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PROVO — Without admitting it much, BYU football coaches have found themselves in red-alert mode with injuries to their top two quarterbacks.
Head coach Kalani Sitake said Monday that multiple options are on the table as the Cougars prepare to host Boise State at 8:15 p.m. Friday, including the possible return of starting quarterback Tanner Mangum, a repeat performance by backup Koy Detmer Jr. or the playing of redshirt candidates Joe Critchlow and Kody Wilstead.
Offensive coordinator Ty Detmer added former Jordan High standout Austin Kafentzis' name into the mix Tuesday and said the Cougars were splitting reps evenly across all QB options.
“It’s all hands on deck,” said Detmer, who acknowledged Mangum is limited and Hoge hasn’t been cleared from his injury suffered against Utah State.
“We have limited time during the week, with really just three practice days,” Detmer added. “You want to set reps into everybody, but you have to focus on the guys who will play.”
Sitake mentioned Koy Detmer’s struggles in throwing three interceptions against Utah State. But his offensive coordinator defended his nephew by pointing to the fact that Mangum and Hoge received nearly the entirety of practice time since the final days of fall camp.
“When you get down to your third or fourth guy, they’ve had probably no reps during the season — and you saw that with Koy (against Utah State),” Detmer said. “He did some good things, but forced a couple of passes to try to make some plays. That’s just not having a lot of reps.”
It’s impossible to talk about the Cougars’ four-game losing streak without mentioning the seven turnovers against the Aggies. But BYU’s offense took a step forward last Friday night, piling up nearly 400 yards of offense and scoring a season-high 24 points.
It just wasn’t enough, obviously.
“We felt good early in the game. We put some drives together, had some big plays, some explosiveness,” Detmer said. “There were some things we could take from the game, but of course the turnovers negate a lot of the positive feelings we had.”
The top priority for BYU’s offense five games into the regular season is identity-based. With so many injuries at quarterback and other skill positions, the Cougars have struggled to maintain a consistent awareness of who they are on the offensive side of the ball.
“The No. 1 thing for our offense is that we have to find an identity,” assistant head coach Ed Lamb said. “That changes for a lot of teams week-to-week with who is healthy and who we are facing. But part of that identity has to be to take care of the football first.”
That identity is everybody’s responsibility — including the defense.
“The offense is going through their struggles, but the defense can step up more so that we can have more low-scoring games,” safety Micah Hahnemann said.
