When BYU’s first Big 12 football schedule was released the last day of January, this is the 2023 matchup that drew the most excitement in Provo.
Oklahoma at BYU, Nov. 18, LaVell Edwards Stadium. It was and is going to be the blue-blood program’s first-ever game in the state of Utah, let alone at BYU.
“Right now, it is just a matter of, ‘you got knocked off your bike. Get your butt back on it and get going.’ … One of the best Tuesdays we have had in a long time. And I thought that showed the resolve of this team, and the toughness. I fully suspect that we are going to come out and play great on Saturday.” — BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill
“That the Cougars get the Sooners at home, when OU very well could be playing for a conference title and perhaps more … on BYU’s Senior Day is just icing on the cake,” the Deseret News wrote on Jan. 31 in an analysis of the just-released schedule.
Sure enough, No. 14 Oklahoma (5-2, 8-2) is still in the hunt for the Big 12 title, although its CFP hopes went out the window with consecutive losses to Kansas and Oklahoma State. But crumbling BYU (5-5) is nowhere close to being ready for the party.
Kickoff is at 10 a.m. MST and ESPN will televise the third meeting between BYU and OU, but the first at the home stadium of one of the teams. The Cougars crushed the Sooners 31-6 in the 1994 Copper Bowl and upset them 14-13 in the 2009 season opener at Cowboys Stadium in Texas, but OU is a 24-point favorite on Saturday.
And deservedly so.
BYU’s three straight blowout losses by a combined score of 117-26 has served as a buzzkill to Saturday’s festivities, at least from the perspective of Cougar fans. Bowl eligibility that seemed so close a month ago when BYU knocked off Texas Tech 27-14 to improve to 5-2 no longer seems realistic.
The expectation around Provo — outside the BYU football offices, of course — is that Oklahoma can probably name the score on Saturday.
BYU’s deficiencies on offense, defense, special teams and even the intangibles (read: coaching) have been detailed extensively the past month as the embarrassing performances have piled up. Head coach Kalani Sitake said Monday that team cohesion is still intact, two days after saying in the aftermath of the 45-13 loss to Iowa State that the utter collapse of the defense could be attributed to “probably guys not believing in the system and not believing in what we are doing.”
Sitake said three times in the space of one minute that there is still a lot for which to play. Of course, he’s been saying that for weeks, to no avail.
The Cougars can’t seem to avoid falling into early holes, a trend that should be even more concerning this week considering that Oklahoma has outscored opponents 126-44 in the first quarter this season. BYU has been outscored 90-62 in the opening frame.
“Keeping things in perspective, we are trying to find a way to win for the seniors. This is their last game in LaVell Edwards Stadium,” Sitake said. BYU is “trying to find a way to play at our best and minimize the mistakes that are made and when you are playing this type of schedule in this conference, I mean, we are still looking at the most difficult schedule in BYU history, and we are sitting at 5-5 with a chance to win a game and go to a bowl game. We are still playing for a lot of things.”
Whether this really is the “most difficult schedule in BYU history” is open for debate (Deseret News columnist Doug Robinson believes BYU’s slate was tougher in 2004) but offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick is siding with his boss.
“There is no argument. It is not even close. And the only ones that were even close to it were the last two ones before this. But no one is ducking that. This is what we signed up for, man,” Roderick said, noting that he, Sitake and defensive coordinator Jay Hill “have all been through this before” when they were at Utah transitioning into the Pac-12.
“You gotta go through the fire to learn how to stand on your feet in this league,” Roderick continued. “It is tough. We are going though a tough time right now, but we embrace the challenge. You gotta go through it to grow and get better.”
This growing opportunity will most likely continue Saturday as the Sooners roll into LES with one of the top quarterbacks in the country, Dillon Gabriel, bent on revenge for a Boca Raton Bowl beatdown when he was at UCF.
“They are a very good team,” Gabriel said of BYU, causing one to wonder if the redshirt senior from Hawaii actually watched any recent film of the Cougars this week.
While Gabriel was throwing for five touchdowns and running for three in the 59-20 crushing of West Virginia last week, BYU’s defense was giving up 45 points and 443 yards to Iowa State and redshirt freshman quarterback Rocco Becht.
Defensive coordinator Hill said Tuesday’s practice was “outstanding” after the Cougars took Monday off for the NCAA-mandated Civic Engagement Day, thus putting themselves behind the eight-ball before the practice week even began.
“Well, when you lose three in a row you gotta sit back, reflect on what is going on, get your mojo back,” Hill said. “I don’t think it is atypical that guys are upset and frustrated. None of our guys want to lose three in a row, for sure.
“Right now, it is just a matter of, ‘you got knocked off your bike. Get your butt back on it and get going.’ … One of the best Tuesdays we have had in a long time. And I thought that showed the resolve of this team, and the toughness. I fully suspect that we are going to come out and play great on Saturday.”
Oklahoma’s offense is as good as any that has visited LES in nearly 20 years. The Sooners are fourth in the FBS in points (41.8 per game) and seventh in passing yards (323.8 yards per game).
A 24-point underdog, BYU hasn’t been predicted to lose by this many points since 2004, when No. 1 USC came to Provo with Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart and was a 26-point favorite.
BYU took a 3-0 lead on Matt Payne’s 46-yard field goal in the second quarter, but after that it was all Trojans, who won 42-10.
Oklahoma “is exactly what you would expect a top-10 team to be. We got our work cut out for us, but that is a fun challenge. It is why I came to BYU,” Hill said. “That is why a lot of our players are here. We came here to play in these Big 12 games and to prove what we are all about and that’s why we are here.”
