The long offseason is about to end for Hans Olsen. The former Cougar and current analyst for BYU Radio will return to the mic Aug. 30 when Portland State comes to Provo (6 p.m. ESPN+).
Even as the Cougars appear closer to naming a true freshman as their starting quarterback, Olsen sees the program positioned for success.
“I want Kalani (Sitake) and this team to feel doubted. I want them to feel slighted, because last year they proved everybody wrong,” Olsen told the “Y’s Guys” livestream show this week. “They shoved every word I said right down my throat. I was not overly negative, but I just didn’t see 11 wins.”
Olsen wasn’t alone. His colleagues around the Big 12 voted BYU to finish 13th among the 16 teams. The Cougars didn’t get a single vote in the AP or coaches preseason polls. Finishing 11-2 and ranked No. 13 wasn’t on anyone’s radar and when this week’s first AP Top 25 preseason poll surfaced, he was happy to see BYU off the radar again.
“It’s right where I want them to be, outside the top 25 and outside of everybody’s mind,” he said. “You still feel like you have a chip on your shoulder because you feel like you should be in the top 25 and it’s (No. 26) also a great position where you beat Portland State soundly and you get a dominating win over Stanford, and you find yourself somewhere near 17 or 18.”
Olsen sees BYU’s early schedule as an opportunity for the Cougars to remind the pundits that last year wasn’t a fluke and this season could be another fun one.
“People are instantly going to see that (Isaiah) Glasker and (Jack) Kelly are still on the field and they are still ridiculous,” he said. “They are going to see Keanu Tanuvasa and be like, ‘Oh man, now they have some interior threats.’ They are going to see LJ Martin and say, ‘Oh geez, we forgot when he was healthy, he was unstoppable.’
“They are going to learn about Sione Moa,” Olsen continued. “I believe people will remember and they are going to see that these guys have a lot of talent, and that they added some talent. I think they will jump the rankings fast.”
Hans Olsen’s top five games on BYU’s schedule
5. At Cincinnati, Nov. 22: “I think that is a sneaky good Bearcats team. I can’t wait to call a game in that stadium. I love Cincinnati. I am one of the few people I have ever met or know that loves Cincinnati. I’m so excited to get back there.”
4. At Colorado, Sept. 27: “I can’t wait to see what Coach Prime can do. I called that Alamo Bowl. I watched Coach Prime and the level of embarrassment, you had 8.5 million eyeballs on you. You had talked about your Heisman winner.
You had talked about your draft pick son. You had built this thing up like nobody quits and they all played, nobody left, everybody played. I respect it, but it made the embarrassment all the more (36-14). So, Coach Prime, knowing that it’s the first Big 12 game for BYU, he is going to have them geared up. They are going to be notched up.”
3. At Texas Tech, Nov. 8: “I cannot wait to be in Lubbock to see what (BYU) does against what they are now coining the ‘money team’ in the Big 12. It was a bigger buzz and was more talked about at Big 12 media days than anything BYU has done financially. Texas Tech is in the money game.”
2. At Iowa State, Oct. 25: “This is going to be the best the Big 12 has been in many years. You have 12 returning quarterbacks who have experience and none more than Iowa State. They are loaded and looked at as a potential CFP team. That is going to be a dog fight. I think this will be the toughest game for BYU on the entire schedule.
1. Utah, Oct. 18: “Kalani has now beaten Utah two games in a row over Kyle Whittingham. This game has every major storyline for a rivalry game that you could ever imagine, where you have players who have turned colors and gone from one to the other, you have all kinds of intermingling with coaching and you have bad blood, even though they are friends, it’s still bad blood. The University of Utah has been consistently ranked above BYU by most national insiders. You have everything that you could possibly want and that is going to be the game of all games.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.