This past weekend at Baylor, BYU snapped a 10-game losing skid against FBS foes in day games.
When the Cougars next take the field, they’ll have the opportunity to begin a winning streak in early kickoff contests.
Fox announced its game start times for Saturday, Oct. 12, with No. 17 BYU taking on Arizona beginning at 2 p.m MDT.
Prior to a 34-28 Cougars victory over the Bears this past weekend, Kalani Sitake’s crew had lost each of its previous 10 FBS contests with kickoffs earlier than 6 p.m., as the Deseret News previously reported.
In contrast, BYU holds a 28-3 record since 2019 in games played entirely in post-8 p.m. hours. Such a phenomenon has caused fans — and Reddit users — to adopt the somewhat tongue-in-cheek “Vampire Cougs” theory.
As one Reddit post pointed out, the Cougars have a higher win percentage against ranked opponents with no sunlight (77%) than against nonpower conference teams in the day (50%) since 2019.
Sitake doesn’t give much thought to the “vampire” allegations, poking holes through the premise after beating Baylor at 11 a.m. local time.
“We have been in this situation before. We can adjust our schedule depending on whatever the kickoff time is. That is what we do,” Sitake told media members last Monday. “We have had our support staff, our strength staff, our sports scientists that can get us in the best place where we can play at our best when kickoff happens.”
Ultimately, a BYU bye week should make a greater difference for the Cougars than the actual start time on Oct. 12, giving defensive coordinator Jay Hill extra time to prepare a scheme to shut down Arizona’s talented QB-receiver connection of Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan.
The Wildcats are coming off a convincing road win over No. 10 Utah and will host Texas Tech this Saturday before traveling back north to Provo.
