I’ve watched CCU a couple of times this year, and the player that stood out to me head and shoulders above the rest was #1 Marable. He’s very difficult to bring down especially in the open field. Their QB is great for a RS freshman, but his job is mostly just to manage the game and distribute the ball to the playmakers (i.e., Marable). With that being said, here’s what I would anticipate BYU’s defensive game plan:

- DL will be critical. We’ll start with 3 DL. In pass defense, their job will be to stay in their gaps and drive the CCU’s OL back putting themselves in position to get their hands up in CCU’s over the middle passing lanes between 2-3 secs. If they can bat balls down or disrupt the QB’s then whichever DL’s got the one-on-one will be tasked with collapsing the pocket. BYU is going to force CCU to hold onto the ball a little longer to throw deep, or take the short outside passes. If we can shut down the run game with 3 DL, then we likely won’t see much 4 DL except in 3rd and long situations.

- Expect a QB spy every passing down.

- We’ll start out with our vanilla zone pass defense look, but if we’re not able to shut down those middle passing lanes then we’ll end up switching between man and zone. It’ll be a good test for our CBs, but they’re capable of succeeding.

- My concern is our safeties. They’ve been caught out of position on deep balls numerous times, and they’ve struggled with their angles and open field tackling. If they get sucked up on a PA and burned deep then it’s a quick score. They’ll need to be laser focused on their keys. Disciplined pursuit by the LBs and CBs on the outside will avoid significant RAC and putting our safeties in difficult situations where they have to tackle in the open field.

The key to this game lies in disrupting the QB’s rhythm. If we can do that then we can get sacks, interceptions, etc.