BYU head coach Kalani Sitake spent all offseason telling his quarterback to protect the football.

Jake Retzlaff’s crippling mistakes in his four starts a year ago — including a 99-yard pick-six to lose the game against Oklahoma — were defining moments of the Cougars’ first Big 12 campaign.

And after a prolonged quarterback battle this offseason, Retzlaff won back the job by showcasing better decision-making in camp.

But in his second start this year, Retzlaff accounted for three more turnovers against SMU. BYU was able to escape with an ugly 18-15 win, but Sitake was upset with his starting QB. Retzlaff now has four lost fumbles and five interceptions in his six starts. And his coach knows BYU won’t be able to survive too many more multi-turnover nights.

“There’s no one-off [turnovers]. Take care of the stinking football,” Sitake said on Monday. “That’s what it comes down to. I’ve said it over and over and over again. I don’t want guys to have to play tight and feel like they can’t take a chance. But that football belongs to everybody.

“It’s not just one player’s. It’s not his ball. It belongs to all of us. And so they need to start thinking about it more like that.”

Two of Retzlaff’s turnovers were plays he should have avoided. On his first mistake, Retzlaff was running around in the backfield after a handoff miscue. He didn’t protect the ball and it was poked out by SMU lineman Elijah Roberts.

On the second turnover, Retzlaff would have been sacked. As he was wrapped up, he decided to throw the ball late into no-man’s land. Instead, it was intercepted and gifted SMU great field position.

“We can deal with the sack, that’s OK. Like that can happen,” Sitake said. “... You can overcome it, but you can’t just keep thinking that [turnovers are] going to be taken care of by itself magically. That’s always been our emphasis, and we’re going to still keep doing that. But it needs to improve.”

The final pick of Retzlaff’s night wasn’t all his fault. He was deep in the pocket, trying to dump it off to the running back. He didn’t see an SMU defender falling on the ground. As he threw the ball, the defender shot up and picked off the pass.

Sitake agreed that was not on him.

“A guy might fall down and stand up and catch the ball. And then we’ll respond,” he said. “... We didn’t make a good enough improvement, in my opinion, from week one to week two. Now we need to make it up from week two to week three.”

Two running backs down

Can BYU get a run game going to help Retzlaff? It might not be as easy as you think this week.

Sitake said both of his top running backs, LJ Martin and Hinckley Ropati, are doubtful against Wyoming. It means that Enoch Nawahine and Miles Davis will take the bulk of the carries.

Don’t rule out seeing freshman Pokaiaua Haunga either. He impressed during fall camp. He hasn’t played during the first two weeks — as BYU tries to redshirt him. But now burning one of his four games is an inevitability.

“The question is whether or not to redshirt people. And I think, right now, I’m not worried about that,” Sitake said. “He’s going to be full go. He’s going to play. And we’ll just move on with that. You get four games for a reason, so we might as well make sure to use this one.”

An odd trip to Wyoming

BYU is making a rather rare trip to Laramie — a Group of Five home site. Even Wyoming’s coaching staff was surprised BYU didn’t buy out this game.

But it renews a longstanding rivalry for the Cougars. After Utah and Utah State, BYU has played Wyoming the third-most times in program history.

Even at 0-2 this year, the familiarity should give Wyoming a chance against BYU. Plus, the Cowboys have a history of knocking off Power Four teams at home. Look at Texas Tech last year.

“If you ask me, personally, I know because I played in that game,” Sitake said, noting he played in Laramie as a fullback at BYU. “We see the film. We know the situation that they’re stuck in right now, that they’re going through some adversity. But that’s when you’re going to get their best.”