Riding a two-game winning streak — both of which came against rivalry teams — the BYU Cougars seem to have righted the ship. Cougar Insiders Dick Harmon and Jay Drew take a look at BYU’s victory over Utah State and address the revolving quarterback situation. Starter Jaren Hall, who was knocked out of Saturday’s game at the end of the first half, and Baylor Romney, who took over in the second, both turned in solid performances against the Aggies. Harmon and Drew also weigh in on coach Kalani Sitake’s contract situation. That and more on this week’s episode.
Dick Harmon: In this edition of the Cougar Insiders podcast, we’ll be breaking down the Utah State-BYU game, we’ll be talking in-depth about the quarterback situation, the injury to Jaren Hall, and we’ll be talking about the changes that BYU has been making in its offense and its defense. We’ll also be talking about Kalani Sitake and his contract. This and many more things in this edition of the Cougar Insiders podcast, and we do want to thank Mr. Mac, our great sponsor.
Welcome to this edition of the Cougar Insiders podcast. I’m Dick Harmon, columnist for the Deseret News, along with Jay Drew the beat writer. We excuse Brandon Gurney and also Jeff Call who have commitments this morning. But Jay, this was an incredible game in a lot of different ways. I thought it would be very close. I thought Utah State would win and then when it got to picking it, I said ah, BYU will win. They actually should have scored maybe three more touchdowns on the Aggies.
Jay Drew: Yeah, they really should have. On the flip side, Utah State had over 500 yards of total offense and only generated 14 points. So if you’re a Utah State booster or fan, you could probably say the same thing. Utah State probably should have scored more than 14 points. BYU’s bend-but-don’t-break defense was —in my article I said they turned it into an art form, giving up those many yards but only 14 points.
DH: It drives a lot of BYU fans crazy, and I can understand that, to see their team yielding yards over and over again and giving up third downs and letting teams march down the field on them. But if you go back to the USC game, you see the drop back eight coverage with the zone and the linebackers dropping back, it produces interceptions. You’ve now got linebackers that have had 11 interceptions on this team. I have never in 45 years of covering this team seen linebackers so involved in making interceptions, and it’s working — it worked in that game.
JD: Yeah, and you know, No. 1, they’re in the right place. The umbrella defense, whatever, dropping back. But they also have shown really good hands. Some of those interceptions have been really good and usually linebacker types don’t have that great of hands and these guys really do. Some of them have been really great snags that they’ve come up with.
DH: Dana Wilgar’s son, Payton Wilgar, is a guy that didn’t have a scholarship last year and he was in the transfer portal. About Christmas time last year they came back and because of some departures or whatever, they came back to him and said, Please come back. We will give you a scholarship. They did that. He’s a former basketball player down at Dixie High School and a guy with tremendous skills and he’s turned out to be one of the better defenders on this team.
JD: Yeah, three interceptions already. He’s a pretty good run stuffer. And this young linebacker corps is coming along really well. The first few games they were just pulverized with the run and the last couple of games, Boise State and Utah State, they’ve seemingly got it together. They still get nicked a little bit on the ground but they’re coming along really nicely as far as stopping the run.
DH: You know the first four or five games that BYU played were spread offenses, that seems to be the popular offense to run. BYU had to do something to defend that and they chose to go with this three front. Mainly because they didn’t have any experienced pass rushers coming back. Sione Takitaki’s gone. They don’t have a Fred Warner. They really miss a Corbin Kaufusi. So they decided on this. It’s driven BYU fans quite crazy. They don’t like it. And it has yielded up a lot of yards that BYU still ranks real high in yielding yards and total defense and yards per play, third down conversions and things like that. But it’s 4-4. Is this kind of where we thought they would be? Are they ahead? Are they behind in your opinion?
JD: I think they’re a little bit ahead. If you’d look at the overall record, not how they got there, which is crazy and they’ve won games they shouldn’t have won and they lost games they shouldn’t have lost. But If you told me they’ll be 4-4 heading into this so-called easier part of the schedule, I would have thought that’s pretty good. But like I said they easily could be 6-2 or they could be 2-6 because of how some of the close games have gone. But to be 4-4 at this juncture isn’t bad.
DH: Finally, before we talk about the quarterback situation, which is kind of pretty historic in a lot of ways. Let’s talk a little bit about Kalani Sitake. This was a very important game for him in a lot of different ways. You know, coming off a Boise State win here at home that got a lot of people warm and fuzzy. But if he would have lost this game, can you imagine what it would have been around the program — questions about what is he doing? Is he the guy for the job? Can he motivate, can he teach, can he lift these people up? But now it seems to be a little bit different. What about Kalani Sitake and his job situation? What did that win do or not do?
JD: I think it was huge. He’s now 3-9 in rivalry games against the three primary rivals, but he’s 2-1 this year and that’s huge. I think in a lot of BYU fans minds, they underestimate Utah State. They don’t really realize that this is a program that the school’s put a lot of money into it. They’ve got great facilities up there now. They get good athletes. And a lot of BYU fans don’t realize that and so they think BYU ought to beat Utah State every year. And this isn’t your grandfather’s BYU-Utah State rivalry.
DH: I totally agree. I mean, last year, Jay — and you and I know this, we’ve been around covering them and we’ve seen the changes. Last year was a once in maybe a lifetime offense for Utah State. It was good. It was very good and it scored on almost everybody. And it did it over and over again throughout last season. I think BYU lost last year to an Aggie team that probably is the best that they’ve ever faced.
JD: Yeah, definitely. And this year the Aggies are a little bit down. They do have a great quarterback, Jordan Love, who was either awesome or awful the other night. Throwing those pics were really costly, but he also threw for over well over 300 yards. So yeah, I would agree. Kalani, I think he got a lot of goodwill from that Boise State win and I think he could have been in danger of giving it back and he didn’t. He pulled out the win, a convincing win, and I think if you polled most BYU fans right now, I think they would be in favor of giving Kalani a contract extension and keeping him around for a while.
DH: Well, they certainly made the case. You think in your mind, Jay, and we know the candidates and who they are and who would not come, but if you bring someone in it would probably be — if you look at the names out there, an outsider and probably not a former BYU player and not connected to the varsity and alumni. And if you bring him in here, and he has to go over the hurdles of what Sitake, even being a former player, has had to learn about the modern day BYU admissions and honor code system, it would be like starting over.
JD: Yeah, I really think they gotta stay in house. I think if they do make a change, you know, I’m on the record as saying I don’t think they need to make a change. I think Kalani is the man for the job. But if they did, I think it would be a big mistake to go outside of, you know, not get a former player. I also think it’d be a little damaging to the Polynesian community and I think BYU football needs that relationship. And I think if they made a change, that there would be some irreparable harm done in that avenue.
DH: Jay, after the South Florida loss, Kalani Sitake met with the team on a Monday and I’m told that he really let them have it. He challenged them in very strong language and with a lot of emotion, and he challenged his staff. He apparently shook some things up as far as the roles and his own role and impact on the team. We’ve now seen these quarterbacks running an offense that’s different than what we saw when they opened up against Utah. And something different than they ran last year. It’s more aggressive. The play-calling has changed. And the numbers are changed, and they’re 2-0. What things have you observed about what Kalani may have tugged on after that South Florida loss?
JD: I think you could sum it up with the word aggressive. Kalani is a very easygoing man. But he’s got kind of an aggressive personality. A loving, reaching out there, not afraid to take risk. And I think he translated that over, especially to the offense, against Utah State. They literally ran gadget plays back to back. I mean, not only did they just run one, they run a gadget play and you think, Oh, well, they just got in their gadget play. They run another one — who does that? And they both worked. And that was a symbol of this new aggressiveness I think that he’s instilled into the offense.
DH: It’s not only been the aggressive nature, and you’re right, but the execution level — from catching, from throwing, to being in the right spot, to making the right cuts, to running and blocking better — the execution level of it has kind of elevated itself about three or four notches. Am I wrong?
JD: No, I totally agree. I think there’s some accountability, I think especially offensively receivers, running backs. If you make a mistake, you’re going to have to go to the bench for a while. Emmanuel Esukpa, good player, had the unfortunate fumble, and I didn’t see him on the field for a couple quarters, I think. I might have been wrong, he might have been moved in. But that’s just an example of he had to sit the bench, they went with (Sione) Finau and Lopini Katoa and they delivered. Yeah, I totally agree accountability is now a real thing.
DH: Jay, we saw two great quarterback performances in that game. One from Jaren Hall, coming back off of a concussion and injury. And then Baylor Romney. He continues to impress, coming in and you didn’t lose one step. He throws for two touchdown passes. He looks good in the pocket. He makes reads quickly, moves the team down. They scored 21 points when he came in. They were 21, I believe, at halftime when Jaren Hall went down. But does this mean, No. 1, does this mean that maybe Jaren Hall is done for the season if he’s had a concussion? Or is it just precautionary and we’ll find out more, I think today and tomorrow. But his situation is very tenable. And then what about Baylor Romney?
JD: Yeah, I think Jaren Hall, concussions are serious. We know that now through medical science and all the research that’s been done. I’m no doctor, but it might be wise to shut Jaren down for the rest of the year. Two concussions within a three-week period is really dangerous from everything that I’ve read. We will see. I’m no doctor. As far as Baylor goes, Yeah, his pocket presence, his poise. He’s got that almost like that aw shucks, Ty Detmer demeanor, where nothing’s going to really rattle him. And he was impressive. He’s not the runner that Jaren Hall was. There was an unfortunate play where Jaren actually got hurt, where it looked like Matt Bushman caught a touchdown pass. They brought it back because they said Utah State had called timeout, which was a really bizarre deal if you watch the replay, the whistle came like three seconds after the play had started. But anyway, the real harmful part of that was on the very next play Jaren Hall ran it in from the 18, took a hit at the goal line, and that’s where he suffered the concussion. So that couldn’t have even have happened.
DH: If the officials hadn’t called a weird timeout. I didn’t think about it but that’s true. That was a critical, critical call for Jaren Hall because he just threw a touchdown pass, reloads, runs it in and gets hurt. That’s almost tragic.
JD: That was a tough sequence right there for the Cougars. And nobody knew he was hurt because he came off the field celebrating and all that. That’s literally the last play he made in the game.
DH: That’s sad. Well, Jay, what we’ve seen is two quarterbacks, Jaren Hall and and Baylor Romney that have proven that they can move this team. But back in the summer Zach Wilson, the designated starter came out and said we believe we can score on anybody. We believe we can move the ball on anybody. Of course Utah took that right up and played it in their locker room all summer, but this is the offense that he envisioned that they would be playing. It now seems right now that they are moving the ball, even though Utah State did not have David Woodward and you got to credit them — it was really a tough loss for them not having that great linebacker in there. But BYU was moving the ball. They were scoring. They were doing it from a lot of different ways. Their chunk plays had never been better, probably in the last couple of years. I don’t remember the last time, probably with Christian Stewart or maybe that New Mexico Bowl game with the quarterback from down in Dixie.
JD: James Lark?
DH: When he threw — I mean, 400 yards plus from a from a quarterback position at BYU? But what I’m getting to is this: BYU now plays Liberty, Idaho State, UMass and San Diego State. And I’m thinking that this will probably continue, this kind of offensive production against these teams.
JD: Yeah, it really should. The interesting thing will be — coaches told us last week that Zach Wilson has the cast off, he’s been throwing again, he’s ahead of schedule. Probably all the more reason to shut Jaren Hall down for at least a month and let him recover. It looks like Zach will be back maybe for the Idaho State game, I wouldn’t be surprised. And then you’ve got some more options, maybe a good problem to have. But obviously people are going to wonder why not stick with Baylor Romney if he’s played so well. Why do you bring back Zach, maybe even a little bit early? So it’s a good problem for the coaches to have.
DH: A million dollar question and we’ll leave it on this, Jay. They’re kind of doing less RPO, which I think got Zack in a little bit of trouble. He made some decisions. He threw some pics early in the year against some very good defenses. But if this offense the way it’s shaping up now had Zach there would you expect him to be as productive as these other two have been? The last two games?
JD: Yeah, I think so. I think they identified him as quarterback one way back, you know, when he replaced Tanner Mangum midseason last year. I think he’s the most talented, skilled, studied up quarterback still. They’ve invested the most time in him and yeah, I believe he would have ran the offense this well and they’d still be where they’re at right now.
DH: We want to thank our listeners for tuning in to this podcast. You can download it wherever you get podcasts — Cougar Insiders. We want to thank our sponsor, a great thanks to Mr. Mac. We appreciate his sponsorship of this program. And we appreciate the time you spend to cover BYU sports, Jay Drew, and also a shout-out to Jeff Call and Brandon Gurney, they do a great job and we missed you today. And that’s a wrap.
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