The Cougars expect Hawaii to be physical and extremely motivated when the Rainbow Warriors host them in Hawaii on Christmas Eve in the SoFi Hawaii Bowl. Although fairly battered after a long season, Kalani Sitake’s BYU team knows it will have to match that ferocity come kickoff time.
BYU has started more players (50) than any other team in the country, most all due to roster shuffles because of injuries.
But heralding injuries, according to assistant head coach Ed Lamb, is a cop-out. Good teams just deal with it, test their depth, and go on.
“Yeah, I think it could be an excuse and we’re just going to stay away from it,” said Lamb.
“The good teams, the teams that are winning, they never, never bring it up. I think we’ve had enough success where we can keep our heads above that and just not talk about it. The idea of counting up the injuries and kind of leaking it out to the media and all that? That’s just coaches leading the way on the losers limp. We don’t want to develop that. We don’t want to give that excuse to our players.”
When a starter goes down, you must find another starter to replace that body. And in this respect, the Cougars have excelled. There is no better example than at the quarterback position.
In 2019, starting QB Zach Wilson broke his thumb and was replaced by Jaren Hall, who suffered a concussion. He was replaced by Baylor Romney before Wilson made it back six weeks later. That is crazy.
Romney, a freshman walk-on, led BYU to an upset win over No. 14 Boise State in a rainstorm.
That is depth big-time when a third-stringer rises up on that kind of stage.
BYU led the nation in 2019 in different starters through 12 games.
Some assistants did respond when asked about the challenge of playing through injuries over the course of a season.
“At the end the day, it just comes down to the next man up. We’ve got to be ready to get it done.” — BYU running backs coach AJ Steward
Running backs coach AJ Steward has had his share of hospital visits. He lost Ty’Son Williams and Sione Finau to ACL knee injuries. At each time, both were leading the team in rushing yards.
He has never been around a team with so many injuries.
“Yeah, never this many injuries and, really, definitely I haven’t been around a team that has been able to overcome the injuries like we have,” he said. “I think that shows our ability to recruit. We’ve done a great job here. We’ve got some depth at positions where we can still have success and maintain things whenever we do have some injuries. So, that’s really good for the future.
“Obviously, we’re always a lot better when everybody’s healthy and so we’ll just keep leaning on those guys. It’s not like they try to get hurt,” Steward continued. “It’s just a good lesson for everybody. Just make sure we take care of our bodies for one, but also, the guys that are down the list a little bit earlier in camp and early in the season, I still need to prepare so they’re ready for that opportunity.”
Defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki has been shuffling linemen, linebackers, corners and safeties in and out all season. It started when the most experienced defender, linebacker Zayne Anderson, went down almost as soon as the season began.
He says injuries are a good luck, bad luck kind of thing, something you walk through from season to season.
“It’s like if you’re lucky enough to come out of the year where most of those you started stay healthy, you have had a pretty good year. Then there are some years where we don’t stay healthy. It’s just one of those deals, you know,” said Tuiaki.
“They kind of come in waves as far as what the injury is. So, one year at another school it’s like everybody’s getting a Lisfranc injury, and then another year everyone has an ACL, another we’ve got a shoulder here and there. It’s just kind of weird, but after a long time, it kind of evens itself out and you just understand this is part of the game.”
Have injuries contributed to this team’s inconsistencies? Beating Tennessee and USC, losing to Toledo and South Florida?
“I would say so,” said Steward. “But at the end of the day, it’s just hard to win a football game in Division I football. I mean, you’ve got to show up every single week and everybody’s capable of beating everybody. Some people got the best of us this year and we played at a higher level on certain weeks.
“At the end the day, it just comes down to the next man up. We’ve got to be ready to get it done. There were times where we did accomplish that and there were times we came up a little bit short, but there’re lessons in all of that. I think it’s made us a stronger team. I think it’ll prepare us for bigger things and futures.”