Kalani Sitake said he felt relief when SMU decided to go for the two-point conversion on the final play of the game.
“I wanted to either win or lose the game right there,” BYU’s head coach would say after a 24-23 win. “I felt really good about it.”
Of course, Sitake was speaking with the added benefit of hindsight. His reaction would’ve been different had BYU not come up with the stop and SMU won the New Mexico Bowl.
But somewhere in that statement, there is at least a half-truth. Sitake did have to feel good on some level when he saw SMU first-year head coach Rhett Lashlee try to win the game rather than play for overtime. Because for BYU, the entire play set up perfectly for it to get a stop.
Even before the snap, Sitake had to smile as SMU was doing exactly what the Cougars wanted.
SMU lined up three different times on the two-point attempt. The first look it showed was four wide receivers to the left, an empty backfield and a single receiver to the right. After a first timeout, Lashlee showed the same look. Second timeout, no change.
BYU saw the same formation every try, giving it more than enough time to prepare and balance its formation. Essentially, it was ready for three options: a screen pass to the left, a quarterback draw or a pass to single-coverage on the right.
“The first timeout, [we] had the wrong formation,” Sitake said. “The second timeout, we saw the formation.”
After the game, Lashlee admitted those were the three looks. He also seemed to question whether he gave BYU too much of an advantage pre-snap.
“We could question maybe I should have called a different play and all that,” he said. “But I’d go for it again in a heartbeat because I trust these guys and believe in them. Gave them a chance to win.”
When the ball snapped, BYU got another boost when SMU didn’t play to its advantage.
Quarterback Tanner Mordecai ended up running the ball himself, but SMU tried to run in front of backup right tackle Owen Condon. He was struggling all night to make his blocks, but Lashlee still tried to run the play his way. BYU’s John Nelson quickly beat Condon, forcing Mordecai to scramble right into Jakob Robinson. It blew up the play quickly.
Robinson said Micah Harper occupied the middle to allow him to break free on Mordecai.
The decision itself to run the ball, Lashlee said, was the right one. SMU had the numbers in the middle. But it only matters if you can make the block, which Condon couldn’t make.
BYU had the advantage both before and after the play.
“They liked that they had numbers in the middle,” linebacker Ben Bywater said. “J-Rob made a huge play. You have to win your one-on-one matchup, so that is what we did.”
Decision week for Jaren Hall and Puka Nacua
Sitake has been hinting for several weeks now that quarterback Jaren Hall and wide receiver Puka Nacua are inching closer to their decisions.
Now that the season is over, that decision can’t be put off much longer. Whether they stay at BYU or enter the NFL Draft will likely be decided in the next week or two.
We have already written about Jaren Hall’s decision at length. At 25 years old in March, it doesn’t appear like much of a choice: He really should go if he wants a legitimate NFL chance.
For Nacua, there is a little more leniency. But if he doesn’t have a proven quarterback to throw to him, would it really be a good idea to come back for another year?
The way Sitake has talked about both of those players this last week seems to agree with that line of thinking, and that they are trending toward leaving the program.
Sitake mentioned offhand that Hall shouldn’t risk further injury in the bowl game because of his NFL future. Then he went out of his way to say he must protect players with Senior Bowl invites, like Nacua.
The right decision, in my opinion, is to let them head off the NFL. But we will see soon enough.
A sigh of relief
It is worth noting the feeling inside the program after the New Mexico Bowl win.
Usually it can be tough to gauge the vibe of a team so quickly after a game. This time, it was palpable. There was a ton of relief.
After a winless October, this season is not a success. But winning the last four games and going into the offseason with a win is at least something. It is enough of a reward to calm the nerves of a shaky ship this year.
“This was a tough year for our program, the faith and the love is still there,” Sitake said.
No doubt we will be dissecting the season throughout this week and looking ahead to the Big 12. But for now that is a taste of where the Cougars are at before the break.
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