Midseason exams: No. 13 BYU deserves mostly high grades midway through 2024 campaign

When it comes to analyzing the first half of the season for BYU football, which ended last Saturday with a convincing 41-19 win over Arizona to send the Cougars to a 6-0 record, perhaps the most-used word from local and national pundits is “surprising.”
Very few people saw this coming, particularly media members who picked the Cougars to repeat last year’s 2-7 finish in the Big 12 and believed they would come in around 13th again this year. Las Vegas was also wrong, picking the Cougars to win only four or five games in 2024.
Head coach Kalani Sitake and his players have repeatedly said they saw it coming, displaying a quiet confidence almost from the time they lost 40-34 in double overtime to Oklahoma State last November, a loss that kept them out of a bowl game.
“We are sitting at 6-0. Happy with what the team has been doing every week, with the work the guys have put in,” Sitake said Monday. “I am really pleased with the team and the direction we are headed, but we have a lot of work to do still.”
Coincidentally, BYU opens the second half of the regular season on Friday (8:15 p.m. MDT, ESPN) against that same Oklahoma State team that overcame a 24-6 halftime deficit to knock them out of postseason play 11 months ago.
It is a far cry from where BYU was sitting in mid-October last year, although the record isn’t all that different.
A year ago at this point, we called BYU the “worst 4-2 team in the country” after a 44-11 loss to so-so TCU and predicted a rocky second half to the season; the Cougars promptly won their next game, beating Texas Tech 27-14, then lost their next five. The prickly proclamation angered some fans, but proved to be fairly accurate.
Suffice it to say, prospects for a strong second half to the 2024 season are much brighter. Sitake and company’s plan to rely on continuity and player development, rather than invade the transfer portal, appears to be working.
The Cougars have earned the opportunity to make this a special year, improving every week and brushing aside all those doubts that they couldn’t win during daylight hours, couldn’t win a Big 12 game on the road, couldn’t play well after a bye, and so on and so forth.
BYU has won in 2024 in a variety of ways — kickoff and punt returns for touchdowns, gadget plays for touchdowns, defensive masterpieces against some of the better offenses in the country, and, of course, an opportunistic defense that forces turnovers at an astounding rate.
BYU is tied for 11th in the country in turnover margin, a plus-seven (14 gained, seven lost). If there is one statistic that illustrates why the Cougars are undefeated and ranked No. 13 in both major polls, it is that, and also their team passing efficiency defense (90.59), which leads the nation.
Sure, there are questions about the sustainability of all this; some of BYU’s wins have come after dominant performances in the trenches, which is where it all begins. The hiring of new offensive line coach TJ Woods has proved to be a good one.
Other wins have been a bit fluky, but impressive nonetheless, such as the 38-9 win over Kansas State and the 18-15 win over SMU; neither the Ponies nor the Wildcats have lost since.
Don’t forget that the Wildcats outgained the Cougars 367-241 and rushed for 228 yards in Provo that night. SMU’s red-zone misfortunes were almost comical, and starting Preston Stone at QB over Kevin Jennings was a horrible coaching decision.
So there are bound to be skeptics, even now. Always will be, probably.
But there’s a lot to be said for a team that just knows how to win, has proven it can win when all three phases aren’t clicking, against a schedule that was supposed to be among the most difficult in school history when the season began.
The Cougars believe in themselves, too, which wasn’t the case at all last year. Center Connor Pay said they went into some November games just hoping to not get blown out.
Through six games, confidence abounds in 2024.
“We got a really good football club here,” said quarterback Jake Retzlaff, after flatly stating that the Cougars are better than their No. 14 ranking (now No. 13) suggests.
Said Sitake on Monday: “It is not anything we didn’t think we could do.”
Receiver/returner/part-time quarterback Parker Kingston, this year’s version of Taysom Hill, expressed that confidence after the Arizona game in which he caught a touchdown pass and threw one, saying getting bowl eligible is just the first step.
“It is cool, but a bowl game is not what we want. We want to go to the (college football) playoff and we want to go to the national championship,” Kingston said. “So I think that’s what we are looking forward to, and not really settling on a bowl game this year.”
All that said, here’s a midseason report card, of sorts, for all three phases: offense, defense and special teams. Overall, the Cougars, who are one of 11 undefeated teams in the country, deserve an ‘A’. As we noted in an article last Sunday, BYU is greater than the sum of its parts.
If someone had told you BYU would be without its best running back (LJ Martin) for three games, and its best offensive lineman (Connor Pay) for a game and a half, and counting, you might not have predicted a 6-0 start. But that’s where Aaron Roderick’s group sits, thanks to an improved rushing attack, Retzlaff’s marked improvement, and stellar red-zone efficiency.
The Cougars are No. 31 in the red zone, with 15 touchdowns and six field goals in 23 attempts. That’s a 91.3% scoring clip when they get inside the 20-yard line, which isn’t bad.
“There are still some things we can do a little better, but red-zone offense has been a bright spot, for sure,” Roderick said.
As a result of that red-zone efficiency, and some defensive and special teams touchdowns, BYU is No. 30 in the country in scoring (34.3 points per game) despite being just No. 72 in total offense (387.8 yards per game). BYU is averaging 6.04 yards per play.
Retzlaff said chemistry developed in the final games of 2023 and throughout the offseason is paying off now.
“We were running these stadium (stairs) in the summer. We were looking out at the field like, ‘I can’t wait to go show it on the field,’” he said. “So it is easy to remember the hard days of summer. It is easy to remember that training did this for (the team). So when things get tough, these guys fall back on their training and play really good.
“All these guys are stepping up in so many ways that doesn’t show up on this stat sheet, and is the reason why we win 41-19 against a really good Arizona team,” he continued.
Retzlaff is probably the team and offensive MVP at this point, although receivers Chase Roberts and Darius Lassiter have been productive as well. They’ve combined for 47 catches for 718 yards and six touchdowns.
“We have been getting better every single game. I think it is just having that mentality of small and simple things, whether it is fixing things during practice, or just coming together more,” said Roberts, who leads the team with 26 receptions. “I think we were a couple of plays from just blowing Arizona out. I think we did play really well against Arizona, but (there were) just little plays, little things that we can fix to run the score up even more.
“So, I just love to see us getting better and better each week and I think you will see that as well as we keep playing games,” Roberts said.
The running game has been adequate, which is understandable with all the injuries the Cougars have dealt with at that position, and the shuffling on the offensive line brought on by Pay’s foot injury. They are averaging 4.2 yards per carry, with Retzlaff leading the way with 184 net rushing yards.
“The complementary football has been great the past few weeks. The defense is giving us the ball, like on the 10-yard line. Those turnovers are huge. When the defense makes those big plays and gets us on their side of the field, it is easy for us as an offense to get in and score and put those points up on the board,” said right tackle Brayden Keim. “So that complementary football has been huge when we’ve been playing.”
A big key to BYU’s splendid start has been the defense, which has been as opportunistic as any in recent memory. Prime examples are the Arizona and Kansas State games, which the defense turned around with big plays/turnovers.
But the most impressive outing was probably the SMU game, as the Cougars held the Mustangs to 15 points, and out of the end zone. SMU is No. 13 in the country in scoring offense (40.8 ppg.) and No. 48 in total offense (429.7 ypg.).
“I feel like from a talent perspective, it has always been there. Sometimes that takes time to click a little bit,” said safety Tanner Wall. “Really, what it came down to for us was a culture thing. When we were on our team campout in middle of fall camp this summer, all the boys (came together), just really feeling how tightknit as a team. I really felt like we had something special.
“And from a leadership perspective, us as leaders, we observed that in the offseason and throughout the summer, the team culture kind of evolved into being something really special and elite, a brotherhood, a family.”
BYU is No. 24 in total defense (308.7 yards per game) and No. 15 in scoring defense (16.33 points per game). The Cougars have gotten better at stopping the run — they are No. 44 in rushing defense — but have been nicked pretty good by some running quarterbacks, such as K-State’s Avery Johnson and the aforementioned Jennings.
“We are making some big plays on defense, and those guys have done a great job,” Sitake said of not just the players, but Hill’s staff. “Looking forward to the second part of the season, and looking forward to (the Oklahoma State game). I can’t wait. I am glad we are home.”
The Cougars have matched last season’s sack total, with 11. They are tied for 79th in the country in that stat, after finishing tied for last with Virginia last year.
Defensive end Tyler Batty, linebackers Jack Kelly and Isaiah Glasker, and cornerback Jakob Robinson have emerged as defensive MVP candidates, although as many as 20 guys have contributed, maybe more.
Amazingly, nine different players have snagged interceptions, and BYU is tied for fifth in the country in picks, with 10.
If the defense has a weakness, it has been the inability to get off the field on third down. Arizona was 11 of 19 on third down, and many of those conversions were lengthy. BYU is tied for 70th in third-down conversion percentage defense (38.3%).
“We gotta play with a little bit more poise out there, just kinda anticipating what we are going to see from (opponents),” Wall said. “Our communication on the back end, especially on some of those early drives (vs. Arizona) could have been better. We can’t ever complain about the stadium being too loud, but there were a couple of times we were trying to communicate and make a couple checks and I had a player standing less than 10 feet away and he couldn’t even hear me.”
The Cougars shanked a punt against Wyoming and have missed three field goals, but beyond that their special teams have been outstanding, even sensational.
Keelan Marion’s 102-yard kickoff return against Wyoming and Parker Kingston’s highlight reel 90-yard punt return against Kansas State were the bright spots of the first half of the season. They were once-in-a-decade type plays.
Last year, the Cougars gave up punt returns for touchdowns against Arkansas and Texas, and the latter proved costly in the 35-6 loss against the then-No. 7 Longhorns. This year, punt and kickoff coverage has been outstanding.
Punter Sam Vander Haar doesn’t have Ryan Rehkow’s leg, but he does have a nice penchant for being able to pin opponents deep in their territory.
Junior kicker Will Ferrin is 10 of 13 on his field goal attempts, with a long of 54.
Bottom line: BYU has wildly surpassed expectations through six games, and has seemingly found its footing in the Big 12, and could be — with a couple breaks going its way — a legitimate Big 12 championship game contender.
“I am just proud of the guys. They have worked hard and I think the spotlight is going to shine on guys when their opportunity comes to make plays,” Sitake said. “I love that they know it is not just them doing it all by themselves. They have 10 other teammates that are there with them making that play work, and a whole bunch of others who are working throughout the week to get them ready.
“So the guys are all bought into the entire team mentality, and when their moment comes, they will be ready,” he continued. “If we can keep that going and focus on improvement, that is going to be the key for us this week. We have done that every week so far. Now, let’s get back to being humble, working hard, and finding ways to get better.”