I have a confession, Cougar Nation: as you may have noticed in last week's recap of the SUU game, I didn't predict a score for BYU's matchup with Arkansas. Why? Well, I absolutely hate picking BYU to lose any game, but I also wasn't going to give you a less-than-honest prediction. And to be brutally frank, I didn't expect the Cougars to beat the Razorbacks.
Please forgive me.
What a game!! The Cougars walked into Donald W. Reynolds Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas as 7.5-point underdogs, and frankly, even that seemed a bit generous. I feared another multi-score loss, similar to last year's performance against the Razorbacks in Provo. I expected the BYU defense to improve, but the offense's issues left me with serious doubts. And while the offense still does have problems to clean up, Kedon Slovis and company came through when it mattered. Here are some thoughts from the game:
The Good:
The BYU defense, and especially the defensive line, looked every bit as good against the Razorbacks as they did in the first two games of the season against lesser opponents. Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson was sacked four times, and his offensive line was called for four holding penalties as they tried to save him from taking more punishment. Bringing four rushers, the Cougars got home over and over. The Razorbacks were a hilarious 2 of 13 on third down and turned the ball over twice (plus a brutal 3rd quarter turnover on downs).
Special individual shoutouts are owed to Eddie Heckard, who was brilliant in coverage all game and made one of the plays of the night with an "I'm-better-than-you" 1-on-1 open field tackle, and Tyler Batty, who was a holy terror in the pass rush all game and recorded nine tackles, 1.5 sacks, 1.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery en route to Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Kedon Slovis turned in an efficient, poised performance—exactly what the Cougars were hoping for when they brought in the veteran P5 quarterback to lead the offense. No stranger to hostile environments, Slovis kept his head when things got tough and made few noticeable mistakes. After starting the game looking a bit shaky at times, he was locked in and incredibly efficient in the second half as the Cougars outscored the Razorbacks 17-7 and clinched the win. On BYU's go-ahead TD drive, Slovis was particularly impressive—he ran for a first down on 3rd and 8, then dropped an NFL-caliber dime to Keelan Marion for a 37-yard pickup before finishing the drive with a jump ball to Chase Roberts in the end zone, which Roberts turned into the SC Top 10 play of the night.
Is LJ Martin the surprise of the season for the Cougars? Sure, he was a high-profile recruit who everyone expected to eventually be the next RB1. And yes, we knew he would probably get some major touches behind Aidan Robbins and Deion Smith. But with Robbins' struggles and Martin's success in both the Sam Houston and SUU games, combined with a nagging injury bothering Robbins, the coaching staff made the decision to name Martin the starter against the Razorbacks. In his first start, in just his third collegiate game, Martin proved himself once again the most effective running back in the Cougars' stable. His 45-yard touchdown in the first quarter tied the game, completing BYU's comeback from a disastrous 14-0 deficit and giving his team much-needed momentum. Will Martin remain RB1 once Robbins is healthy again? It's hard to say, in part because we don't know how much of Robbins' early poor play has been the result of his injury. But if the first three games have been an indication of how the rest of the season will go, Martin might just be the guy from here on out.
Both Aaron Roderick and Jay Hill were criticized for conservative play-calling in the Sam Houston and SUU games. Those criticisms can now be safely put to bed; it seems that early reticence was the result of a desire not to show too much of their hands early. Against Arkansas, both coordinators rolled out the best of their playbooks. A dazzling double pass trick play from Kedon Slovis to Parker Kingston to Deion Smith got the Cougars on the board in the first quarter. An exotic corner blitz in the fourth led to an Eddie Heckard strip-sack that killed a potential game-tying drive for the Razorbacks. The play-calling on both sides of the ball was as good as I've seen in quite a while.
The Bad:
While Kedon Slovis was reasonably effective and the offense was pretty well-managed throughout the game, the Cougars still left a lot to be desired on that side of the ball. In particular, the run game continues to be disappointingly anemic. LJ Martin's aforementioned long TD was impressive and exciting, but if you exclude that play, the Cougars only rushed for 32 yards on 30 carries—basically one yard per carry. That's unacceptable, and it nearly cost BYU the game—after taking a 38-31 lead with eight minutes still remaining, the Cougars needed to chew clock by running the ball and found that they couldn't. In years past, those eight minutes would have flown by under an onslaught of gashing runs and easy first downs—see the Utah, Washington State, and Virginia games from 2021, for example. This time around, the Cougars seemed to go backwards on every fourth quarter run. The O-line continues to grade out very poorly in run blocking, and even LJ Martin, who was so effective in the first half, often found himself unable to cross the line of scrimmage late. This prevented BYU from running the clock out effectively and gave Arkansas multiple opportunities to tie things back up. The Razorbacks made a head-spinning array of game-losing mistakes in those final, pivotal eight minutes, but the Cougars gave them no shortage of opportunities. Against the Big 12's best, this team has to figure out how to run the ball effectively or they'll squander late leads easily.
Arkansas has SEC-caliber athletes at every position, so it's no surprise that the Cougars struggled to physically match up with their defense at times. But even acknowledging Arkansas' inherent athletic advantage, the BYU receiving corps really, really didn't help out their QB in this game. Kody Epps and Keanu Hill are still dealing with injuries, yes, but the rest of the receivers struggled mightily all game to get open and even committed BYU's only turnover of the night, a Chase Roberts fumble that directly handed Arkansas a three-point halftime lead. With the exception of a couple big, explosive plays, most of the Cougars' passing yardage came on short throws at or behind the line of scrimmage. The schedule only gets more difficult from here on out, and the Cougar pass-catchers absolutely must figure out how to get open against athletic secondaries.
The special teams unit had a weird day against Arkansas. Ryan Rehkow was predictably excellent, while Will Ferrin nailed a 43-yard FG (though only after a bizarre fake attempt was mercifully blown dead for delay of game) and forgivably missed a 50-yarder. But the big story of the day for special teams was the 88-yard punt return TD they allowed in the first quarter. That catastrophic implosion put the Cougars behind 14-0 and might have marked the beginning of a blowout. Thankfully, the BYU defense wasn't about to let a blowout happen, but that kind of special teams mistake can't be allowed going forward. Arkansas did a really good job of focusing on Marcus McKenzie and taking him out of plays, and the Cougars have to figure out how to make big plays in punt and kick coverage when that happens.
The most exciting thing about this win is that BYU has a very imperfect team and still went on the road to SEC territory and got a win. The Cougars have plenty of room for improvement, but they're clearly on the right track. Next on the schedule is an away game against Kansas. Possibly the best offensive team in the Big 12, the Jayhawks boast a legitimate Heisman contender in QB Jalon Daniels. Daniels, much like KJ Jefferson, is a dynamic, dual-threat quarterback, but Daniels is a better passer and has a better line protecting him. That's not to say Kansas is invulnerable—the Jayhawks followed up a nice win over Illinois with a hideously ugly road game against a horrendous Nevada team. Kansas won the game...barely. The Cougar defense will have its work cut out for it—they will need to be able to get consistent pressure without losing containment on Daniels. But the Jayhawks are inconsistent and the Kansas defense is nothing to write home about, which means BYU has a decent shot at winning this game if their defense can perform. I think that's exactly what will happen, and I'm picking the Cougars to win 28-24.