'We want to shake up college football': After win over No. 9 Baylor, BYU has clear goal

PROVO — The party was still happening outside LaVell Edwards Stadium when BYU linebacker Max Tooley and defensive end Fisher Jackson slid into the postgame media room, let out a bit of a gasp, and almost audibly cracked a few joints as they moved into their chairs.

If the duo looked like they had just come off a battlefield, it's because in many ways, they did.

BYU outgained Baylor 366-289 in total offense in Saturday night's 26-20 match against the ninth-ranked Bears, but just 83 of them came on the ground.

Every single one was a dog fight, and every yard fight felt like a five-round slugfest that ended with a technical knockout. Each ended with a tackle — a career-high 13 for Tooley; and three stops, a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry for Fisher — that felt like a ton of bricks.

"This was a physical one," Tooley said. "Dealing with the tight ends, the tackles on every play; they have some big, strong, physical tight ends. They like to run the ball, but I think we made a point of emphasis to get physical."

But when the dust had settled on the 21st-ranked Cougars' win over the Bears — their first win at home over a team ranked in the Associated Press top 10 since beating then-No. 6 Wisconsin in 2018 — it was all worth it.

Welcome to the Big 12, BYU; more of this, please.

So when the sold-out crowd of 63,470 fans flooded the field in a sea of royal blue after the game, there was only one thing to do: enjoy it.

"I would've, if I was a fan," Jackson said. "I was pretty excited; I stormed the field. I think everyone in Cougar Nation was excited that we got this win."

Party like it's 1990; you know Provo will all weekend (and then they'll go to church on Sunday).

The last time BYU beat Baylor at home, the Cougars won a national championship that led to eventual sweeping changes across college football, from bowl alliances to the eventual Bowl Championship Series that set up today's four-team College Football Playoff.

A lot has changed since 1984 — BYU and Baylor included — but could Saturday night's result lead to a similar season?

Slow your roll, blue-goggled BYU fans; but don't count these Cougars out entirely, either, in their final season as an FBS independent before joining the Big 12 in 2023. Strange things have happened in Provo, and stranger things could be yet to come.

It is, after all, only Week 2 in college football of a season where BYU has lost just four times in the last two years.

"We're here to compete," Jackson said. "We're an independent school, about to go to the Big 12, but I think we have a lot of sleepers. I don't think people really look at BYU and see a team that's ready to go win every game they play. That's what we're here to do.

"We're here to shake up college football. We're sick of seeing the same four teams, and I think there's more than just us."

For one night, BYU shook up the sport — for those who stayed up late to watch the 10:15 p.m. Eastern time kickoff, at least. The Cougars showed they were here to play, and that last season's 38-24 loss in Waco, Texas, was just that — last year.

The same BYU team that was gashed for 309 yards on 47 carries gave up 152 yards on 52 carries Saturday, a 2.9 yards-per-carry average. The same Baylor team that scored in all four quarters in Waco was held to single-digit scoring or less in each frame Saturday night, including zeroes in a 3-0 first quarter.

In many ways, like it did with Wisconsin, Utah, and other teams, BYU proved that it could take lessons from a loss and flip them into strengths. The results might not be immediate, but they'd eventually come. In the last year, the Cougars have beaten champions of the Pac-12, Big 12 and Mountain West conferences.

The biggest credit in that regard was defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki, who received the game ball for his installation of a defense that held Baylor to 298 yards of offense and took advantage of a home crowd that helped produce 14 penalties for 117 yards.

"I just issued a challenge from last year's team to now, and not making excuses, but we had a bunch of guys get hurt. We needed to find ways to get healthy and get stronger," BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said. "We knew that we would have to come back different.

"I remember when we played Wisconsin in 2017, and they physically beat us up. That was a great opportunity for us to learn, and then when we played them again in a year, that was the challenge. We went up there and beat them, and matched their physicality on the field. I issued the same challenge for the guys in this game — and it happens that they were the champs, too.

"We knew they had a great team … but I feel like we competed against them. We just had a few deficiencies, and just had to make the scheme better, get depth, be aggressive; Tuiaki is good at that stuff. And on offense, we just had to stick with it."

Little was made of BYU's season-opening win over South Florida, even though the Cougars dropped 50 points on the Bulls, and Puka Nacua scored two rushing touchdowns before being sidelined in the first half with an ankle injury.

More will be made of a win over the Bears, the defending Big 12 champions who were picked to defend their title by the league's media this summer. After Chase Roberts' career-high 122 yards and a touchdown — plus the one he threw to quarterback Jaren Hall, who threw for 261 yards and a score, while standouts Nacua and Gunner Romney watched and cheered from the sidelines — BYU has shown it can win games with offense, and also with defense.

With great results come greater expectations, and the hype train won't slow down with a road game at Oregon next week, and subsequent kickoffs against Notre Dame in Las Vegas and Arkansas in Provo.

All aboard. BYU fans are.

"I think playing at home did a lot for us in this game," Jackson said. "I think the stadium being so loud really plays a part in how teams play, especially in the red zone.

"The distraction that gives them, the ROC does a good job."

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