How about a little basketball news mixed into the first week of fall?

Since head coach Kevin Young took over BYU’s program, he’s had a knack for stealing news cycles typically owned by football.

And last Saturday was no different when Young rolled up to the Cougars’ Big 12 opener with a special guest.

Former ESPN NBA insider, and famed basketball journalist, Adrian Wojnarowski showed up with BYU’s new coach. It was Wojnarowski’s first major appearance since he unexpectedly stepped down from his post at ESPN last week.

Wojnarowski was wearing his new employer’s shirt, St. Bonaventure, where he will be the general manager of the basketball team moving forward.

Along with Young, Wojnarowski was greeted by Utah Jazz owner, and BYU alum, Ryan Smith and Jazz head coach Will Hardy.

BYU basketball player Egor Demin paid respects to the man who broke his commitment to the Cougars.

On a night full of unexpected moments, this one deserves consideration as the most shocking.

Now, back to football.

The Big Thing

If you were skeptical that BYU would be able to run the ball last week, you wouldn’t be alone.

The Cougars were down two of their top running backs, LJ Martin and Hinckley Ropati. The rest of the room wasn’t exactly inspiring confidence. Miles Davis had his moments against Wyoming, but largely looked a step slow in his eight-carry, 15-yard performance. Who was going to help quarterback Jake Retzlaff out against Kansas State?

The answer came from an unorthodox playmaker: Sione I Moa.

You might remember him vaguely from fall camp. He was one of the standout freshmen along with Pokaiaua Haunga. But even he didn’t expect to get the start against Kansas State.

“I was pretty surprised I got all of these reps,” he said.

He made the most of them.

Moa ripped off 76 yards on 15 carries. He only played 18 snaps. He finished Kansas State off with a 21-yard touchdown run where he bounced off of four would-be tacklers. It was the best individual performance by a running back since Martin entered the fold last year.

And I have to think, the running back hierarchy was reordered after that. Martin is still BYU’s best player in the room when healthy, but Moa is shooting up the depth chart.

That is significant for the future, where the running back room now has a stable of core players for several years. Harvey Unga has Martin, Moa and Haunga who look like the future well into 2027.

The good part about Moa, similar to Martin, is he can make plays happen when there isn’t much there. The beauty of Martin is he can take a 3-yard gain and push it to 5 to 7 yards breaking tackles. It makes life infinitely easier for the offense to operate.

Well, take a look at Moa last Saturday.

Of his 74 yards, 65 of them came after contact. 59% of them occurred on breakaways. If BYU wants a more dynamic attack, you need players like that. If BYU wants more manageable third downs, that works, too.

Moa churned out four first downs and two 15-yard plus carries. BYU’s offense has desperately needed to be more explosive on the ground. He gave it to them.

All of a sudden, the offense looked like it got its identity back which was lacking in 2023. Retzlaff was under less pressure to make plays. Moa should be credited with a big part in that.

Question of the week

Does last week’s win make you think BYU will be in the Big 12 race deep into the season?

Fourth down

1. Jack Kelly notes

BYU’s linebacker deserves some praise here. It’s more than just the forced fumble that led to Tommy Prassas’ 30-yard touchdown. Kelly has developed into Jay Hill’s most reliable player maker on this team.

He gets after the quarterback, already recording multiple sacks. His play speed might be among the fastest in the conference.

And that is very much needed for this defense. We already went over how BYU’s defensive line has struggled at actually recording sacks. The pressure needed to come from the linebackers, and Kelly has provided the answer. He gave this unit another element to account for — something that was lacking last year.

Only question is, how many more players can Hill bring over from Weber State? This is the second year that Hill’s best player was a former Weber man, after Eddie Heckard last season.

2. Jay Hill defense

Speaking of the defense, Saturday night was the vision for Hill’s unit in the Big 12. Three turnovers, all in succession, that busted open the game.

Hill sold head coach Kalani Sitake on creating a unit that could always have BYU in games in the Big 12. Now, they are the reason the Cougars are winning games. Last week was the most complete performance of the Hill era. They need more of it to stay in the Big 12 hunt.

3. Retzlaff looks good

We talked about the Retzlaff experience at length last week. Well, he played a completely clean game against Kansas State.

Granted, not a ton was asked of him when he was working with such short fields. But that might be a good recipe for BYU. Help Retzlaff out enough to where he doesn’t have to put BYU’s world on his shoulders. It is all about the fine line between risk and reward.

4. Special teams

Special teams coordinator Kelly Poppinga came in at the same time as Hill. And he is now running a unit that is functioning at a similarly high level.

Parker Kingston’s 90-yard return to the house was one of the more improbable plays of the year. Last week, Keelan Marion took a 100-yard kick return for a touchdown.

It’s not like BYU’s special teams unit is flawless — Kingston shouldn’t have even returned that kick — but it has broken games open for the Cougars. Sitake’s two hires are both paying off.

Up next

BYU at Baylor

Kickoff: Saturday, 10 a.m. MT

TV: FS1

- That’s it from me, talk to you after Waco