BYU not taking anything for granted as fellow college football independent Liberty visits Saturday

Liberty quarterback Stephen Calvert (12) and running back Frankie Hickson (23) during an NCAA college football game against Louisiana Lafayette, Saturday, September 7, 2019, in Lafayette, La. | AP

Flames are 6-3 and bring a prolific offense to Provo looking for a big upset in the 5:30 p.m. clash of faith-based institutions at LaVell Edwards Stadium

PROVO — There is a minor, pesky little detail that should give BYU fans pause as Liberty rides into LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday for the first-ever matchup of faith-based college football independents with a hotshot senior quarterback named Buckshot and a passing game that is much more dangerous than its name.

The 4-4 Cougars are winless (0-2) this season when they enter a game as the favorite, and they are favored to douse the 6-3 Flames — sorry, couldn’t resist — by 17 points in the 5:30 p.m. showdown on ESPN2. BYU has mostly thrived when it has been the underdog — having defeated Tennessee, USC, Washington and Utah State when it was picked to lose — but tough-to-explain losses at Toledo and South Florida when the Cougars were supposed to win have kept the campaign to get fourth-year coach Kalani Sitake a contract extension from taking off.

Those inexplicable stumbles against foes the Cougars were clearly better than have produced a sense of nervousness as Liberty, a private evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, knocks on the door with a monumental upset on its mind, much as another lightly regarded independent, UMass, did two years ago.

A loss to the Flames, who are saying this would be the most significant win in program history if they can pull it off, would be even more devastating than that 16-10 setback to the Minutemen in 2017, seeing as how the Cougars are coming off resounding wins over then-No. 14 Boise State and four-point favorite USU and have seemingly turned their season around.

“The sense of urgency has got to be there,” Sitake said, realizing that all the momentum and goodwill the last two games have produced can be burned to the ground with a loss to the Flames, or to FCS Idaho State next week or UMass on Nov. 23. The Cougars are, and will be, heavy favorites in all three games.

BYU concludes the regular season Nov. 30 at Mountain West leader San Diego State (7-1).

“We are still playing with a chip on our shoulder and trying to create opportunities for our guys to play at their best,” Sitake said. “As the head coach, I have to make sure I can give them the environment where they can thrive and get better.”

The Cougars have said all the right things this week about not overlooking the next three opponents, but the fact remains they are still banged up offensively. Third-string quarterback Baylor Romney will likely make his second career start and at least two starting offensive linemen, Tristen Hoge and Kieffer Longson, remain out.

“We don’t take any team lightly, we still have a chip on our shoulder,” said fourth-string RB Sione Finau. “We are going to dial in and focus in and not worry about (past losses) as well.”

Liberty is also rolling, having won six of its last seven games, albeit against one of the weakest schedules in the country.

Liberty crushed UMass 63-21 last week with a school-record 730 yards of offense and is a win away from becoming bowl eligible in its first season as a fully bowl-eligible FBS member. Former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze is in his first season and will be on the sidelines after coaching from a hospital bed in LU’s 24-0 loss to Syracuse in its season opener.

“Their coaching staff has tons of experience,” Sitake said. “This is going to be a good matchup for us. … This is another opportunity for us this week to play a quality team and it is going to be a big game for us as well.”

The Flames’ calling card is their offense, which ranks 67th in the country at 408.9 yards per game. Quarterback Stephen Calvert, whose middle and preferred name really is “Buckshot,” will make his 40th career start and has more than 11,000 career passing yards. Senior receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden is No. 2 in the country with 1,082 receiving yards and seven TDs.

“There is definitely a lot of capability and firepower on that offense,” said BYU defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki, whose unit gave up 521 yards to USU last week, but just 14 points. “They can score some points. … We have to be sound. As long as we are sound in the way we are playing, we will have a chance to make some plays.”

Liberty and BYU announced this series in May 2017. The Cougars will return the trip to 19,200-seat Williams Stadium in 2022 and officials have hinted that more games could be scheduled if both programs remain independent.

Ever since the school was founded by American Southern Baptist pastor and televangelist Jerry Falwell in 1971, it has made no secret that it covets the nationwide athletic profile of fellow faith-based schools such as Notre Dame and BYU and is clearly using football as a vehicle to get to that goal.

School president Jerry Falwell Jr. reaffirmed that to a fan-based website earlier this week.

“I was sitting in church when I was 8 years old when my dad announced he was going to start a college right there on the church campus,” Falwell told aseaofred.com. “It wasn’t long before he was saying we were going to play Alabama, USC, Notre Dame — we’re going to beat them all. Later on, he would talk about Brigham Young and Notre Dame and being for evangelicals what those schools are for Mormons and Catholics.”

Like BYU, 15,000-student Liberty has a strict code of student and faculty conduct. So Saturday’s game could be called the Honor Code Bowl, as it were.

“There are a lot of similarities,” Sitake acknowledged. “You look at that experience on that coaching staff, and you marry that with the confidence, talent and experience that they have, especially after this last week, and I think we have to be ready for this. Our guys, we have to keep improving.”

Even when they aren’t the underdogs.

Cougars on the air

Liberty (6-3) at BYU (4-4)

At LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo

Saturday, 5:30 p.m.

TV: ESPNU

Radio: KSL 1160 AM, 102.7 FM

BYU coach Kalani Sitake on Liberty’s top-notch coaching staff pic.twitter.com/aXQ16Zux8y

— Jay Drew (@drewjay) November 5, 2019

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