BYU football players are saying 2 words they couldn’t say before: ‘National championship’

Provo • The question hovered over BYU’s program even as the wins stacked up.

How sustainable was this undefeated start really?

When the Cougars knocked off No. 13 Kansas State, it took a wild series of three turnovers in six minutes to break the game open to the point where the Wildcats were helpless.

Against Baylor, BYU had to hang on for dear life to clinch its first road win in the Big 12; the Cougars saw a 24-point lead evaporate and needed a game-saving interception before it was all over.

Anyone would take a 5-0 start — creating your own luck is a skill. But BYU assistant coach Kelly Poppinga said what most were thinking.

“I think people think we’ve played a lot better than we really did,” he said after the win over Kansas State. “The ball bounced our way every single time.”

And then came Saturday. BYU not only dismantled Arizona in a 41-19 win to get to 6-0, but it put all those sustainability questions to rest. It didn’t need fluke turnovers, or a game-saving play. It didn’t even need one outstanding performance.

Instead, BYU methodically put up 398 yards of offense, forced four turnovers and had the game so in hand that its final pick-six was just icing on the cake.

And it has this team dreaming of something that was almost unfathomable to start the year.

“It’s cool [to be 6-0]. But a bowl game isn’t what we want,” wide receiver Parker Kingston said. “We want to go to the playoff and a national championship. I think that’s what we are looking for. Not really settling on a bowl game this year.”

Added Jakob Robinson: “I just want to get to a national championship. Definitely my thoughts.”

All of a sudden, a playoff bid looks possible for this group.

The importance of LJ Martin’s return

BYU has shored up the holes that existed even a couple of weeks ago.

The Cougars have added back running back LJ Martin after a month away. And with him, BYU’s offense turned into the true run-pass threat that offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick talks so much about. Martin accounted for 98 total yards and two touchdowns. BYU ran the ball for 147 yards with his help.

But more than anything, Martin alleviates the pressure on quarterback Jake Retzlaff to convert long third downs and be the sole heartbeat of this offense.

Martin’s ability to turn a 3-yard run into 5 yards, or a 5-yard run into 7, makes it much easier to sustain drives. And BYU reaped the benefits.

It had a 99-yard scoring drive that gave the Cougars a 14-7 lead. It added multiple, 10-play drives to help get points. It was punctuated by Martin’s final touchdown in the fourth quarter to formally put the game on ice.

Last year, those long drives would have been nearly impossible. Even a few weeks ago, that might have been hard. BYU needed big plays to move the ball. With Martin in the mix, it gives BYU a different ceiling offensively.

“Converting on third downs, that is the biggest part of a scoring drive,” Kingston said, knowing BYU was only hitting on 30% of its third downs coming into the weekend.

Plus, it’s a nice bonus to win games handily when Retzlaff only throws for 218 yards. He doesn’t need to throw for 300 yards anymore like he did at Wyoming in Week 3.

“Yeah of course,” Sitake said when asked if Martin alleviated some pressure on Retzlaff. “I think you get some positive runs and even if guys aren’t blocked, he still finds ways. Create runs and make people miss. It is just good to have him back.”

Jay Hill’s defense shines again

But it’s not just Martin that changed how this team should be looked at. It is how the defense played too.

Arizona came in with arguably two of the best players in the conference: quarterback Noah Fifita and wideout Tetairoa McMillan.

And the Cougars generated turnovers and pressures. It wasn’t the fluky kind either, as it was against Kansas State. Maybe the games some similarities, with back-to-back turnovers to start the second half with a Robinson interception and then an Isaiah Glasker forced fumble.

But for the most part, BYU was forcing turnover-worthy plays throughout the night. It ended with four turnovers, but it could have been six. Marc Collins dropped an interception and BYU could have had one more.

“We got four turnovers. But Jay [Hill] was talking about the fifth and sixth,” Sitake said.

It led BYU to only allow 19 points and give up 78 yards to McMillan. Fifita finished 26-of-52 for 275 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions.

Is that according to the game plan? “I believe so,” Glasker said.

BYU’s defense could have been better too. It kept pressuring Fifita but never got a sack.

“I don’t know how many sacks we got but I know how many we missed,” Sitake said. “It wasn’t perfect, but man it was good enough for us to get the win.”

And that, right there, is why this win has people changing people’s minds.

BYU didn’t need its best or its craziest. It didn’t need one player or one unit. It won on balance and looked like it could replicate it several more times.

It led Retzlaff to give just a glimpse into his true thoughts about this team.

“We are only 14 in the country. We are better than that,” he said.

It might be time to start believing him. BYU could ride this model deep in December.