alt=Jay DrewPROVO — A recent and troubling trend — to some — in college football bowl games the past few years has been for star players with probable NFL futures to sit out of the mostly meaningless contests to avoid injury or get a head start training for the next level.
That won’t be a problem for the BYU Cougars as they face the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in the SoFi Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve (6 p.m. MST, ESPN), BYU coach Kalani Sitake said in his weekly press briefing on Monday.
“They all want to play football,” Sitake said. “I am lucky to coach these guys. They are all going to make the trip and all get on the field — at least those that can play or are able to (play) without injury. It looks right now that we are getting (a few injured) guys back, and they will compete and the best will play.”
It’s not that the Cougars (7-5) don’t have any candidates for professional football. Senior defensive backs Austin Lee and Dayan Ghanwoloku have received invitations to postseason all-star games, while juniors Khyiris Tonga and Matt Bushman will likely be taken in the NFL draft if they come out early, a highly probable likelihood for both, BYU insiders say.
“They all want to play football. I am lucky to coach these guys. They are all going to make the trip and all get on the field — at least those that can play or are able to (play) without injury. It looks right now that we are getting (a few injured) guys back, and they will compete and the best will play” — BYU coach Kalani Sitake
It is mostly because Sitake has established a team-first culture, and the Dec. 24 game against an old WAC rival on its home field at Aloha Stadium is crucial to the program’s momentum.
“We are going to work hard and we are going to practice hard and we are going to have one goal, and that’s to win this game,” Sitake said.
A couple of key defenders missed the 13-3 loss to San Diego State due to injury — defensive tackle Bracken El-Bakri and cornerback Chris Wilcox. Sitake said El-Bakri (foot) will play in two weeks, while Wilcox (knee) most likely won’t.
As for the quarterback situation, which was detailed by the Deseret News last week, Sitake said starter Zach Wilson and backups Jaren Hall, Baylor Romney and Joe Critchlow were all expected to practice Monday. Hall, the redshirt freshman who has been in concussion protocol since the Utah State game, got married over the weekend.
Competition at kicker also continues, as Jake Oldroyd and Skyler Southam work toward getting the nod in the islands, but Sitake also asserted that the kicking woes that resurfaced in the SDSU loss can’t just be blamed on the kickers.
“Our goal, our purpose in this bowl game, is to go out there for one thing, and that’s to play well and be at our best,” Sitake said. “We have some time to have a little bit of fun and be out there longer than we would be normally. But we have to go out there and try to get the win.”
Sure, the next 15 days and 11 or 12 practices will be used to develop younger players in the program, but not at the expense of preparing the mainstays to get what would be BYU’s third-straight bowl win. The Cougars downed Wyoming 24-21 in the 2016 Poinsettia Bowl and Western Michigan 49-18 in last year’s bowl in Boise, Idaho.
“They have an opportunity to get 10 wins and we have an opportunity to build off our season from last year and continue our bowl win streak,” Sitake said. “So, there is a lot to play for in this game.”
It will also help BYU’s brand not only in Hawaii, where it recruits heavily, but around the country, Sitake believes.
“It will be the only game on (television) that day, so a lot of eyes will be watching us and we look forward to performing well and playing against a quality opponent like Hawaii,” Sitake said.
Having practiced three times last week and worked “a little bit” on a game plan for Hawaii, one of the three or four teams the Cougars figured they would probably face, Sitake said BYU will practice five or six times this week with the focus squarely on a Hawaii team he called “dangerous” and better than its record indicates.
The winning-is-everything message has reached the players, seniors Micah Simon and Trajan Pili and junior Isaiah Kaufusi said Monday.
“Kalani sat us down in a team meeting and said, ‘Hey, the No. 1 goal moving forward and for the bowl game is to win the game,’” Kaufusi said. “The whole team has bought in. A lot of times guys say, ‘Oh, it is just a bowl game and we will just kinda of go through the motions, and we’ve got finals’ and this and that, and just kinda be really lackadaisical about it.
“But Kalani was adamant about us knowing that this game was a game to win, about us playing for the seniors, and so this last week was a work week, for sure,” Kaufusi continued. “We got after it.”
Even the players who might not be around next year.
Cougars on the air
SoFi Hawaii Bowl
BYU (7-5) vs. Hawaii (9-5)
At Aloha Stadium, Honolulu
Dec. 24, 6 p.m. MST
TV: ESPN
Radio: 1160 AM, 102.7 FM