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PROVO — Read into it what you will during spring practices largely closed to all but the top donors to the program, but the BYU offense that ended its first season in the Big 12 on a five-game losing streak has reportedly been putting plenty past Jay Hill's defense in its first full offseason.
At least, if you believe head coach Kalani Sitake after he met with local reporters via video conference following Saturday's scrimmage.
"Defense had their moments, but overall I thought the offense had the upper hand today," Sitake said after the 76-play scrimmage that included the most live work of spring, save for hitting quarterbacks Jake Retzlaff and Gerry Bohanon. "It's a good back-and-forth, and it's spring ball, so that's expected. But I think the guys ran the ball nicely and protected the ball well. I think that's where we're at right now in the spring. I feel good about our team and the progress we're making."
Perhaps that should be expected, as Sitake noted, from an offense that didn't gel immediately a year ago, and began to come into its own before starting quarterback Kedon Slovis was lost for the year with an arm injury. That led to Retzlaff, the nation's top-rated junior college recruit by ESPN, taking over for the final game of his redshirting junior campaign.
An offense that averaged just a hair of 300 yards per game and 23.1 points also returns plenty of production, including returning starting running back LJ Martin — now a sophomore and 20 pounds bigger. The Cougars brought in Bohanon, a former starter at Baylor and South Florida, to compete with Retzlaff for the starting job, and the duo have separated themselves from a third-string race that includes returning Cade Fennegan, Ryder Burton, Western Michigan transfer Treyson Bourget and incoming freshman Noah Lugo.
Nick Billoups, the walk-on backup who played previously at Utah, plans to enter the transfer portal following the semester, a source confirmed to KSL.com after it was first reported by 247Sports. Former Orem High quarterback Micah Fe'a is also no longer with the team, as first reported by Ben Criddle of ESPN radio.
But Retzlaff's familiarity with the offense, as well as Bohanon's involvement in a similar scheme run by former BYU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes at Baylor, has benefitted the Cougars' offense. So, too, has the returning production of wide receivers like Chase Roberts, Kody Epps, Darius Lassiter, Keelan Marion, Parker Kingston, and Keanu Hill (who has moved to tight end).
Martin leads the running back group, but Miles Davis and Hinckley Ropati also return after Aidan Robbins declared for the NFL draft.
Even the offensive line, which lost tackle Kingsley Suamataia to an early draft declaration (among others), returns center Connor Pay, Caleb Etienne, Weylin Lapuaho and Brayden Keim to a group now managed by former Utah State offensive line coach TJ Woods (by way of Georgia Southern).
"There's a good amount of guys that are a veteran group, so they should be ahead," Sitake said.
Both Sitake and center Connor Pay admitted the offensive line had the most ground to make up from last year's returning production. But Woods' new system is making that easier, too.
"We're all trying to learn Coach Woods' system, so I don't know if continuity is playing a massive role for us. We're also rotating a lot," Pay said. "But the nice thing about Coach Woods' system is that it's very intuitive. There's not a lot of gray area. You know how to handle almost every situation. It's just getting used to doing everything. Continuity in the system has been huge for us."
The veteran offensive line coach and run game coordinator with more than 20 years of experience at Utah State, Wisconsin, Oregon State, Western Kentucky, UNLV and more has already had a positive impact on his linemen, Pay said. Better than he could have expected, added Pay, who was rated the 10th-highest graded returning center int he country by Pro Football Focus before alternating with right guard in 2023.
"I've learned a lot in the last two months or so since he's been here, especially in terms of technique, understanding defenses, and all that type of stuff," Pay said. "He's exceeded all my expectations. It's been awesome. Obviously there are challenges and bumps in the road – it's not like it's been perfect. We're all learning, and he's learning too. But he's been awesome. Everything is so detailed and it's been very rare for us to not know what to do in any given situation — and if we didn't know, it's addressed the next day, and we know how to handle it from then on. It's been awesome having him here."
Sitake made sure to give praise for several defensive standouts in camp, like freshman Tommy Prasas who is earning playing time during what should be his senior. year in high school. He also noted the defensive line, led by returning star Tyler Batty, John Nelson, Isaiah Bagnah, Blake Mangelson and Logan Lutui.
"A lot of guys are more comfortable in this scheme," Sitake said.
