Patrick Kinahan: BYU football plans on defying low expectations

PROVO — Outside expectations for the BYU football team's first foray into a Power Five conference could hardly get any lower.

Ahead of this week's Big 12 media days at the Dallas Cowboys' stadium, the media poll released last week slotted the Cougars to finish 11th in the 14-team conference. Translating the prediction to an actual record, don't plan on BYU playing in a bowl game for the fifth consecutive season.

Hogwash, BYU coaches and players believe. Through sets of blue goggles, they are aiming for the top.

"One of our team goals is to win a conference championship," said offensive lineman Connor Pay. "We want to be a team that can compete for a championship."

Realistically, accounting for a host of unknowns the first year, winning the conference as a Big 12 rookie seems like a longshot. But BYU is not transitioning to a Power Five conference from the Mountain West in the same manner as Utah did in 2011.

A formidable member of the Mountain West, Utah usually didn't play more than two Power Five opponents in a single season. The overall talent at that time wasn't close to the NFL level that annually now stocks coach Kyle Whittingham's roster.

Over their first four seasons in the Pac-12, the Utes finished no better than 5-4 in conference play and were a combined 14-22. Aside from two 6-3 finishes (2015 and 2018), their domination didn't begin until breaking through at 8-1 in 2019.

Playing as an independent the last 12 seasons, excluding the 2020 COVID year, BYU regularly scheduled several Power Five opponents. The highlight came in 2021 when the Cougars went 5-0 against the Pac-12, including beating eventual conference champion Utah to break a nine-game losing streak against their rivals.

Unlike with Utah, which had only a one year lead-in time, the Cougars have had two full seasons to prepare for the transition. BYU also has taken advantage of revised transfer rules, which allow incoming players to play immediately without having to sit out a season.

"This coaching staff is not going into any game just hoping to play well," said first-year defensive coordinator Jay Hill. "We're going into every game expecting to win and to play great. BYU has won 29 games the last three years and they've done it against great opponents. Are we prepared for the Big 12 — time will tell. That's our job to recruit the right way and develop the players the right way. I promise you this, no one is scared about the challenge."

Texas, led by former BYU quarterback Steve Sarkisian, is favored to win the conference in its last season before going to the Southeastern Conference. The Longhorns, who are 13-12 in Sarkisian's first two seasons, have not won a conference championship since 2009.

Defending conference champion Kansas State was picked to finish second. Texas Christian, which was undefeated in the regular season and advanced to the national championship game, came in at fifth place.

Three of the four new programs (BYU, Houston, Cincinnati, in descending order) entering the Big 12 this season were picked to finish 11th-14th. West Virginia, which was 3-6 in the Big 12 last season and 5-7, was last in the preseason poll.

"As coaches, we don't care where they pick us in the polls," Hill said. "In fact, there for a while when I was at Weber State we finished five places higher every year than they picked us to finish. Almost every year we were picked fourth or fifth in the league, and those were the years we won it. Then, the one time we're picked to win it and we didn't.

"I got the point where the polls don't mean anything. We don't use them really as motivation. It doesn't help you that particular game when you line up and the ball's kicked off."

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