BYU coach Kalani Sitake isn’t panicking about the Cougars’ offensive struggles yet

Provo • When Kalani Sitake walked into his locker room on Saturday night, he felt the need to recalibrate.

He looked around and saw an offense that was angry. He saw a quarterback who was frustrated. Yet, he felt it wasn’t the time to be this mad — not this early in the season.

“I think we had too many long faces,” Sitake said. “Obviously they didn’t feel like we played our best. That is OK. We’ll fix it. ... It is like, ‘It’s OK guys, we got to smile. We got the win.’”

Sitake’s first game as a Big 12 coach presented him with an unexpected challenge. For the last year, it has been the defense that’s haunted him. He had to fire his close friend, former coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki, to fix it.

And just when his defense pitched the first shutout of his tenure, his offense went awry in a 14-0 opening day victory against Sam Houston. It was the fewest points BYU’s scored in a win since 2012 (a 6-3 victory over Utah State).

But faced with his first issue as a Power Five coach, Sitake insisted the right play was to calm the waters — even if he knew it was a problem.

“It is humbling in some ways,” Sitake said. “You can’t just show up and think that guys are just going to give you plays and give you points. Humbling a little bit for our players, especially on the offensive side. But we will get better and make sure we will show up next week.”

BYU’s offense was shockingly bad at times on Saturday night. After a smooth opening drive that resulted in a touchdown, the unit averaged just 2.5 yards per play the rest of the first half. BYU only crossed midfield once after the first quarter.

By the time the intermission hit, the Cougars were two-of-eight on third down and had more incomplete passes (nine) than first downs (six).

Some of that was to be expected. The offense was starting seven new transfers. Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick warned they needed more time to work on the execution.

But still, this was the unit supposed to anchor BYU’s hopes of a successful first Big 12 season. And there were concerns that went beyond simple execution.

For one, BYU’s offensive line couldn’t establish any sort of rushing attack through three quarters.

Playing against Sam Houston, BYU’s line was bigger across the board. Yet, starting running back Aidan Robbins finished with 23 yards on seven carries. Deion Smith had three carries for negative yards. It wasn’t until freshman LJ Martin came in that a rushing attack finally stirred to life.

“I don’t want to blame it on the running backs because it wasn’t like everything was blocked up really nicely to begin with,” Sitake admitted. “We really pride ourselves on having big, physical offensive linemen. And it just wasn’t good enough from them at the line of scrimmage. We got to play way better. More as a unit.”

Beyond the linemen, the offense lacked any sort of rhythm. It had just two explosive plays — any pass play more than 15 yards. Both of those completions came in the first quarter.

Quarterback Kedon Slovis finished with 20-of-33 passing for a pedestrian 145 yards. The last time he had fewer than 140 yards passing was back in 2021 when he was still at USC.

Part of it, Sitake said, can be put on the play calling. BYU had five third-and-long situations. Its average third-down distance was 7.4 yards. It is tough to convert consistently that way. Unsurprisingly, BYU went 5-of-17 on third downs throughout the night.

BYU was in as many third-and-long situations as third-and-short situations.

“The rhythm has got to be established by the play caller,” Sitake said. “By the offensive staff and the players on the field.”

But another part of it was the general sloppiness. BYU had three first downs called back because of penalties. Two of those came on third down.

When it opened up the second half, the offense had to call a timeout before running a play because it couldn’t get set. Multiple times the play call didn’t get in fast enough. On a third down-and-five in the second quarter, BYU took a delay of game penalty and had to punt.

“We just have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot,” Sitake said. “Getting more momentum on plays and trying to find more urgency to get lined up and play. We had late calls and had to take timeouts. That is a momentum killer. That is stuff we can fix. I got to be better at demanding that from our offense.”

And there was a part of Saturday where Sitake felt the offense was doing too much. That included Slovis, who Sitake said didn’t always take the checkdown was it was available.

On third down, Slovis often went to tight end Isaac Rex. It wasn’t always there. He threw it to Rex six times in those third-down situations. He finished 5-of-10 on third down for 41 yards.

“Sometimes you can force the throw maybe a little bit more than what is there,” Sitake said. “We have had performances where maybe quarterbacks make better decisions. I know A-Rod will get it fixed. I know Kedon has a lot of ability. He is hard on himself. There are guys who are really upset with how they performed.

“... I think we had some 50/50 balls that were up there. Sometimes we could have taken a little bit of a conservative route on a check down that let our guys make plays.”

Slovis said he wasn’t pressing but said: “You’ve got to let the game come to you. Most of it came down to execution. There were a lot of third downs we actually converted and it would get called back because of penalty.”

Sitake has had different problems like this come up before. He spent the offseason making sure he, and his team, were more prepared for adversity after last season’s issues.

So this early on in his Big 12 tenure, Sitake is choosing not to sound the alarm. He will see how it plays out.

“We have had [good offense],” he said. “For some reason, it didn’t show up tonight. Disappointed by that. But I have seen it before, so it is not like I am just making stuff up. So let’s just get it back. ... It is really nice that you can win games and everyone is disappointed about it.”