SALT LAKE CITY — BYU may not publicly say it, but after the last four years, the Cougars are ready for the rivalry with Utah to take a break.

Utah’s defense dominated a Cougar offense that had rushed all over Texas. Also, BYU quarterback Taysom Hill had one of the worst outings in his career, completing only 18 of 48 passes for 260 yards and a quarterback rating of 36.8 — hardly numbers that inspire confidence in his ability to perform with his arm.

Overall, the Cougars need games like the Utah-BYU rivalry in the era of independence to prove their worth to their world, and they need to win those games. For a program that makes its living off gaining the best in-state recruits, it is falling farther and farther behind in the minds of recruits.

But Hill and the Cougars have a chance to silence some of the local pundits this week with an impressive performance against Conference USA member Middle Tennessee State.

The Blue Raiders are 3-1, and are coming off an overtime victory over Florida Atlantic. Middle Tennessee is an interesting team as it is rather average in nearly every major statistical category. Its highest ranking for a major statistic is in rushing yards, where it averaged 53rd with 196.3 yards per game.

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So it is safe to justify this week as a game where the Cougars can regroup and return to their winning ways. And, to inspire confidence in the identity of BYU’s offense, Taysom Hill will have to have a big game.

Thus, this week’s matchup between BYU and Middle Tennessee State comes down to a sub-matchup between Hill and the Blue Raiders defense.

Why this matchup?

Quite frankly, BYU is a team that doesn’t have a featured offensive identity. The general public thought the Cougars had an identity built around running the football after their landmark performance against Texas, but BYU only rushed for 183 yards against Utah.

If the Cougars are going to have a consistently explosive offense, it is going to come from having a proficient quarterback in Hill. In this era of college football, it is nearly impossible to win games without a quarterback who can play at an elite level. To be bluntly honest, the difference between Utah and BYU is the Utes had a better quarterback in Travis Wilson than BYU had in Taysom Hill.

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Cougars preparing for a fast, tough Middle Tennessee team

Coming off a bitter loss to rival Utah, the Cougars are using the short week to prepare for an upset-minded Middle Tennessee State team. The Blue Raiders come into Provo Friday night with a 3-1 record and they have the Cougars full attention.

So, Hill needs to become a better passer and needs to have a passing performance that can establish him as a legitimate passing threat when the Cougars travel to Logan to take on Utah State the following week.

Hill needs work, and the unit that he will face in getting that work is the Middle Tennessee defense — a unit that averages giving up 28.5 points. There are holes to exploit, specifically in the Blue Raiders' secondary. That unit gave up 339 passing yards to North Carolina in a 40-20 loss two weeks ago.

Who wins this matchup?

BYU is getting this game on its schedule at just the right time as the Cougars need another “bye” week to get ready for facing Utah State. In all regards, if BYU loses to the Aggies, they will fall into insignificance as the third-best program in the state and will lose recruiting foothold. Thus, the Cougars need to establish Hill’s throwing ability as a legitimate threat for Utah State to prepare for, and this will only come by opening up the playbook of BYU's past and exploiting the vertical passing game.

Even though Hill isn’t a great passer, he will be a much better passer against Middle Tennessee State and has elite athletes like Cody Hoffman who can beat the Blue Raiders’ best cornerbacks. In the end, BYU is too talented for it to lose this week.

The real test is preparing sufficiently for Utah State, and using this game as a platform to diversify the attack methods the Aggies will have to prepare for.

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