Jaren Wilkey, BYU photo
After walloping Texas State 52-14 on Saturday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium, BYU rose in the national polls and turned its attention to Western Kentucky’s first-ever visit to Provo
Texas State got creative on offense Saturday night against BYU, employing what BYU coach Kalani Sitake twice referred to as “Daffy Duck” alignments to catch the undefeated Cougars off guard early in an eventual 52-14 rout for the home team at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
The tactic of putting only three offensive linemen around the ball, a center and two guards, and splitting out the tackles was mildly entertaining and did enable the Bobcats to score an early touchdown before BYU adjusted and held the visitors to just 17 yards in the second quarter and a late, meaningless TD in the fourth.
Here’s hoping 6-0 BYU’s next cupcake opponent in this season full of them, 2-4 Western Kentucky of Conference USA, has something even better up its sleeve Saturday night in another 8:15 p.m. MDT encounter to be televised by ESPN, or history will quite likely repeat itself. Another blowout of a team it is favored to beat by more than four touchdowns is a distinct possibility for the Cougars, who moved up to No. 10 in the Amway Coaches Poll and No. 11 in the AP Top 25 poll on Sunday.
Of course, the prevailing storyline for the Hilltoppers’ visit will be about how BYU has to take care of business one more time before the Nov. 6 showdown at Boise State (1-0), which walloped Utah State 42-13 in its season-opener Saturday. The Broncos are No. 25 in the AP poll and received votes in the coaches’ poll.
“I love the way our guys responded all night, and I am looking forward to fixing some of the things we can improve on from this week and play better next week against Western Kentucky,” Sitake said.
Later in his video teleconference with reporters after BYU improved to 6-0 for just the fifth time in program history — the others were in 1979, 1984, 2001 and 2008 — Sitake veered away from a question about quarterback Zach Wilson’s spectacular 45-yard touchdown pass to Dax Milne and reiterated that he remains fixated on areas where his team can improve.
“That is my mindset, is just thinking about things we can get better at,” he said.
So don’t come at the fifth-year coach with “a bunch of numbers,” as impressive as they might be.
“I really don’t care about how all the stats line up, or where we line up with awards and all the accolades and all that stuff,” Sitake said. “Winning is all that matters, and keeping our team as deep as possible by letting reserves play as much as possible when the outcome is no longer in doubt.”
Sorry, coach, but those numbers are getting harder and harder to ignore.
Among the most impressive: BYU is No. 6 in the country in scoring offense (45.0 points per game), total offense (547.3 yards per game) and passing offense (353.3 yards per game), all while having Wilson and his fellow starters play to the end in only two of the Cougars’ six games (UTSA and Houston).
They are seventh in fewest sacks allowed (0.67) and ninth in fewest tackles for loss allowed. It was the fifth time in six games that BYU has scored 40 points or more, another first for the program.
A school-record 14 players caught passes, and BYU has now had 200-plus yard passing games in 21 straight games, the longest streak since 26 from 2007-09.
After the game “started out a little rough” for the defense, Sitake said, defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki “did an amazing job organizing it from the (press) box” and got assists from safeties coach Preston Hadley, linebackers coach Ed Lamb, cornerbacks coach Jernaro Gilford and their graduate assistants and defensive analysts to make the needed adjustments.
Still, the Cougars are No. 13 nationally in scoring defense (14.0) and total defense (284.5).
Individually, Milne is 16th in receiving yards per game (106.5), Gunner Romney is 13th in yards per catch (21.7) and running back Tyler Allgeier is 13th in yards per carry (6.56).
“It is fun football when you are scoring on every drive,” said offensive lineman Brady Christensen. “It is fun to see them make plays and see it spread out through a lot of different guys. It just brings me joy for our offense to look like that.”
Western Kentucky needed a 4-yard touchdown pass from Tyrrell Pigrome to Craig Burt with a minute, 21 seconds remaining to avoid getting upset by FCS member Chattanooga on Saturday, pulling out a 13-10 win in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Hilltoppers also beat Middle Tennessee State, but have losses to Louisville, Liberty, Marshall and UAB.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/3opcqSz
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