Provo • Kalani Sitake said it before the fact as the Baylor Bears came calling at LaVell’s Place on Saturday night and nothing that happened during the fact and after the fact could make it less … factual.
BYU is a damn good football team.
But Sitake’s search for truth here ran deeper than just that, barreling straight to … how good?
For him, it was all comparative.
He sought a fact-on-fact factoring, an accurate assessment, and what came about, in his mind, was a glorious thing, a “happy” measure played out on the field — in regulation and through two difficult overtimes. And at the end, the gauge that mattered most shined bright into a dark sky from the scoreboard, across an after-party, a human hurricane, sweeping from the stands onto the stadium’s expanse of green: BYU 26, Baylor 20.
Sitake forthrightly said in the run-up that this game would be a meter and a measure for the Cougars, indicating not only their preparedness for next year’s ascension to the Big 12, but also how they stack up against the Bears, who happen to be the best team in that conference, last year and likely this season.
There was another scaled calculation, as well: BYU measuring itself now against itself from a year ago, when it stumbled into the business end of a Baylor beatdown, back when the Bears ran over and through the Cougars’ defensive front, in addition to throwing over it, rolling for a gazillion yards.
Some wise sage once said, “You don’t have to be well to get well.”
BYU hoped that was a fact, too.
Turns out, the Cougars, though imperfect, already were decently well, now they’re whatever is better than decently well.
Are they good enough, Sitake was asked in the postgame, to win the Big 12 championship right now, before they even get there?
His answer: “We’re good enough tonight to beat Baylor.”
So they were/are.
Displaying notable Improvement over their showing last season in Waco, reaching now for a level in a league a few branches up from independence, BYU was the equal of the defending conference champions and more.
“The team kept believing they could get it done,” Sitake said.
“Never a doubt,” said offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick. “There was never a doubt.”
There had to be a few.
Like when BYU blew a fistful of opportunities on single plays to grab victory by the throat — at regulation’s end and into overtime — via such things as missed pitching-wedge, green-side field goals and allowing Baylor to convert on critical fourth downs.
Overcoming all of that and firing through to the finish, though, seemed to satisfy Sitake all the more.
“I just wanted to see improvement in our team, from everybody, and I saw it,” he said.
What the coach saw was a couple of evenly-matched fighters trading jabs, hooks and uppercuts, and absorbing blows, too.
BYU went up 3-zip early, and what transpired thereafter was the football equivalent of two drivers repeatedly steering their respective Buicks and Fords into a brick wall. A field goal managed here, a touchdown there, another touchdown, a couple more field goals, and repeated requirements of more and more resolve.
The offensive highlight of the night came from BYU, when late in the third quarter, Jaren Hall threw the ball to receiver Chase Roberts, who then threw a pass back to Hall, who scampered 22 yards for a touchdown. Other than that, this was football Bo Schembechler would have loved.
Defense won most of the night, with a prevalence of big hits, gang tackles and three-and-outs. When drives were sustained, it was only temporarily. Both teams tried to run the ball, and in so doing, it appeared, as mentioned, as though they might set offensive football back half-a-century. It was mostly one yard and a cloud of punts.
And yet, in the midst of futile attempts to grind out yardage on the ground, the game’s primal Cro-Magnon essence was fun to watch.
“We weren’t going to give up on it,” Sitake said.
All told, BYU gained a mere 83 rushing yards. Baylor got 152. Total yards went like this: BYU 366, Baylor 289. First downs: BYU 26, Baylor 20. Bruises and bloody noses: BYU 100, Baylor 100. Signs of respect: equal.
It was that physical, that intense, that close.
There were plenty of goof-ups, too — false starts, holding calls, penalties of all sorts committed by both teams.
But Sitake considered what he witnessed a blessed sight.
“Tons of fun,” he called it.
“I’m really proud of our defense,” he said, but he added this bit of praise for the Bears: “They’re so physical. You can’t beat them up.”
But the Cougars could beat them.
And they did, the new guys bettering the established ones.
It’s been compelling to watch as Sitake has loaded newfound and steady determination into BYU football. “That’s what he does,” Roderick said. “That’s how he coaches.”
It’s taken time, with hard lessons learned, en route. That .500 record over the first few years showed moments of delight and of desperation, featuring highs and lows, before the recent past in which the Cougars rolled up a 22-4 mark. Outside of last year’s bowl fiasco, an embarrassing loss to UAB, their recent climb has been mostly rock-sure, rocksteady.
Indeed, increments of growth in the program are plain for anyone to see, not only counted by wins and losses, but by the brand of football the Cougars play, their pursuit of leathery toughness, their willingness and ability to push forward in whatever manner is necessary. If BYU once had a reputation of both glee and guilt for being cute and fanciful by sending spirals all over the field, outscoring everyone, that’s not the way the Cougars go at it now.
Not the only way. They don’t have to play like that. On account of that, there’s a sense of authenticity to what they do. Despite their struggles to run the ball against Baylor, and that shortcoming needs to get better, they stirred in a jarring mix of mental strength, rugged resistance, sweet coverages, brutish tackling and just enough aerial efficiency to win, even with their best receiver and key offensive weapon — Puka Nacua — out with injury.
All of which made Sitake’s comparison comments for this particular occasion and the reason for making them all the more apropos. Despite remaining deficiencies, if BYU has the wherewithal to beat Baylor, who can’t they beat on their schedule? How good are the Cougars, how authentic are they?
Making progress is one thing, wholly mastering the mix of sophisticated ball and Neanderthal ball is another. But make no misjudgment, these Cougars are damn good. Echoing Sitake’s answer: Good and authentic enough to beat the ninth-ranked Bears.
On Saturday night that was real enough.
