PROVO — It was only a month ago that BYU students were storming the field to celebrate a 30-27 overtime victory over No. 24-ranked USC, the Cougars’ second straight win over a Power Five program. Sophomore quarterback Zach Wilson had recovered nicely from offseason shoulder surgery, fifth-year graduate transfer running back Ty’Son Williams was obviously the real deal and some prominent former players and boosters were calling for an in-season contract extension for head coach Kalani Sitake, in the fourth year of a five-year deal.
Life got a little bit better for Cougar fans six days later when those same Trojans dumped the rival Utah Utes 30-23 in Los Angeles. But the next day, Sept. 21, BYU was brought down to earth by No. 21 Washington 45-19 on its home turf, Williams sustained a season-ending knee injury and weaknesses such as a leaky rush defense, a nonexistent pass rush and soft and mistake-prone offensive line play were exposed.
Two games later, after unexpected and somewhat maddening losses to a pair of lesser-funded programs, Toledo and South Florida, the bottom has dropped out on what once was a promising season, Sitake’s future leading the program is again in question and the big, bad Boise State Broncos (6-0) ride into LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday (8:15 p.m. MT, ESPN2) with a No. 14 national ranking.
Halfway through Sitake’s fourth season, the reeling Cougars face a midterm exam they seemingly can’t pass with a likely third-string quarterback (redshirt freshman Baylor Romney) against a BSU team that appears superior in every measurable category. It is shaping up to be another painful reminder of Sitake’s awful record in rivalry games.
What kind of grade have the Cougars earned to this point? Given that they’ve played the 11th-most difficult schedule in the country according to Jeff Sagarin’s College Football Ratings, lost three of their best six players to injury (Williams, Wilson and linebacker Zayne Anderson) and can hang their hats on those aforementioned P5 wins, anything below a C seems harsh. Another of their top players, cornerback and special teams ace Dayan Ghanwoloku, missed the USF game with hamstring issues.
So a C it is from this corner, with the caveat being that they are obviously closer to crashing into D or F range rather than rising above mediocre the second half of the season.
“The best way to say it is we are just unsatisfied right now,” said running back Lopini Katoa.
So are the fans, and many haven’t been shy about expressing their frustration on social media and sports talk radio. The players have noticed, if Monday’s press briefing is any indication.
“If I hear anybody say anything (bad) about Kalani, it makes me really angry because I feel a great loyalty to him because of that aspect of how he treats us (with tough love),” said defensive lineman Bracken El-Bakri.
It doesn’t appear that coaches have lost the team, as some suggested happened back in 2017, Sitake’s second year, when they started 1-7, beat a couple cupcakes, lost starting QB Tanner Mangum to an Achilles injury and then inexplicably fell 16-10 to fellow independent UMass at home. One of the most-beloved figures in BYU sports history, then-offensive coordinator Ty Detmer, lost his job in the fallout.
It’s not that bad — yet.
“I think it is a different situation, for sure,” said Katoa, who redshirted that year. “We are a different group. I think it is different, feels different.”
Linebacker Chaz Ah You, whose father, Jasen, is on Sitake’s support staff, even alluded to the head coach’s contract status, more evidence that everyone in Provo is feeling the heat.
“When a coach steps up and takes the blame off the players, that shows a lot of love, a lot of humility, as a player it makes you want to step your game up even more,” Chaz Ah You said. “Because his job, obviously, he doesn’t have the extension right now, so his job is on the line, so for him to put himself under the bus like that and kinda take the blame for the way that we are playing, that shows a lot of love. So it makes me just want to go out there and work even harder for him.”
The effort, determination and want-to are there. That hasn’t been a question, except for possibly in the final nine minutes in the opener against Utah after a lengthy lightning delay when a few players seemed to have packed it in.
So is it the coaching? Or a lack of talent? Certainly, asking players to perform above their talent level is usually a losing proposition, in the long run. Coaches worked hard to develop more depth after last year’s collapse at Utah, but turning walk-ons and one-stars into serviceable substitutes doesn’t happen overnight.
Notwithstanding passing game coordinator Aaron Roderick’s much-reported claim last year that “stats are for losers,” those stats point to a below-average football team at the halfway point. And they aren’t likely to improve much with BSU and Utah State (3-2) up next.
Of 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the Cougars are 87th in total offense (386.5 yards per game), 105th in scoring (22.3 points per game), 86th in total defense (413 ypg.) and 95th in scoring defense (30.5 ppg.). As has been discussed ad nauseam, their most glaring deficiency is stopping the run, where they rank 123rd in the country (224.5 ypg.) without really having played a team other than Utah known for pounding the rock.
Offensively, the failure to complete drives with touchdowns has been their most noticeable shortcoming and where Williams’ absence has been especially felt.
“Stats tell the story. You can pick a lot of different stats. It all depends on what you are trying to argue, but the only stat that matters to me is winning,” Sitake said Monday. “That’s all I care about right now and all I have been focused on. I can handle a lot of different things, too. I am always willing to learn and get better. That’s a day-to-day process for me as a coach, as a person, as a father, husband. But I like winning, that’s the key.”
His future after the second half of the season — beginning Saturday against the undefeated Broncos — probably depends on it.
Cougars on the air
Boise State (6-0) at BYU (2-4)
At LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo
Saturday, 8:15 p.m. MT
TV: ESPN2
Radio: KSL 1160 AM, 102.7 FM