3 keys to BYU’s season-opening win over Southern Illinois

The Cougars are in the win column.

BYU kicked off its 2024 campaign with a compelling 41-13 victory over Southern Illinois Saturday night in Provo.

Here are three keys to the Cougars’ Saturday success against the Salukis.

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Jake Retzlaff plays great

It’s hard to imagine a better season debut for Jake Retzlaff.

The Cougars’ newly-minted QB1 — he was publicly announced as BYU’s starter about an hour before kickoff Saturday — turned in a brilliant effort en route to his first career win under center.

Retzlaff threw for a personal-best 348 yards with three touchdowns, completing 67% of his passes along with a 197.1 rating. He was near-flawless in executing Aaron Roderick’s offense, connecting with 10 different receivers and leading the Cougars to their first 500-yard showing since 2022.

“He’s just a tough kid,” head coach Kalani Sitake said of Retzlaff after the game. “He has an amazing work ethic and great abilities. I love the person that he is, and he just happens to play great football.”

Running the football

BYU’s ground game was a major weakness throughout the 2023 campaign, but against Southern Illinois, the Cougars churned for 179 rushing yards and two touchdowns on a whopping 47 carries.

Pounding the rock allowed BYU to dominate in the clock department — the Cougars logged just under 40 minutes of possession — while also opening up space all over the field for Retzlaff to attack through the air.

LJ Martin and Hinckley Ropati shared the majority of the load by combining for 26 carries and 124 yards at nearly a 4.8 yards per carry average, and both found the end zone for rushing touchdowns as well.

“I feel like we did well,” Martin said. “We were able to get some big runs, but I feel like there is stuff we could definitely clean up. We will get back to work on that and get ready for next week.”

Discipline and execution

It was a clean, efficient outing for the Cougars, who managed seven scoring drives, only punted twice and didn’t cough up a single turnover.

BYU was penalized just three times for 15 yards and scored on five of six red zone appearances, with the lone failure coming on a missed field goal.

Additionally, Sitake’s squad held Southern Illinois to a four of 12 mark on third down and converted three fourth down opportunities of their own out of four tries.

“I hope to never see the punt team or field goal team on the field,” Retzlaff said. “I love going for it on fourth down, I have always loved to go for it on fourth down. The guys love it too because it just shows Coach Roderick’s belief in us. It’s a lot of fun to be able to have a coordinator who believes in you like that and a team who can perform like that.”