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PROVO — Friday night was a rough one for BYU as Utah State embarrassed them at home in a 45-20 dismantling of the Cougars.
From the very first snap, the Cougars looked to be in trouble and the Aggies in total control. Everything went wrong for BYU. Even when Utah State made mistakes the Cougars couldn’t capitalize, and the game was over after the first drive of the second half.
BYU now sits at 3-3 with some tough games still in their future. Utah State won the battle of the Old Wagon Wheel for the second-straight year. It is also the first time the Aggies have won back-to-back games in the series since the early 70s.
The Friday night drubbing in Provo taught us a lot about the Cougars and almost none of it was good. Here are three lessons we learned from BYU’s loss to Utah State:
Playing at LaVell Edwards Stadium is not an advantage
Usually a home game is a big advantage for a football team, especially when it comes to rivalry games. Fans typically get excited when they get to invite an in-state rival, or any team for that matter, to their house because the energy and atmosphere usually helps the home team.
This is not the case with BYU.
Dating back to the 2017 season, BYU has played nine games at LaVell Edwards Stadium, and they have only won three of those matchups. Those three wins came against Portland State and San Jose State in 2017 and McNeese State in 2018. Losses include Utah, Wisconsin, Boise State, Cal and now Utah State. Most are pretty good teams and don’t seem so bad, but the sixth loss came to UMass last year, and that doesn’t seem to be too much of a fluke anymore
BYU’s home field play has been atrocious and they have only averaged 30 points in their home wins and only 18 points a game in the last two seasons.
At this point, it would seem Cougar fans should get more excited when their team is playing on the road.
This team has no identity
In years past, BYU teams have had a solid identity. With Max Hall and John Beck, BYU was known for their high-powered offense that dared you to score more points than them. When their offense was struggling with Riley Nelson or an injured Taysom Hill, the team had a stout defense lead by Kyle Van Noy that would stuff opposing offenses and win games with defensive scores.
Now, BYU just seems to be a football team desperately trying to find its voice.
The offense proved Friday night that they have some talent, but no execution and no endurance. The Aggies had their way with the BYU defense, running through holes that seemed to be parted by Moses himself, and completing passes all over the field with no defender in sight.
The only identity this BYU football team seems to have at the moment is one of mediocrity and confusion. How can this be the same team that walked into Camp Randall with so much swagger and confidence only to come home and get embarrassed by an in-state rival that was a bottom-feeder of the WAC only a decade ago?
That sounds harsher than it’s meant to. A bonus lesson we learned is that Utah State is a good team that has real potential to win the MWC title and go on to have a fantastic season. They have a fast and powerful offense that can attack you both on the ground and the air with a quarterback that makes smart decision and is a bonafide playmaker.
That’s an identity. Utah State has one, BYU does not.
This team has no leadership
From the opening kickoff, one almost got a sense that the BYU team didn’t really care to even be there. By the time USU went up by 21, it felt as if the defense decided to call it a night and started thinking about where they could grab a late-night bite after the game was over.
On both sides of the ball, there seemed to be no fight in the team and no leader to make the rallying cry and get the team on track. There are workhorses from Friday night, like Sione Takitaki on defense who kept playing hard and Talon Shumway on offense who never let up until the clock hit zeroes. But gritty players are not automatically leaders and this team is in desperate need of leadership.
Taysom Hill, Max Hall, John Beck, Bryan Kehl, Shay Muirbrook, Jamaal Williams, Andrew George, Jan Jorgensen and Kyle Van Noy are just a few of the recent leaders BYU football has had that helped lead the team to 10-plus win seasons with national rankings. But those kinds of players seem like whispers of the past now that only live on the walls of the players facilities.
This team needs a leader if it hopes to make it back to a bowl and salvage a season that is currently headed off the rails.
Next up BYU will host the 5-1 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in Provo at 8:15 PM MT on Saturday, Oct. 13.
Hawaii is averaging over 40 points a game and gaining nearly 500 yard of offense a game with an aerial attack averaging over 350 yards a game. John has grown up around movies and annoys friends and family with his movie facts and knowledge. John also has a passion for sports and pretty much anything awesome and it just so happens that these are the three things he writes about.
