From the Archive: Thoughts on a down-to-the-wire 30-27 OT win over #24 USC

Originally published September 15, 2019.

Another day, another heart-stopping, blood-pressure-spiking, last-minute thriller of a win for the BYU football team well on its way to resurrecting its 2015 nickname, the “Cardiac Cougars”.  You can say a lot of things about this BYU football team, but you can’t say they’ve been boring to watch.  Kalani Sitake’s seat just got a whole lot cooler, the Cougars finally have a long-sought-for signature home win over a ranked P5 opponent, and CBS Sports’ Chip Patterson is predicting that BYU will be ranked 23rd in tomorrow’s AP Poll.  Not sure if that’s a little overly optimistic, but in all reality, this victory was a hugely significant confidence-booster for the Cougars and should earn them some national respect.  Here are five takeaways from the game:

1. Brilliant defensive playcalling confused the USC offense.  I absolutely loved Ilaisa Tuiaki’s game plan for this one.  USC freshman phenom Kedon Slovis showed last week against a ranked Stanford team that when he has the chance to loose the Trojan’s fearsome air raid offense, good things happen for USC.  The BYU defensive staff’s strategy for countering the air raid was very effective: drop eight into coverage on every down, and force USC to beat you on the ground.  Slovis was facing perfect coverage on nearly every pass play, with the result that he frequently panicked and made bad decisions.  He was mostly ineffective and threw three interceptions.  Speaking of interceptions…

2. Turnovers were key—this time in the Cougars’ favor.  If nine years of losing the turnover battle to Utah have taught this BYU team anything, it’s that the team controlling the turnover margin usually ends up on top.  BYU was +3 in turnover margin for the game, and those three interceptions thrown by Slovis played a huge role in the outcome. Consider that just prior to that first pick, a spectacular diving grab by linebacker Payton Wilgar, USC had started the game by marching down the field with cavalier ease and scoring a touchdown and the Cougars had punted on their first possession. Had USC found a way to score on their second possession, this game might have been over before it got going.  Instead, Wilgar’s INT allowed BYU to score a touchdown, and a potential rout for USC turned into a close win for BYU.  Oh yeah, and the Cougars won the game on Dayan Ghanwoloku’s pick in overtime.

3. BYU has an offense! And, for that matter, a quarterback!  A non-factor through the first 7 1/2 quarters of the season, the BYU offense looked great for large portions of this game.  Zach Wilson was more efficient and looked smoother and more confident today than in either of the Cougars’ first two games.  Ty’Son Williams continues to impress, especially on the little option pitch to the edge that Jeff Grimes seems to always dial up at the right time.  The Cougar receivers looked very good today, with a couple of spectacular highlight-reel catches and few bad routes or dropped balls.  This BYU receiving unit looks satisfyingly like some of the groups coached by LaVell Edwards—no really flashy, fast athletes, but guys with great hands who run great routes and out-execute opponents.

4. Defensive line performance was a huge factor.  Khiyris Tonga looked genuinely scary today.  The same can be said for his teammates.  The keys to executing Coack Tuiaki’s defensive scheme today were twofold: first, the secondary has to have good coverage, and second, the defensive line has to force the quarterback to rush a throw.  Both components did their jobs today, and the D-line as a unit could be given MVP honors for this game.

5. In football, heart matters.  One decision by Coach Kalani Sitake stood out big for me in this game, and it came after a disastrous play-calling gaffe by BYU on fourth down deep in USC territory.  On a down and distance that didn't make sense, the coaching staff sent in a heavy package goal line gadget play with Dayan Ghanwoloku running the ball, which he did twice in this game.  Ghanwoloku was marked short of a first down by the officials after the play, and Coach Sitake exploded on the sideline and expended a timeout to challenge the call.  Was it a likely call to be overturned?  No, and in fact, it wasn’t.  But for the players in BYU blue today, it was a sign that their coach was deeply invested in the game and had their backs.  USC has six five-star recruits and 41 four-star recruits on its roster.  BYU has zero five-star recruits and six four-star recruits.  On paper, USC should have blown the Cougars clear to Sanpete County.  But that didn’t happen, and I think it says a lot about this team’s desire to win and confidence that they can.  That’s something that is transferred from a coaching staff to players, and suggests that this really is a well-coached team.

BYU did it again, and now, the Cougars have to begin preparing for another big-ticket opponent, as the ranked Washington Huskies are coming to town.  This is a good team that beat BYU last year, but the Cougars will have a great deal of confidence and energy coming into this game.  Barring major mistakes, this is a winnable game for BYU.  If the Cougars can come away with a win next week, they will have gone 3-1 through a section of their schedule where most picked them at 0-4.  From there, the sky is the limit!