In hindsight, my decision to label my SIU recap "A Controversy No More" is really funny—how spectacularly naive of me to think that a blowout win against an FCS team would solve BYU's quarterback problem. I wish it had, but here we are. In my recap of the SMU game, I said that Jake Retzlaff had one game, Wyoming, to save his starting job. He seems to have managed to avoid losing it for the time being, but there are still major unanswered questions about his game that worry me going into the teeth of conference play.
Fortunately, the Cougar defense continues to be one of the best units in the nation and in post-LaVell BYU football history. At the rate this BYU team is going, it's not likely to put up gaudy scoring numbers—but its opponents will likely fare even worse. Here are some thoughts on a 34-14 Cougar victory in the 80th meeting between BYU and Wyoming:
The good:
The numbers are getting absurd when it comes to the BYU defense. Between 2001 and 2023, no BYU team ever held back-to-back opponents under a passer rating of 80. This year, they've done it against all three opponents so far. Three games in, they still haven't allowed a passing touchdown. If Kalani Sitake hadn't mercifully called off the dogs in the 4th quarter, Wyoming probably wouldn't have crossed the 150-yard mark for the game. True, the Cougars haven't exactly been facing the pick and flower of FBS offenses so far this year, but even adjusting for opponent strength, the defense has been really, really good. Jack Kelly has been a revelation at LB, adding a dimension to the BYU pass rush that just hasn't been there in the last few seasons. He isn't the only one, either—Harrison Taggart, Isaiah Glasker, and Tyler Batty all made their presence felt in the Wyoming backfield. In the secondary, it's more of the same—Jakob Robinson's numbers are down a little so far this season, not because he's played poorly, but because teams are terrified to throw in his direction. Tanner Wall, Talan Alfrey, Evan Johnson, Therrian Alexander, and Raider Damuni headline a young but very talented secondary with Robinson and Marque Collins as its veteran leaders. This BYU defense is really special. I've gotten in trouble using 2012 rhetoric before, but I seriously don't think we've seen a defensive unit this good at BYU since that season.
We'll talk about first half Jake Retzlaff in a moment, but second half Jake Retzlaff certainly looked like a competitive P4-level starting QB. He was locked in, he made some great throws, and the offense flowed reasonably well under his leadership. He also ran the ball well, averaging nearly 11 yards per carry and leading the team with 62 rushing yards. His TD pass to Darius Lassiter might be the best throw of his career to this point—faced with a heavy rush, he stepped up, threw on the move, and put a dot directly on Lassiter's numbers at the goal line. It was the kind of throw that very few QBs can make consistently. Can Jake? Maybe. I want to think he can. Certainly, his raw numbers this season have been impressive so far. I really, really hope he can keep improving and be the QB the Cougars need him to be.
Chase Roberts is the latest in a line of receivers that have flourished under Fesi Sitake's capable leadership. Dax Milne, the Nacua brothers, and Gunner Romney have all been resounding successes, and Chase has taken up the WR1 mantle with gusto. He makes at least one catch per game that really makes my eyes bug out—against the Cowboys, he had a few. His diving grab on a double pass trick play was especially brilliant. Between Roberts and Darius Lassiter, I wasn't entirely sure who WR1 would be coming into this season. I think we now have the answer—Lassiter is a fantastic WR, but Chase is something extra special and the clear #1.
With LJ Martin, Hinckley Ropati, and Enoch Nawahine all injured, the Cougars took a running-back-by-committee approach and split carries almost evenly between Miles Davis, Sione Moa, and Pokaiaua Haunga. Moa had a decent night, but Haunga easily looked the best of the three. He got five carries and made the most of them, averaging 7 yards every time he took a handoff. He also had a reception for 11 yards. If the Cougars' top three RBs are going to miss serious time, I would like to see Haunga at least be considered for RB1 reps going forward, especially given what I'm about to say about Miles Davis.
Keelan Marion finally paid off Kelly Poppinga's aggression in the kick return game, breaking loose a 103-yard TD to open the second half. The special teams unit had been taking some heat for constantly bringing the ball out of the end zone and handing the offense bad field position, but on that play, the blocking lined up perfectly for Marion to finally show his speed and take one to the house. It's the first kick return TD for BYU since Adam Hine ripped one off against Virginia in 2014.
The bad:
It's time to talk about first half Jake Retzlaff, and air some of the concerns that—despite his laudable individual stats—have many fans, myself included, still worried about whether he can be the Cougars' full-time starter going forward. Jake was...really bad in the first half. Like, the kind of bad that loses you the locker room. He had an underthrown ball intercepted at the goal line on the Cougars' first drive. He had a couple other throws that were nearly (and probably should have been) picks. He failed to see multiple wide-open receivers, including missing Darius Lassiter on more than one occasion when Lassiter was completely uncovered and probably could have scored. And even when he did see them, he was often way off target—he put a ball 15 yards over Lassiter's head when Lassiter was wide open and sprinting toward the end zone. And despite connecting with him for a first half TD, Retzlaff continues to seem out-of-sync with TE1 Keanu Hill. At halftime, I think Cougar Nation was virtually unanimous in wanting to see Retzlaff benched. In the second half, though, Retzlaff seemed to figure a few things out. He was much more accurate and made fewer mistakes. As a result, he will likely get the chance to start against Kansas State this week. But is that a good thing? Putting up glitzy-looking numbers against bad teams doesn't make you a P4-caliber quarterback, especially when you also make as many bizarre mistakes as Retzlaff does. I'm not confident that he can be successful in the Big 12. I hope that this week, he takes the opportunity to instill some faith in a restless fanbase.
I praised Pokaiaua Haunga for making the most of his carries, but the rest of the healthy RB room was pretty quiet in this game. I was particularly disappointed with Miles Davis's stat line, as he ended up with eight carries for just 15 yards—a miserable 1.9 yards per carry. Davis has blinding straight-line speed and good shiftiness, but he seems to really struggle to see the field and make good decisions with the ball in his hands. If the Cougars are going to be successful on offense without Martin, Ropati, and Nawahine, they really need Davis—the upperclassman leader of this RB group—to step up and play much better.
The BYU defense has few flaws, but one notable problem that could cause trouble this week is the team's alarming tendency to struggle against mobile quarterbacks. Wyoming QB Evan Svoboda, a big, bruising runner, scored both of the Cowboys' touchdowns on the ground. Last week, SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings averaged a comfortable 4.2 yards per carry with a long of 15. And SIU quarterback DJ Williams accounted for over half of his team's total yardage and both of their TDs with his legs. In other words, as good as this BYU defense has been overall, running QBs seem to be its Achilles heel. Jay Hill will need to plug that hole in the system, because Kansas State QB Avery Johnson is one of the best running QBs in the nation.
Why in the world is Kelly Poppinga rotating punters? Both Sam Vander Haar and Dalton Rehkow have gotten reps in the last two games. Is there really a punter controversy at BYU? One so serious that it can't just be decided by a punt-off at the end of practice? If there is one, it will probably be put to bed after this game. Rehkow punted only once, and shanked it for just 13 yards. I suspect Vander Haar will be the guy going forward, but it's very strange that we still don't know that for sure three games into the season.
Beating Wyoming is always nice, and beating them by three touchdowns in Laramie is really nice. Wyoming isn't thought of as one of BYU's major rivals—they aren't on par with Utah and Utah State, or even probably Boise State—but Wyoming fans are known for hating and being very obnoxious about BYU, and it always feels good to put them in their place. The Cougars now have ten consecutive wins over the Cowboys dating back to 2004 and have won 19 of the last 21 games in the series. Next up for BYU is a very special game—it's the conference opener in LaVell Edwards Stadium against the 13th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats. The Cougars will be donning their 1996 throwback jerseys for the game, honoring the legendary BYU team that beat K-State 19-15 in the 1997 Cotton Bowl to finish the season 14-1 and ranked 5th in the final voting. Kansas State is really good this year, and this could be a difficult game for the Cougars. The BYU defense needs to step up and shut down Avery Johnson's running, and the offense needs to control possession, avoid all turnovers, and do enough to stay in the game. This will be a tough one, but a huge and validating win if the Cougars can pull it off.