbins (7 carries, 23 yards) and Deion Smith (3 carries, minus-2 yards) were mostly ineffective, give yourself a gold star.
“LJ is the freaking man,” said linebacker Ben Bywater, who tied fellow LB Max Tooley for team-high tackling honors, with nine. “He was dicing us up in the first scrimmage. … He is going to be special.”
BYU’s offense looked capable early, taking its first possession 50 yards for a touchdown. The key play was a 16-yard catch by Chase Roberts on third-and-4 as the Cougars played without projected starting receivers Kody Epps and Keanu Hill.
Then the offense ran into a figurative brick wall that didn’t crumble until the end of the third quarter.
BYU’s offensive ineptitude in the first half — after that opening possession — can be summed up with one simple stat: The Cougars picked up only 66 yards on 26 plays the final six times they touched the ball in the half. That’s 2.53 yards per play.
And that’s not nearly good enough. Not against a team transitioning to the Football Bowl Subdivision, and it especially won’t be good enough in the Big 12.
What went wrong?
Sitake lauded Sam Houston’s defense and coach K.C. Keeler, who he has called one of the best coaches in college football the entire week. He also said that the offense was “flat,” but didn’t go into the reasons.
The absence of Hill and Epps has to figure into the equation, but what happened to that dominant offensive line? The Cougars finished with 257 yards and punted nine times. Rehkow, arguably the star of the game for BYU, in addition to Martin, averaged 53.2 yards on those boots, often flipping the field for an ineffective offense.
Other times, offensive linemen committed key penalties that negated long gains, and in two cases gains that had gone for first downs.
After surpassing the 10,000-yard career passing plateau on that first drive, Slovis had the Cougars moving again on their second series, but a holding penalty negated a big gain by Smith, and the Cougars ended up punting.
Slovis did thread the needle to newcomer Darius Lassiter for an 18-yard gain, but hurried throws to Keelan Marion and Robert after that. He missed Isaac Rex on third-and-10 late in the first half. Four times Slovis went to Rex on third down; Two were incomplete, while the other two failed to pick up a first down.
Another strange stat from the first half: The Cougars had 12 first-down plays in the first two quarters and threw the ball on nine of them. After the first TD, BYU’s next eight drives netted 95 yards and included a failed fourth-down pass, failed fake punt failed and six punts.
“You gotta stay positive,” Slovis said. “A win is a win. … As an offense we have higher expectations that what we saw tonight.”
But at least the Cougars have Jay Hill, and on this night his defense was enough.
But just barely.