The depth chart is out, the game plan is set, players are anxious to go hit somebody else for a change. Up next for BYU is getting on the field in LaVell Edwards Stadium and clashing with Utah Tech at 6 p.m. MDT on Saturday.
Here is Jay Drew’s story on what head coach Kalani Sitake told reporters on Monday.
The Cougars are favored by a whopping 51.5 points, the largest margin of victory of the week among Big 12 nonconference action.
These early games feature many such games. Big 12 favorite Texas Tech takes on Abilene Christian, Arizona hosts Northern Arizona, ASU faces Morgan State, Nicholls will be at Kansas State, Iowa State hosts Southeast Missouri State, Kansas plays Long Island University, Oklahoma State is at Tulsa, and Utah will play Idaho on Thursday night and is favored by 35.
On the other hand, No. 23 Houston will play Oregon State, West Virginia will take on Coastal Carolina, Baylor is at Auburn and Boston College visits Cincinnati.
This is the weekend before the league will face some serious games, a time for working out the kinks. How it is managed is important. A challenge for BYU is whether to score a lot of points for pollsters, or shut things down for mercy’s sake and the safety of starters and second-stringers who will be sorely needed down the road.
Here are some of our football practice stories and features to enjoy as game week approaches:
- BYU announces eight team captains (Jay Drew)
- BYU’s tallest receiver says team is ready (Dick Harmon)
- That’s a wrap, Cougars fall camp ends (Jay Drew)
Cougar Insider predictions
Question of the week: Other than an expected win over Utah Tech, what can BYU learn from this week’s game, and what are the metrics to be considered successful? Give your game prediction.
Jay Drew: BYU’s game against Utah Tech of the FCS ranks is one of those games where winning won’t nearly be enough for the No. 14-ranked Cougars. If they hope to maintain their spot in the top 15, they have to dominate — at least in the first half when the starters are on the field.
We won’t learn much from the game, but we will find out if the Cougars can do the little things correctly — such as avoiding penalties, getting plays signaled to the quarterback in a timely manner, and performing adequately on special teams.
We will also learn if they can handle adversity, although there probably won’t be much of that. New safeties coach Demario Warren told me last week that he can guarantee that the Trailblazers will have at least one play of 10 yards or more. He’s interested to see how the vaunted BYU defense will handle that.
A few of the stats to keep an eye on: Bear Bachmeier’s completion percentage (anything less than 70% will not be good); LJ Martin’s yards per carry (anything less than 4.0 will not be ideal); and how many yards the visitors get in the first half against BYU’s first-team defense.
What will happen? I don’t think Kalani Sitake will run up the score, after the Cougars blistered Portland State 69-0 last year. I don’t even think BYU will beat UT by more than Montana State did (54-0). Sitake has too much respect for Tech coach Lance Anderson and an in-state opponent.
Prediction: BYU 56, Utah Tech 10
Dick Harmon: Aside from a win, the most important thing in this game is to come away healthy. Nobody banged up, no muscle, ligament or bones torn, broken or pulled, no concussions or other maladies in a game that is basically an organized scrimmage.
To make this work, BYU coaches will play their front-line players sparingly, giving them a light workout, and then retire them for the second- and third-string players. The starters need to prove they can execute, manage assignments and win their one-on-one matchups.
There are technical things Power Four teams want to see in a game like this. These include communication, proper dialogue between the coaches box and sideline, seamless substitutions and game management — like timeouts, field goal and extra point setups with proper timing to get personnel on the field.
We will likely see a watered-down game plan that doesn’t expose all the alignments and formations that will be deployed against Arizona the following week.
Utah Tech will receive what is a customary fee for these kind of games. AI says this is about $400K to $450K, a significant deposit in Utah Tech’s athletic department budget. It’s one of the reasons these games are played.
Prediction: BYU 63, Utah Tech 7
Cougar tales
Kevin Young brings an NBA champion assistant coach into the BYU hoops program. BYU’s golf program is ranked No. 23 by Golfweek. Kyle Van Noy and Wally Joyner will be part of the next BYU Hall of Fame induction class.
From the archives
From the X-verse
Extra points
- Zach Wilson makes it through cuts (Deseret News)
- Sitake will report directly to VP over athletics (Deseret News)
- BYU restructuring comes at critical time (Deseret News)
Fanalysts
Comments from Deseret News readers:
BYU basketball is looking good this year, especially with the Kohler addition. I like that most every player on the team can shoot the 3 ball fairly well. A question I have is why wasn’t Kohler drafted into the NBA? — All-Is-Well
Jakob Robinson? Man, that hurts. Thought for sure he’d stick with SF. — BurleyBobCat
Up next
- Sept. 3 | 6:30 p.m. | women’s volleyball | Eastern Illinois
- Sept. 3 | 7:30 p.m. | women’s soccer | Colorado State
- Sept. 4 | 10 a.m. | cross country | UVU Invitational
- Sept. 4 | 6:30 p.m. | women’s volleyball | Pittsburgh
- Sept. 5 | 2 p.m. | women’s soccer | Oklahoma
- Sept. 5 | 6 p.m. | football | Utah Tech