On August 29, 2024, BYU Defensive Coordinator Jay Hill suffered a heart attack. On September 6, he was in the booth to call the defense as the Cougars took on SMU in Dallas. That, by itself, would have been an improbable achievement. But Hill didn't just call plays—he put on a masterclass, as his unit held a potent SMU offense without a touchdown. Contained in that performance were some genuinely remarkable stops, including a critical forced fumble in a goal-to-go situation with the game on the line in the fourth quarter.
But while the BYU defense put on a show that had viewers reminiscing about 2012, the offense...struggled. Badly. On several key occasions, boneheaded offensive mistakes handed SMU golden scoring opportunities, forcing the Cougar defense to step up and make yet another play. They always did, and SMU ended up with more turnovers off BYU turnovers than they did points off BYU turnovers, an almost unbelievable stat. But the current iteration of SMU is neither the team it was last year, nor a good representation of the Big 12's best. The BYU offense has some major problems to fix before conference play starts. Here are some specific thoughts from a bizarre 18-15 BYU victory:
The good:
The BYU defense has been utterly transformed by Jay Hill during his season-and-two-weeks at the helm. Hill's coaching has allowed veterans like Blake Mangelson and Tyler Batty to finally live up to their full potential, while also giving up-and-coming stars like Harrison Taggart the chance to shine. All of that has led to this iteration of the Cougar defense looking very dangerous indeed. Last year, SMU averaged over fifty points per game at home. Even given that this year's SMU team is nowhere near as dangerous as that one, holding the Mustangs without a touchdown in their own stadium was phenomenal work. The Cougars recorded three sacks and forced three SMU turnovers. Going into the game, the SMU coaching staff planned to rotate quarterbacks Preston Stone and Kevin Jennings every two series with Stone as the starter, but after Stone led the offense to consecutive three-and-outs that netted a total of -18 yards, he got few snaps the rest of the way. Jennings played the bulk of the game and is slated to start for SMU next week, but he might have envied Stone by the end of this game—Jennings' reward for being slightly better than Stone was that he had to spend more time facing the relentless BYU pass rush. Standouts for the Cougars in this game included Harrison Taggart, who looked like the star of the future at LB as he recorded the best PFF rating of any BYU player on either side of the ball; Jack Kelly, who has so far met and exceeded the high expectations around him coming into this season; and Blake Mangelson, who was an integral part of the BYU pass rush and was especially disruptive inside. This was defense at a level we haven't seen from a BYU team in a very long time, and the best part is that assuming key contributors stay healthy, everything the unit did in this game is sustainable for a full season. The Cougars might just have one of the best defenses in the Big 12.
There isn't a ton of good I can say about the offense in this game, but one area that I do want to highlight is the play of the offensive line. Last season's offensive woes were, in my opinion, almost entirely the fault of the line (as I've explained elsewhere). This year, that doesn't seem to be the case—Caleb Etienne's miraculous transformation into an elite left tackle headlines a group that looks significantly more physical and disciplined than anything we saw last year. The offense only averaged around 3.8 yards per rush against the Mustangs, but nearly three of those yards came before contact—in other words, the line was better at moving the ball down the field than the actual ball carriers were! Of the current starters for BYU on the O-line, four—Caleb Etienne, Weylin Lapuaho, Connor Pay, and Brayden Keim—were major rotational players for the Cougars last season. They heard all the complaints. They watched as their poor play cost their coach, Darrell Funk, his job. And under the leadership of Funk's replacement, TJ Woods, they decided to do something about it. If the BYU offense flames out this year, it will not be the line's fault. And if the offense works out its issues and begins to soar, it will be with a talented, ferocious line clearing the way.
The bad:
It's time to have a talk about Jake Retzlaff. Going into week 1 of the season, it was clear that the decision to start Retzlaff over Gerry Bohanon had been far from a sure thing for Aaron Roderick. The quarterback battle that began when Bohanon transferred into the program continued all the way up to a few days before the SIU game, when Roderick confirmed (at least to the team) that Retzlaff had won the job. After the SIU game, I joined pretty much everyone else in singing Retzlaff's praises—he made some great throws and looked comfortable and confident in the offense. Turns out that those early good signs may have been more of a mirage than we hoped. Against SMU's much more potent pass rush, he looked...awful. There's no way to sugarcoat it. He was constantly in a hurry, he made inexplicably terrible decisions with the ball, and he never once looked decisive or in-control. He did make a couple nice throws, but they were mostly canceled out by his disastrous turnovers. Overall, he looked like the game was moving much too fast for him. There's almost nothing positive I can say about his performance, other than that thanks to a titanic effort from the defense, his miserable outing didn't lose the Cougars the game. I've been blunt thus far, and I'm going to get even blunter—against SMU, Retzlaff rarely looked like an FBS starting QB. And frankly, outside of the SIU game and a couple good moments last season, he almost never has. He has nine fumbles through six starts, and the team has lost four of them. He threw three picks against SMU, and every one of them was solidly his fault. He's still at the top of the depth chart heading into the Wyoming game—no "or" yet—so the coaches have clearly decided to give him another run at cementing the starting job, but he has a tough road ahead of him. Gerry Bohanon is a veteran with big-time experience, and the coaching staff isn't going to keep him on the bench forever if Retzlaff keeps playing this badly.
The run game doesn't get a pass here, either. For once, that's not the fault of the O-line, which (as mentioned) was solid throughout the game. The Cougars' current struggles with running the ball are squarely on the running backs themselves. LJ Martin deserves credit—he's played great when not hampered by injury. But Miles Davis and especially Hinckley Ropati struggled to see holes and execute play designs against SMU. It wasn't all bad—Davis had an electrifying 37-yard scamper around the edge on 4th down to set up the Cougars' game-winning field goal, and freshman Enoch Nawahine showed some nice flashes and ran for a TD. But the Cougars need more out of their RBs, especially as Martin and now Ropati look increasingly likely to miss the Wyoming game. Davis and Nawahine will need to step up and take their play to the next level if the BYU offense is going to perform as it should this week.
The Cougars next turn their attention to a Wyoming team that has underperformed expectations significantly to start this season. After getting their doors blown off 48-7 by a questionable Arizona State team in Tempe, the Cowboys lost to FCS Idaho in a stunning upset in their home opener. Their offense is horrendous; their defense is questionable. Based on FPI rankings, they would likely lose to Southern Illinois if the two teams played today. BYU should win this game comfortably, even in Laramie. Anything less than a 40-point scoring performance and a three-touchdown margin of victory will be somewhat disappointing. This is likely Jake Retzlaff's final chance to save his job—if he underperforms and doesn't end up on the bench, it might be time for Aaron Roderick's job to come under a little more scrutiny. If Retzlaff can buy himself another week as the starter and the offense can continue to gel and work out its issues, this BYU team could be very interesting come the start of Big 12 play. With a defense that can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the Big 12, the Cougars have the opportunity to cause headaches for some very good teams.