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PROVO — Whether or not Boise State coach Bryan Harsin had a hand in adding BYU back into the schedule when the now-No. 21 Broncos resumed the 2020 college football season is unknown.
The highly successful Broncos coach with a 66-17 record in seven seasons at his alma mater was coy when asked if he wanted the ninth-ranked Cougars (7-0) to dot his team's otherwise Mountain West-only schedule when the league decided to resume play in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
But regardless how he felt personally, he was quick to add that BYU's place on the schedule brings a huge benefit to his team.
"This is a huge challenge for us," Harsin told a small group of BYU reporters Tuesday morning, before the Broncos formally took a break from all team activities to observe Election Day. "We'll have ourselves prepared and ready to play, and we're going to be playing another good team this year in BYU."
Whether he approached athletic director Curt Apsay or the other way around, Harsin knows the value of having BYU on the schedule. It's why the Broncos have an arrangement to play the Cougars most years through 2034, and why they kept the game alive after the Mountain West restarted the season late in the 2020 calendar.
That feeling is mutual, too. When BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe was trying to readjust the schedule after all five of the Cougars' Power-5 opponents bailed on the 2020 season, he kept a spot open on the first weekend of November. That was the weekend the Cougars were originally scheduled to go to Boise, and if the BYU athletic director didn't keep a flight reservation on hold — even after the Mountain West Conference announced the indefinite postponement of the season — it may be a surprise.
Both teams want to play this game. In some ways, the Broncos want it more than the Cougars — despite a list of injuries that has been running just two games into the season.
Just two games into the season, Boise State (2-0) is already touched by the injury bug. Harsin said Tuesday that starting defensive end Demitri Washington, a redshirt sophomore with 34 tackles and 4.5 sacks in his career, is out for the season with an injury.
Additionally, reliable veteran Hank Bachmeier missed the Broncos' Week 2 game at Air Force due to COVID-19 protocols, which led to USC transfer Jack Sears' efficient afternoon completing 19-of-23 passes for 291 yards and three touchdowns, while running for another 44 yards and a score.
In theory, the decision of who starts at quarterback can play a key role on the offense. In reality, Boise State is in capable and proven hands, regardless of who earns the QB1 tag.
Though he didn't signal a gameday start, Harsin did point to both quarterback's similarities.
"I don't think there's a whole lot of difference," Harsin said when asked about his top two signal callers. "That's not a knock on either one; it's just a style of the way they play. They're both good decision-makers, and both are good in the pocket.
"It was good to see Jack get out there and do a good job. Hank has done that, too. But they're two different players in their own ways, too. Overall, at the end of the day, they've got to operate our offense and do what we need to be doing to operate our offense."
BYU coach Kalani Sitake didn't make any beef about preparing for one quarterback or the other. He knows what each one is capable of doing.
"They have four guys who can play quarterback," Sitake said of the team led by a former Boise quarterback with two Mountain West titles and five 10-win seasons under Harsin. "I like that they have guys who can play. Coach Harsin and their staff have done a great job of getting guys ready."
Boise State is 7-3 all-time against BYU, including an unblemished 5-0 record on the blue turf at Albertsons Stadium. When the Cougars' climbed as high as No. 9 in the latest Associated Press Top 25, running the record to 6-0 would prove a valuable scalp for the Broncos — and the league — in search of a New Year's Six bowl bid.
Boise State currently trails No. 7 Cincinnati in that bid for the Group of Five's automatic bid to the NY6 (so does BYU, but the FBS independent Cougars are ineligible for that berth). If the Cougars want a similar berth, they'd have to receive an at-large selection from the College Football Playoff committee — and a win over Boise State and San Diego State on Dec. 12 would go a long way to shoring up that selection.
Sure, there are challenges — even beyond a top-10 opponent. Both schools are playing without a Tuesday practice day, a nationwide piece of NCAA legislation that eliminated team activities on all campuses except Utah State, which seemed to find a way to practice until 10 a.m. Tuesday morning before Thursday night's game against Nevada. The very act of Election Day will take players and coaches away from football, at least for a short time, to vote and engage civically, and at BYU, it will be the second day of the week the Cougars don't practice (BYU doesn't practice or hold team meetings on Sundays as the flagship institution of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).
But that's the price of a nationally televised game on FS1 that will capture the country's attention on Friday night — a gameday Harsin has routinely objected, for recruiting purposes.
"I'm not a big fan of Friday night games; I think it's for high school football," Harsin said. "But my opinion doesn't matter.
"There were some challenges that could've been a little bit smoother, but we knew all that and we'll be ready to play Friday night."
