This week's college football Saturday was especially exciting for BYU fans. Not only were the Cougars ranked #14 and hosting an intriguing Arizona team that recently handed Utah a shocking home defeat, but they would do so on a national stage, in the primest of prime time slots, while playing host to the Fox Sports Big Noon Kickoff show and A-list announcer duo Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt. The ROC got going early for BNK—the show started at around 8:30am, but many students had camped out overnight at Helaman Field to guarantee themselves good spots in the crowd, which Fox announced as the largest in BNK's history. They had some hilarious signs going, they roundly booed Urban Meyer (the originator of the infamous "TDS" tradition at Utah and an all-around gross dude), and they cheered themselves hoarse as Cosmo literally parachuted in to perform some epic stunts.
And yet, BNK wasn't the day's biggest show in Provo. Not by a long shot. The Cougar faithful who packed a sold-out LaVell Edwards Stadium for this midday matchup against the Arizona Wildcats were treated to (arguably) their team's most complete performance of the season, a decisive 41-19 BYU victory that finally seems to have answered the question, "Is BYU football actually good?"
The answer, in case you didn't follow the game, was a resounding yes. With the exception of Arizona's first drive, the Cougars controlled the game throughout and had it pretty well sewn up by the fourth quarter. In a game that was expected to be dramatic, given that the Wildcats' last visit to the state was a road upset of Utah, there was...not all that much drama. BYU was clearly the better team in all three phases of the game and won by three touchdowns. Now, the Cougars' dominance and 6-0 record raise all kinds of exciting possibilities about where this team could potentially end up. Here are some thoughts on an entertaining BYU win:
The Good:
Jay Hill's defense caused utter chaos in this game. Arizona was occasionally able to move the ball, especially on their first drive—a product of the fact that, at the end of the day, no defense is going to completely take away the Noah Fifita-Tetairoa McMillan connection for an entire game—but overall, the Cougars did a remarkable job of shutting down what has been, at times, one of the more dynamic offenses in the nation. Arizona had eleven meaningful possessions, and six of them ended in a turnover or a turnover on downs. Those turnovers included three interceptions and a fumble by Fifita, who was held to a catastrophic overall PFF rating of 46.1—a result not all that surprising given that BYU currently ranks #1 in the nation in pass efficiency defense. Fifita did his best out there, but his offensive line failed to protect him adequately from what has become quite a nasty BYU pass rush. Fifita was pressured on 24 of his 52 pass attempts, and never had the opportunity to establish any kind of rhythm. By the end of the game, he was reduced to running for his life from the Cougar defense while McMillan, his only truly dangerous target, tried to evade double and even triple coverage and get open. That's not a recipe for winning offense. The BYU defense wasn't perfect in this game (as will be discussed later), but they were pretty darn good.
Several specific defensive players distinguished themselves. Isaiah Glasker was the player of the game for the Cougars and stuffed the stat sheet with a pick-six, a sack, a forced fumble (recovered by Harrison Taggart), and several other nice defensive plays. This may be a controversial statement, but right now, I think Glasker is playing the best football of any linebacker on this team—yes, including Jack Kelly, the headliner of the Cougar defense coming into the season. Kelly is playing great—this isn't a knock on him—but Glasker is on a completely different level right now. Jakob Robinson also had an excellent game, doing as good a job as any DB has against McMillan and recording one of the most astonishing athletic plays I've ever seen from a BYU defender—on the first play of the second half, Robinson came on a corner blitz and put his hand up to deflect Fifita's pass attempt; when Fifita pump-faked to throw Robinson off, Robinson seemed to almost levitate, hanging in the air right through the pump and deflecting the pass anyway, then catching it for a spectacular interception which Jake Retzlaff and Chase Roberts cashed in for a touchdown one play later. The Cougars' walk-on safety duo of Crew Wakley and Tanner Wall had another nice outing, headlined by Wall's jaw-dropping goal line interception, which proved to be a crucial momentum-changing play for BYU. There were a number of other key contributors on the defense—it's a deep, talented unit and everyone is doing their jobs pretty well right now—but I'll just highlight one more: true freshman Viliami Po'uha, the son of BYU defensive line coach Sione Po'uha, had a breakout game for the Cougars against Arizona, recording three total tackles and two QB hurries, including an absolutely bone-crushing hit on Noah Fifita that caused him to throw the bad pass which Tanner Wall intercepted.
Aaron Roderick had his best game...possibly ever...as BYU's playcaller in this one. That's not to say he was perfect—especially in the first half, he made some rather head-scratching decisions like calling a strange end-around to TE Ryner Swanson in the red zone that completely killed the Cougars' momentum on their first drive. But overall, especially in the second half, Roderick found a nice pass/run rhythm and set the offense up for success. Jake Retzlaff and his receivers weren't perfect either, as will be discussed later, but they made plays when they had to. The biggest news for the offense, though, was the return of LJ Martin to the starting lineup. With Martin and Hinckley Ropati as a one-two punch, the BYU run game was more effective than it's been in any other game this season. The Cougars rushed for 147 yards as a team, which isn't a groundbreaking number but was one of their stronger performances of the season. Martin had a modest day running the ball, rushing for 49 yards with an average of 4.5 yards per carry, but he was incredibly effective catching passes out of the backfield, with 3 receptions for 46 yards. And Martin's presence opened things up for the other half of BYU's one-two RB punch, Hinckley Ropati. Also fresh off an injury, Ropati had by far his best performance since the 2022 Boise State game, rushing for 65 yards on an impressive 7.2 yards per carry. He still has some things to clean up, evidenced by a weird garbage time fumble, but he looks light years ahead of where he was against SMU, for example. When both healthy, Martin and Ropati are a bruising duo who will, as they did in this game, balance the offense nicely and help the Cougars control possession.
Much of the credit for this game's rushing performance goes to the offensive line, and especially Bruce Mitchell. If you haven't heard that name before, you can be forgiven—Mitchell is a redshirt sophomore who came to BYU as a lightly-recruited defensive line prospect out of tiny South Summit High School in Kamas, Utah and was persuaded by the coaches to switch to offensive line for this season. He started the K-State game at guard, but with both starting center Connor Pay and his primary backup, Sonny Makasini, out for this game, Mitchell was surprisingly penciled in as the Cougars' starting center. Center is a thankless position—you're rarely noticed when you play well, and you become the focus of serious frustration when you don't. But Mitchell stepped up without hesitation, looking for all the world like a polished veteran in his first-ever start at center. He was nearly flawless in both run and pass blocking and didn't make a single snap error. His great play energized the offense as a whole, and the line in general was a major reason for the success BYU had in this game.
Special teams had a strong outing in this game—no crazy return touchdowns or fake punts, but no mistakes to speak of and an absolute highlight-reel fourth quarter punt from Sam Vander Haar, who put the ball on the 1-foot line to set up Isaiah Glasker's pick-six. Kelly Poppinga has done a great job with this special teams unit. Other than Ryan Rehkow, special teams has honestly been a bit of a liability for the Cougars over the last couple of seasons. Not so this year, as Vander Haar, Will Ferrin, and the returners have cranked out a remarkable series of game-changing highlights.
Finally, as I did in my Kansas State recap, I have to give credit to BYU's incredible home crowd and homefield environment. This game marked the first time in 16 years that BYU football has hosted one of the two major college football gameday shows (Fox Sports' Big Noon Kickoff and ESPN's College Football Gameday)—the 6-0 and 9th-ranked Cougars hosted Gameday back in 2008 and proceeded to lose 32-7 to TCU. While that experience has left a sour taste in Cougar fans' mouths for years, it didn't stop the BYU faithful from showing out in enormous numbers to welcome the BNK crew to Provo, mightily impressing the program's hosts in the process. And that energy only ramped up as the game got going, with the crowd in LaVell Edwards Stadium reaching thunderous noise levels as usual and making things difficult for the Arizona offense. BYU has put a ton of effort into making football gamedays into a special experience, and it shows. There's nothing like a home game at BYU. I'm sad that SIU will end up being the only home game I get to attend this year, but even that was a ton of fun. LaVell's house really is a unique and incredible environment—unless you happen to be the opposing offense.
The Bad:
The BYU offense did enough to win this game, but still had a bit of a weird day. Jake Retzlaff looked a little...well, "keyed up" might describe it. He was putting insane amounts of zip on his throws, causing his accuracy to suffer and making even well-placed balls difficult for his receivers to catch. And speaking of receivers, for the second straight game, Darius Lassiter seemed to have the yips—he dropped multiple easy catches in key situations, including two that directly cost the Cougars points. We know what Lassiter can do, but he has to catch the dang ball. There's no excuse for a guy with his experience and talent to drop as many passes as he has in the last two games. As for Jake, at this point, you get what you get with him. He's never going to have Jaren Hall's mechanics, Zach Wilson's touch, or Taysom Hill's athleticism. But he occasionally shows flashes of all three, and when he doesn't, he's shaken off his turnover bug to the point where he's still usually going to give you reliable and serviceable play. It sometimes feels like the team is winning around him or even in spite of him rather than because of him, but his coaches and teammates seem to really love him and he's certainly established himself as a leader in the locker room. And frankly, this BYU team is so good, especially on defense, that it doesn't need Zach Wilson or Jaren Hall to win games. All it needs is a QB who doesn't turn the ball over and can occasionally make a big play. Especially in conference play, it's certainly gotten at least that much from Jake Retzlaff.
Jay Hill's defense is playing so well in general right now that its one major deficiency is all the more confusing—the Cougars are terrible at getting off the field on third down, especially third-and-long. Arizona converted on 11 of 19 third downs in this game, and that percentage was significantly better before the Wildcats really started pressing in the fourth quarter. The Cougars have to find a way to finish the job on long third downs—the number of conversions they've given up in long yardage situations over the last two games is as bizarre as it is inexcusable. It hasn't cost the Cougars yet, but could become a problem in a close offensive battle.
BYU is now 6-0 for just the sixth time in program history. In the previous five seasons (2020, 2008, 2001, 1984, and 1979), the Cougars finished ranked every year and never posted a record worse than 10-3. A 10-3 record against this schedule would be a solid achievement for BYU, but to be honest, there's more on the table for the Cougars. Their next opponent is Oklahoma State, and while the Cougars can't afford to overlook any Big 12 foe, the Cowboys are legitimately one of the worst teams in the conference and I'm not sure they have a quarterback. This is a game that BYU should win, and by a comfortable margin.
And while the team and coaches should focus entirely on Oklahoma State right now, I as a blogger have the luxury of looking past the struggling Cowboys to the rest of BYU's schedule, which is...intriguing. After OSU, the back half of BYU's slate includes UCF, Utah, Kansas, Arizona State, and Houston. That's not exactly a murderer's row—of those five teams, only Arizona State (strangely enough) has a winning conference record right now. UCF's offense hasn't been seen in weeks, Utah has looked ghastly in back-to-back losses to the Arizona schools (and also may not have a quarterback), Kansas is probably the worst team in the Big 12, and Houston isn't much better. Arizona State could be a little scary, but I'm not completely convinced that the Sun Devils are better than the Arizona team that BYU just beat by 22. Time will tell, and any BYU fan well knows that it's a bad idea to get too optimistic too early, but...is it really so impossible to imagine this BYU team undefeated heading into the conference title game? FPI doesn't seem to think so—ESPN's metric has the Cougars favored in every remaining game but UCF, and the Cougars being underdogs to the Knights seems like a statistical fluke that will iron itself out before that game. It feels insane to say this halfway through a season where BYU was universally picked to go 5-7 or worse, but the Cougars have a real shot at a Big 12 championship and a bye (not even just a berth!) in the College Football Playoff. Let the good times roll.