No. 16 BYU may be 4-1, but complete game still elusive with Notre Dame on deck

PROVO — As No. 16 BYU approaches the midway point of the 2022 college football season, the Cougars find themselves at 4-1 and ranked inside the top 20 of the Associated Press Top 25 for four-straight weeks.

A win is a win, but it's hardly been pretty at times.

Still searching for a complete game, head coach Kalani Sitake specifically said that's what he hoped to accomplish in the final scheduled matchup with in-state rival Utah State. But in the 38-26 win over the Aggies to retain the Wagon Wheel victory trophy for a third consecutive season, BYU was hardly clean.

It's the Cougars' first 4-1 start to the season since 2014, but hardly perfect. Nearly half of teams ranked in the AP Top 25 (10) lost last week, so there's something to be said about winning clunkers or surviving and advancing each week save Week 3 in Eugene, Oregon.

But there was plenty to clean up as the team took advantage of two extra days of practice during general conference weekend to prepare for Week 6.

The Cougars rushed backward for nearly 30 yards in the first half before Miles Davis re-routed the running backs, and Christopher Brooks finished with 90 yards and his fourth touchdown of the year.

BYU also finished with 10 penalties for 82 yards, and trailed the Aggies in total plays 81-60.

"We could definitely play better ourselves," BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. " We just made a lot of mistakes and undisciplined play, just little things that we can fix. I didn't like that. Last week, I talked about us not playing clean, and then the same thing happened again.

"That's my job, to demand better from our guys."

Many of the penalties were unnecessary, too, like Tyler Batty's early flag for shoving off a Utah State player into the ground after a tackle or Max Tooley throwing a shoe along with his electric interception return for a touchdown (seriously, Max, who throws a shoe? Honestly).

The issues, too, don't require a magic spray or mysterical solution. It all goes back to the basics, Tooley said.

"It's a lot of the fundamentals," the Bountiful High product added. "Just the basic things like wrapping up and tackling, myself included. I left way too many plays out on the field today. I'm not really satisfied, to be honest. I feel like staying focused all week is something we really need to focus on, just staying locked and dialed in with our technique and fundamentals."

The one constant, of course, has been Jaren Hall. The redshirt-junior quarterback from Spanish Fork threw for 274 yards Thursday night, increasing his season total to 1,438 yards on 120-of-171 passing with 12 touchdowns and just one interception.

Hall has thrown three or more touchdown passes in back-to-back games, and has three-plus scores for the third time this season. He's also doing it with a revolving cast of characters, with top targets Puka Nacua and Gunner Romney missing most of the first five games of the season and Chase Roberts out for back-to-back contests with an injury.

Romney, who suffered a lacerated kidney in mid-August during training camp, made his season debut with four receptions for 51 yards, including a 34-yard gain on the Cougars' first offensive play from scrimmage.

But after Roberts led BYU in receiving yards for each of the first three games of the season, Keanu Hill (16 catches, 329 yards, 4 TD) took the title against Wyoming and Kody Epps (21 catches, 198 yards, 3 TD) handled it a few days later against Utah State.

"Our receiving core is super deep," Romney said. "Even with Puka and I missing the majority of the year so far, Kody, Brayden Cosper, Keanu Hill and Chase Roberts have all stepped up huge. I think the depth we have at the tight end position and the receiver position, as well as Jaren being an unreal quarterback, he looks super comfortable back there.

"He's just slinging the rock right now. Our passing game has been really fun, and I'm glad to be part of it now."

If the Cougars haven't played a full game yet, are they at least getting better?

"We're improving every week," Epps said. "Coach Kalani always talks about love and learning, so that's our mantra. That's what we live by, and that's what we follow. So every week, we're trying to love better, we're trying to learn better, we're trying to progress in that aspect of life and on the football field, of course, so our growth is going to be continuous."

As is the case in most cliched circumstances, the next game could be the toughest. BYU faces Notre Dame at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Saturday (5:30 p.m. MDT, NBC), but the Fighting Irish aren't what they traditionally have been (or even were last year).

A year after finishing 11-2 and as high as No. 8 in the AP Top 25 with a Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State, the Irish have struggled in Marcus Freeman's debut as an FBS head coach, opening the season 2-2 that include a 26-21 home loss to Marshall and a narrow 24-17 win over Cal.

Notre Dame's average scoring dropped 15 points through three games, from 33.3 to 18.3 points per game that represents the seventh-worst FBS year-of-year drop from 2021 to 2022. An injury to starting quarterback Tyler Buchner didn't help, though Drew Pyne completed 24-of-34 passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns in relief of a 45-32 win over North Carolina.

That brings the Irish to Las Vegas for the Shamrock Series sendoff to BYU's independence.

"They're always tough," Tooley said. "We haven't really looked too much into them; we were focused on Utah State all the way this week.

"But they're a tough team. They're always one of the best in the country, regardless of what people may say. We know they're going to come to play. They're going to be physical. It's going to be a big game."

Whether 4-0 or 2-2, Notre Dame is still Notre Dame — at least, from BYU's vantage.

"The team is amazing," Epps said. "Notre Dame is traditionally a great team, and we have an amazing team going into Vegas too, so it's going to be pretty sick.

"I think the story is going to be epic for years to come."

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