It’d be easy to say fortune finally betrayed BYU on Saturday night, that after so many embraces, so much good loving from Lady Luck all season long, straight through to being 9-0, the Cougars were left heartbroken, weeping, jilted and scorned.
But no, it was BYU — nothing or nobody else — that betrayed the Cougars against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium, resulting in a 17-13 loss, a defeat the Cougars earned by way of their own mistakes, errors that confirmed what so many had suspected: Namely, that BYU isn’t as good as its record had suggested.
In that way, the Cougars were fighting two battles against the Jayhawks on this occasion, and while one might have been sufficient to take care of the other … well, maybe not.
First and foremost, they had to beat the Jayhawks. No duh. Second, they had to outperform them enough to gain what that unbeaten mark had yet to give them, at least not to the measure they sought: respect.
As it turned out, here they got neither. They got kicked in the kneecaps, they got defeat and the doubt that comes alongside it, doubt on the inside and outside, too, from themselves and from all those who had thought them to be something of a mirage.
Operating still in the shade, then, of last-minute, come-from-behind wins over two bottom-feeders — Oklahoma State and Utah — in a league that seems to have settled into a second-rate competitive status relative to the SEC and the Big Ten, BYU couldn’t find a way on its own field to beat a Kansas team that had a losing record and that might not even qualify to play in a no-name bowl game. Those who had said the Jayhawks were the best 3-6 team in the country … come on, man.
In the run-up, outwardly, the Cougars seemed convinced of their own eminence, even after those tight wins of the past. But Saturday night, they had their problems, some of them produced by the Jayhawks, some of them conjured from their own ineptitude.
Kansas’ initial possession was about as easy as football possessions come, a mix of passes and runs that made BYU’s defense look slow and vulnerable. It helped the home team not at all that it had only 10 players on the field when Kansas scored its initial TD. Moreover, the Cougars traditionally, if not this season, have struggled against mobile quarterbacks who can spin it, too. Kansas QB Jalon Daniels presented that challenge, but he presented another one, as well — a pooch punt that altered the game’s outcome. More on that in a few paragraphs.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kansas Jayhawks wide receiver Lawrence Arnold (2) reaches for a pass as Brigham Young Cougars cornerback Mory Bamba (4) defends during the game against the Kansas Jayhawks in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
BYU’s first TD came in the second quarter, overcoming a 7-3 deficit. It was apparent that the Cougars could move the ball on the ground and through the air, and Jake Retzlaff’s 30-yard throw to Hinckley Ropati made in 10-7. An adjacent matter: Could they stop or slow the Jayhawks’ attack? That meant containing Daniels and running back Devin Neal.
All told, the Jayhawks threw for just 169 yards and ran for 73, Neal becoming Kansas’ all-time leading rusher en route.
BYU, conversely, passed for 192 yards and ran for 162. It rolled up 23 first downs against just 13 for Kansas.
The Cougars, though, made key mistakes, both players and coaches. An example came in the last minute of the first half when BYU flew down the field with a chance to go up, 17-10. The Cougars easily could have run the ball for a touchdown. The offensive front had been grading road, and two timeouts remained. Instead, from in close, a boneheaded fade pass was called — does that play ever work? — and Retzlaff foolishly blooped a pick in the end zone that killed that opportunity, settling the count at the half at 10 points apiece.
Had BYU not blown off its own toes multiple times throughout, including turnovers, that score might have stayed comfortably to its advantage. Either way, the final two quarters would settle the contest.
By that time, for BYU, impressing anyone no longer mattered. This game was all about survival, about squeaking out a win, be it gorgeous or grotesque.
As mentioned, the Cougars could move the ball, sometimes with ease, if they got their act together. But they didn’t, not often enough.
They consumed most of the third quarter on one drive, a move down field that ended in a field goal, and an edge that didn’t hold up. That drive was stymied, in part, with additional curious play-calling, the Cougars seemingly inattentive to what was almost sure to work and what muddled sure things. At times, they passed when they should have run, and ran when they should have passed.
Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick is a smart man who’s likely forgotten more about football than most of us ever knew, but his decisions, at least from this corner, appeared somewhat befuddling.
In a game where the margin for error was slim, BYU’s defense committed a few goofs, too, including blown midrange coverages that extended drives. The worst of it came at the 13:23 mark of the fourth quarter, when Daniels pooched that aforementioned punt on fourth-and-14. The kick ricocheted off defensive back Evan Johnson, who had turned his head in coverage, making the ball loose and live. Cornerback Jakob Robinson jumped at the ball but couldn’t gather it in. All of which enabled the Jayhawks to pounce on it, taking control near the Cougars’ goal line. A touchdown followed, giving Kansas its four-point lead.
So it was that fortune … oops, no, the Cougars themselves dealt a dirty hand to what might have been an unblemished regular season. Tough, tough moment.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brigham Young Cougars running back Hinckley Ropati (7) runs the ball during the game against the Kansas Jayhawks in Provo on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.
What was left in the remaining time required a double-barreled effort by BYU — a stop by the defense and a touchdown by the offense. The stop came with five minutes left, the touchdown? Well, that could have come after a Retzlaff pass to Chase Roberts, a Keelan Marion run, a pass to Roberts, an LJ Martin run, a Ropati run, a Martin run, a Ropati run, a Ropati run, and finally, on fourth-and-11, a Retzlaff pass to Roberts on a puzzling route that had the receiver a couple yards short of the line to gain, a mere seven yards from the goal line.
And like that, BYU’s quest for perfection, and the respect that might have come with it, was ended. And it wasn’t Lady Luck’s fault. There was nobody and nothing to blame but the Cougars themselves.
