CINCINNATI, Ohio — Spend any time around 10-year coach Kalani Sitake’s BYU football team, and a couple of catch-phrases will quickly become evident.
Sitake has established a culture rooted in gratitude and his “love and learn” mantra, along with an insistence on playing “complementary football.”
Those bedrock philosophies of the program, along with a sensational effort from junior running back LJ Martin and an injury depleted offensive line, carried the Cougars to a 26-14 win over the upset-minded Cincinnati Bearcats Saturday night in front of 38,034 fans at sold-out Nippert Stadium on a clear, chilly night on the banks of the Ohio River.
The Cougars’ defense and special teams also did their part, as Will Ferrin booted a field goal in a close game where UC’s kicker missed all three of his attempts. Senior safety Tanner Wall came up with another interception.
“I think it comes down to the desire and heart and unity of this team,” said defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa. “We built that unity back in August, and we are seeing the fruits of that now. And I absolutely love it.”
The win kept BYU’s hopes of playing in the Big 12 championship game on Dec. 6 in Arlington, Texas, alive, and would have gotten the Cougars (7-1, 10-1) into their first-ever conference championship game since their Mountain West days if Colorado had defeated Arizona State even later Saturday night. However, the Sun Devils prevailed 42-17 in Boulder, creating a two-way tie for third place in the league between themselves and Utah.
Texas Tech (7-1, 10-1) and BYU are tied for first heading into Saturday’s regular-season finales. The Cougars will play host to UCF (2-6, 5-6), while the Red Raiders play at West Virginia (2-6, 4-7).
“I think we did exactly what we were supposed to do, right?” said Wall. “We were supposed to come in here and win this game. … Their red zone offense was supposed to be one of the best in the country, and I thought we handled that extremely well.”
It is BYU’s fourth double-digit win season under Sitake, 20th overall in BYU history, and it has come against six teams who are eligible for bowl games: 9-2 Utah, 8-3 Arizona, 7-4 Iowa State, 7-4 TCU, 7-4 Cincinnati and 7-4 East Carolina. The Cincinnati, Iowa State, Arizona and East Carolina wins came on the road.
BYU is 21-3 the past two seasons, 14-3 in Big 12 games. And yet the Cougars are likely to remain at No. 11 when the next College Football Playoff rankings are released Tuesday, on the outside looking in for an at-large berth because the ACC gets a team in the CFP — its conference champion — although it does not have a team projected to be in the top 12.
At this point, it appears that BYU needs to win the Big 12 championship game to make the CFP. Wall said the Cougars learned some lessons from last year, when they were in the top 10 but dropped games to Kansas and Arizona State and tumbled down the rankings and out of the CFP.
“This team is super tight-knit, and we’ve been able to accomplish some great things already this year and are working towards the real things we are excited about accomplishing,” Wall said. “At the end of the day, there are a lot of veterans on this team who were on the team last year. It felt bad to be in the driver’s seat and then lose that ability to control our destiny. So we are trying to keep that in our hands.”
Keeping the ball in Martin’s hands was a big key to BYU’s success Saturday against a Cincinnati defense geared up to stop him, especially after top receiver Chase Roberts left the game after tweaking a hamstring. Roberts extended his streak of at least one catch in a game to 37 consecutive games.
Martin also had 44 receiving yards for a career-best 266 all-purpose yards.
“If they are giving it their all, I want to give my all, too,” Martin said after being asked about his workload. “… Just as the game goes on, sometimes you just feel little tweaks, and then you just got to walk it off.”
He rushed for 222 yards, the eighth-most in a single-game in BYU history. Jamaal Williams set the standard in 2016, rushing for 286 yards.
Missing senior left guard Weylin Lapuaho, BYU’s offensive line simply took over in the final four minutes to grind out the clock after the Bearcats had closed the gap to six points.
“I think everybody understood the circumstances,” said center Bruce Mitchell. “There wasn’t much that needed to be said. We knew we could end the game. We went out and scored a touchdown and were able to kill (most) of the clock along the way. … That was a really fun drive.”
Especially for a team that always seems to have each other’s back. In other words, complementary football.
