Provo • There was a point sometime last season when BYU’s defensive line went into lockdown mode.
They felt they were underachieving, allowing 156 rushing yards a game, and they were feeling the pressure from it. So the group pulled out all the football cliches to alleviate the stress. They stopped looking at social media and tuned out voices from critics. All that mattered, as the saying goes, were the voices inside the locker room.
And for a little while, their plan worked. But eventually, the negative media attention leaked into the locker room. When the coaching staff addressed the line down the stretch of the year, they made a point of letting them know what was being said and how the run defense contributed to BYU’s losses.
Even now, three months later, Cougar head coach Kalani Sitake won’t sugarcoat things.
“Keep egging them on,” Sitake told reporters this week. “Sometimes they will listen to that more than me. I’m not going to lie to them. They know a lot of people are questioning them. They need to stuff the run and get some sacks.”
There was a method to this madness for Sitake last season. He understood there were no reinforcements coming. Allowing the young group to shy away from the pressure would infer there was a way out.
As spring practice rolls around, the group is in a similar situation. BYU did not bring in any transfers to the defensive line. So if the Cougars are going to get better, they will again have to step into the moment rather than shy away from it.
“We have no excuses,” said Gabe Summers, a starter on the defensive line. “Everyone is coming back. Everyone has played. Everyone has contributed. … What Kalani says is what we want to do. We know we can improve.”
BYU’s defense had a number of holes last season. The secondary was spotty. The depth could be questioned. But the defensive line was the biggest question mark among them.
The unit allowed over 2,000 rushing yards and nearly 5 yards per carry. It ranked within the bottom 100 nationally, alongside Boston College, which went 2-6 in the ACC. And because the defensive line had trouble stopping the run, it led to few sacks in obvious passing situations. In sum, the defense allowed nearly 400 yards a game and an average of 24 points.
Some of the issues can be attributed to youth. The group only had one senior, Uriah Leiataua, who went in and out of the starting rotation. The rest were mostly freshmen or first-year starters.
This year, the group will have more experience but still no seniors. And the program hasn’t brought in any transfers to supplement the youth, something defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki is closely monitoring.
“That’s an ongoing conversation,” Tuiaki said. “After spring ball we will have that conversation again. With the transfer portal now, we can have guys that join us after spring ball. Going into summer training, [if we feel like] we are going to need another guy, we will go and look.”
But for now, the linemen have committed themselves to changing their bodies. Josh Larsen, a freshman on the defensive line, is over 300 pounds after being at 260 pounds last year. Sitake says the entire defensive line gained weight.
This spring, the emphasis will be on having the defensive line get as many reps as possible against BYU’s experienced offensive line. While it is not game reps, it is the only way to get the group ready. If they want to accept the challenge, it has to start there.
“The entire defensive line group wants to prove something,” Sitake said. “The fact that they got in the weight room and got stronger shows our guys have a different mindset this year than year’s past.”
