Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO — Through three weeks of fall camp, BYU has been focused on themselves, including position battles and scrimmages between the yet-to-be-unveiled offensive and defensive schemes.
No one has been able to watch those battles, save coaches, players, and a handful of staff members from within the program. But by all accounts — including from defensive players — the offense has had the upper hand in most scenarios.
But with just 13 days until the Cougars’ season opener Sept. 7 at Navy, that will all be changing.
BYU has officially entered preparations for a unique beast: a service academy for the first time since leaving the Mountain West Conference, and the U.S. Naval Academy for the first time since 1989.
In truth, the Cougars’ practices will probably begin to look markedly different depending on whether one is watching the offense and the defense — if one were among the privileged few who was allowed to watch any of those practices in an era of COVID-19 precautions.
“Today was a day where the defensive team was in full pads, and the offense and scout defense were in shells,” BYU head coach Kalani Sitake told reporters after Tuesday’s session. “It’s a different type of practice for the defense as it is for the offense.”
The scout team has been finalized, and the film has been cut (or at least begun to be cut). The Cougars have charted their course for the Navy, and the dangerous waters that come with defending the triple option.
“Obviously, it’s a totally different game,” said BYU linebacker Max Tooley, a Bountiful product who competed against the triple option at East and Highland prior to serving a two-year church mission. “There are few teams that run this style of offense. You’re going to have different techniques and different personnel on the field.”
It’s a different Navy team, too.
Record-setting quarterback Malcolm Perry is gone, a seventh-round draft pick of the Miami Dolphins. He’ll try to make the Dolphins’ active roster, likely as a wide receiver or wildcat option, before fulfilling his commitment to the Marine Corps, thanks to a Department of Defense policy change issued last November by President Donald Trump.
The most experienced candidate to replace Perry was Perry Olsen, a 6-foot, 205-pound signal-caller from Yukon, Oklahoma.
Olsen entered the fall atop the quarterback depth chart, having appeared in eight games as a freshman in 2019. He finished the season with 80 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries, as well as two pass completions for 45 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
But after just one week of preseason camp, Navy offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper stunned the academy’s press corps by saying seldom-used, third-string quarterback Dalen Morris had risen to the top of the depth chart. The 6-foot-1, 206-pound senior would become just the fifth single-season starting quarterback in the triple-option era at the academy.
Much like the Cougars’ four-way quarterback competition between Zach Wilson, Jaren Hall, Baylor Romney and freshman Sol-Jay Maiava-Peters, the Midshipmen had plenty of options for the position. Dynamic runner and wide receiver Chance Warren was even put into the mix during the fall with the assumption that he would move to slotback if not named the starter.
“They’re going to put a quality person into that position, no matter what string they were last year,” Sitake said. “We’re not really worried about what number shows up behind center; we’re focusing on being in the right spot and matching their toughness.”
Whoever it is — again, likely Morris, but with plenty of options — will keep the Cougars on their toes, too. The Midshipmen rely on a mobile quarterback but have thrown the ball more in recent years. They also have been known to use the quarterback’s mobility to set up the pass game.
Defensively, that requires discipline and toughness to keep in check, Sitake said. But Tooley added the defense will try to “keep them on their toes” in defending the unique wing option.
And that’s why both of BYU’s sides may look a little bit different in practice over the next two weeks.
“The offense is doing their thing, and it’s a lot different than fall camp when we scrimmage them,” Tooley said. “It is like two different practices. At the same time, our scout team is getting ready to run Navy.
“It is quite the contrast.”
