POSTCAST: Kalani Sitake & BYU Football Get ELITE Defensive Play to Down SMU | BYU Cougars Podcast

the old adage is a win is a win is a win but in this circumstance is really anybody happy about BYU's victory over SMU unless you play on the BYU defense well let's talk about it on postcast you are locked on cougars your daily podcast on the BYU Cougars part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what's up everybody I'm Jake hatch your host here on lockon cougars resident BYU Insider thank you for making lockon cougars your first View and or listen of the day and thank you to all of you once again who are every dayers with us right here on your original daily podcast focused on the BYU cougar this is a special edition we doing that after BYU games we call them postcast as we look back on the wins losses and everything in between for BYU football and BYU basketball and as it stands the BYU Cougars are 2- 0 on the season by virtue of an 18- 15 victory over the SMU Mustangs did I Envision that score line going into this game absolutely not did I Envision it being a close game sure but it came about in the most crazy of ways so we're g to start off by talking about the positives to take away from this game I just named one of them your BYU Cougars are two and 0 do not lose sight of that fact everybody I know that there's frustration around this team especially after that game but might I remind you BYU's 2- 0 they're undefeated they are onethird of the way to Bull eligibility yes that is indeed the case they are onethird of the way there the other situation I liked in this game is how legit is BYU's defense the Jay Hill effect on BYU is in full effect to use that play on words he has got this team maybe not the team he's got the defense believing that they can do anything this is an explosive SMU team that they limited to 200 count 261 yards total in this game some of the top weapons that I was concerned with going into this game RJ Maryland the explosive tight end for SMU what did he have one reception two yards brashard Smith Their Speedster explosive running back that I was concerned could gash b w he ended up is at 74 yards 75 yards on 14 carries 5.4 yards per carry healthy average but 75 yards you live with that Jay Hills defense absolutely bailed and I mean bailed BYU's offense out in this game they limited SMU to five field goals they limited SMU to just six points if I'm not mistaken on their Red Zone possessions they did everything within their power outside of one thing scoring a touchdown of their own to get BYU this Victory what an impressive display it was from this BYU defense everybody across the board board from Tanner wall at free safety all the way to John Nelson and Blake mangelson at defensive tackle and everybody else out there on the field in between that all of them had a role to play in this I was extremely impressed with the way they went about things Kevin Jennings a fleet footed quarterback remember just last week DJ WIlliams from Southern Illinois carved up this BYU defense for 121 rushing yards well BYU learned from that Kevin Jennings after some early success ends up getting baled up nine carries 38 yards overall BYU holds him to a 47% completion percentage as it appears that he has taken the Reigns of that QB battle there at SMU Jay Hill is proving yet again that he is worth as I like to say every dime nickel and Penny that you're paying him as BYU's defensive coordinator and as I understand it he's a very healthily paid uh coordinator of BYU as I understand it's north of a million dollars the BYU's paying him and like I said it's worth every single bit of that what other things do we take away from this positives I think the BYU can now rely on their defense to get them through these games BYU is now 2-0 remember we talked all the time that BYU and the non-conference slay if they went three- 0 it's probably a best case scenario two- one would have been acceptable I would have thought going into to this three-game non-conference series that the one game BYU was most likely to lose was this road game at SMU the fpi we talked about it earlier this week the football percentages index put this as a Le smaller chance BYU getting this win than winning at Utah later this season against the vaed University of Utah it's incredible to consider what BYU did in this game they were a double- digit Underdog depending on which sports book you looked at our friends obviously at FanDuel sponsor this podcast and the network had BYU last I saw as a 10 and a half Point Underdog but I saw some lines out there that had BYU as much as a two touchdown 14-point Underdog you went on the road as a double- digit Underdog and got a win that is supremely supremely impressive that BYU pulled that off in spite of all the circumstances around this game I think that BYU deserves to Pat themselves on the back particularly Jay Hill and the BYU defense eight days ago eight days ago Jay Hill was in the hospital having a procedure to put a stent in his chest or two St excuse me in his chest to bypass blockages in his arteries that caused a heart attack that is a man that is a myth that is a legend that will be hard hard to surpass for BYU any of his players that ever want to complain about having it tough or hard or they're not ha doesn't matter he's got a trump card over every single one of those guys and he called an absolutely masterful and I mean a masterful performance on the defensive side of the football well in stark contrast to that was the BYU offense wasn't great can they build off this is there still hope for Jake Retzloff well let's try and make heads and tells of that as you roll on right here unlocked on cougars Today Show's about to buy our friends over at FanDuel now we talked about FanDuel all the time but the best part about FanDuel art now he's got a special offer for you our listeners now through September 22nd you can go to fanduel.com lockon bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket via YouTube and YouTube TV then with the base YouTube TV 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available also available on YouTube and of course it is part of the lockdown podcast Network and it is your team every day all right all right the BYU offense left a lot to be desired in this game they muster over 300 yards of offense that's great uh I guess all things considered 336 yards overall 202 yards passing 134 yards rushing now a week ago BYU ran the ball 47 times for 179 yards averaging 3.8 yards per carry in this game against SMU BYU ran the ball 35 times for 134 yards and that average comes out to you guessed it 3.8 yards for carry I am going to venture a guess that when Connor pay joins the podcast next next week he is going to be very perturbed about the rushing attack for BYU and it actually took a 37 yard dash down the sideline from Miles Davis to raise that average because that was the big run on the night a 37 yard Scamper for him on that option play that set up what was eventually the game-winning field goal for BYU this BYU offense has got flaws to it and I think it starts at the quarterback now I will admit I've been a champion of Jake rofs I thought he was going to be the quarterback for BYU and well based on how everything went against SMU it feels like he's still going to be the guy going against Wyoming trust me we're gonna get to your comments here momentarily I would say 60 plus percent of them deal with Jake Retzloff and the vast majority at least 90% of those if not 100% of them want to see Jake redoff bench see Gary bannan they they want something different I find that as a problematic idea and I let me explain here's the deal Jake rlof has got you to two and0 he's had one really really good performance against Southern Illinois he's had one subpar performance his three turnovers against SMU are completely I mean completely inexcusable but BYU won the game if you were to go and bench him now and insert Gary bohanon into the lineup against W Wyoming I feel like you would risk splitting the locker room that that I I'm not saying anything that I I don't believe because the situation is this guy is getting results and we talk about it all the time on this podcast if you're a long time every day I talk about the fact that what do you want most of all from your team you want your team to have more points than the other team at the end of the game simply put you want your team to win everything else the way it comes it's extra and it's but beyond that it really is super flous yes it just it's something that just it's beyond what you really care about and that's your team winning more often than not BYU's 2 and0 and I expect that the the Gary bannan cries for him to be BYU's qb1 are going to be very loud they're going to be very very vocal in this coming week and weeks to come if Jake retof continues to operate the way he is I think the best scenario this is just me uh speculating is that Jake grof starts against Wyoming but you see at least a series or two for Gary to get a feel for what he can do in this BYU offense I feel like this coaching staff needs to get a feel for what Gary could offer to beu in a game likee situation yes he is a proven guy who's got a lot of starts under his belt he's won a big 12 title he's played in a sugar ball I he's got all those accolades on his resume but you do not know how he's gonna operate after more than a year actually almost two years not playing football you need to I think insert him into this game against Wyoming where you have to manufacture uh an entire series for him or you find ways to insert him just use him in various packages you need to get a look at Gary Bohan and the quarterback in 2024 and we got to get away from the fact that he's got to be the guy that was there at Baylor in is it 21 or 22 when they went to that Sugar Bowl he could be a fundamentally different player and that could affect things if he were to essentially say BYU says you know what Jake thanks but we're going a different direction and they insert Gary in there if for whatever reason Gary were to fail and you had to Pivot back to Jake redoff be a really really tough sale I think to keep the locker room intact act and keep everybody on the same page at that point so BYU is still winning and I expect that Jake redoff will continue to start that is not mean that it's it's okay for what BYU's offense looked like in this game they need to go to the BYU defense and say guys that's our bad thank you for bailing our you know what's out in that game you guys absolutely balled out and we failed to hold up our end of the bargain did they do enough sure if you want to count it as that they did enough the situation is is it's not enough against better teams SMU to me are frauds and I don't mean that to be mean I'm not trying to stick a stick a needle into SMU but they are fraudulent here's the deal anybody who thought that SMU was going to show up year one and win the ACC because there were more than a few people out there that were speculating that the ACC could be the SMU for the taking that ain't happening that that SMU team they don't got that type of caliber in them are they a good team yes they've got weapons they absolutely have weapons but BYU's defense held down those weapons and BYU's offense felt like did the bare minimum and scraped just by by just enough 18 to 15 to get the victory to push them into to two and0 could this offense look a lot better next week against Wyoming against a G5 opponent yeah it absolutely could it actually could revert back to being more of what it was against Southern Illinois but the concern is the week after that when Kansas State comes to town in Provo Utah lavel Edwards Stadium for the first Big 12 game of the Season what are you going to say if this reverts back to what it was against SMU and Kansas state with what I think is a more complete team a more bonafied uh Power for program that will absolutely make BYU pay more than SMU will that's the concern you got to have for this BYU offense right now and of course it starts with Jake rof the fumble it gets stripped out and I think from that point on in that in this game and that was very early on in that game when that ball got stripped out I never saw Jake redoff settle in the rest of this game he looked jumpy he looked skittish use the term seeing ghost I think a lot of the stuff that's been circulating online and just in the overall Community about him how he's not going to quote unquote be the guy for BYU and he's not good enough to be the guy for BYU I think that all got in his head and he was he was unable to get past it he never able to really kind of lock in and settle into this game is that going to be a long-term issue TBD but you have to you cannot accept what he did with the football he is a turnover machine that's just a simple fact of the matter and I I wanted to believe Aaron rodrik said that he never threw an interception and didn't have a turnover in spring camp he had one giveaway in Fall camp and the the belief was wow maybe he's cured all of his woses when it comes to turning the ball over foolish us foolish me for believing that to be the case because the three turnovers he had the two interceptions and the fumble unacceptable you cannot have that from your quarterback so what are you going to do about it well in theory you would turn and rely on your running game oh wait LJ Martin got injured in this game was on crutches Midway through and had to hobble his way off the field after the game on those crutches that doesn't indicate to me that LJ Martin's gonna be back next week and quite frankly Hinkley rotti and Miles Davis and even uh Eno nah with his late touchdown none of them inspired that hey that guy's going to step up in the stad you you've got to go about I think fundamentally refocusing what this offense the philosophy is I know that Aaron rodri takes a lot of barbs from cougar fans out there I get all of it I believe that his philosophy of running to set up the pass is fundamentally flawed especially in this circumstance you need to throw to set up the run for BYU right now you got to have Jake redoff move the ball down the field remember BYU's Run game didn't really get going until they started hitting on deep balls over the top on Southern Illinois and forcing Southern Southern Illinois to back off you can guarantee that Wyoming they're going to creep those safeties up next week and make Jake red sloft proved that he can make them pay with his arm if they do that they'll back off and BYU will have more success running the football but until that happens it's G to be tough sledding for BYU's offense and once again I'm a second guess or as as our my good friend in radio Jake Scott likes to say we're second guessers in sports media if we were first guessers we'd be coaches but the situation is is that we're sitting here talking about what is ailing this BYU offense and it's just the quarterback play not good enough losing your top running back who I believe is far and away your best running back because I don't think any of the other guys on the roster Inspire any type of confidence right now and it's nothing against them the production is just not there you got to find a way to generate some more offense and I believe it may be that yeah the guy that is loose with the ball speaking of Jake res off you rely on him slinging the ball a little bit more down the field maybe go more with that QB Run game cuz quite honestly outside of the one drive that Jake had in that first half for the touchdown he when he went to that QB Run game and I talked about it earlier this week on the podcast how soulj mava Peters was a a one-man Wrecking Crew against SMU in that New Mexico Bowl in December of 2022 well they went back to a lot of what worked in that game is in 2022 in that second half and remember that was the most successful run if you want to call it that or most successful series or two to be why you had in that second half you got to find new ways to manufacture your offense and if that is going to require you to run Jake red sloff or maybe insert Gary bohannan to run the ball as a QB option type guy so be it you gotta find a way to find more offense out there on the field because colani said it at half time I'm first we need to get some chunk plays well he can complain into a microphone to a to the ESPN sideline reporter but I gotta believe that he's complaining in his headset to his offensive coordin hey where are those deep shots where why aren't we going down the field why are we not trying to release somebody down the field Aaron rodick is a as a norm Chow disciple he played for Norm chow and I know that coach CIA he believes this because he said it on my radio show that I work on for years he believed in every quarter of every game you had to take at least one maybe two shots and even if they were low percentage type plays it got in the head of the defense hey they're they're willing to go down the field I didn't see much of that till very late in this game for BYU and when they did remember Ken Maran was turning to the inside that ball ended up going on the outside and it was an absolute dime of a throw and had Ken Maran got his head around to the other side maybe just to tab it quicker he might have hauled that pass in but really beyond that did you see many deep shots in this game I didn't I I don't recall seeing them I will go back and rewatch this game as I always do and I'll have my film review film review for you guys on Monday but this offense right now looks fundamentally flawed and I don't think there's readymade answers right now uh like I said the quarterback play was less than stellar and I I was expecting to maybe see a series from from Gary in this game just to get a feel for what he could do so maybe that comes next week against Wyoming maybe it doesn't come at all maybe Jake bounce is back in a big way and all of a sudden he's backing the good graces of cougar fans with a big showing on the high Plaines against the Wyoming Cowboys but right now can you really Bank on that I don't think you can another thing you could hopefully be able to bank on is a powerful running game but without what appears to be your Far and Away your best running back he's currently sheld due to injury it appears no ready made answers for BYU on offense and that is a concerning thing if you're a Cougar Fan all right I have spent far too much time with my own thoughts on this postcast Edition so we'll roll through as many thoughts of yours as we can momentarily of course is how we do on postcast the final stanza of the show belongs to you with your comments via social media our lock on cougars Insider group and we'll get to those momentarily right here unlocked on cougars Today Show's by to our friends over at game time now game time is here for you guys no matter what type of events you want to go to theater sporting events comedy music no matter what you're into game time has got the options for you guys they 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what time is it game time thank you once again for making lockon cougars your first listen of the day if you've not done so already lock uh join our locked on cougars Insider group the best part about these in game now is I can have one-on-one conversations with y'all we're texting back and forth that's literally what it is it's a texting ability to have one-onone conversations with me get my insights on the game you can wait in with your thoughts and we can kind of go back and forth and banter it's a really really fun way to do that also passing along Insider tidbits about BYU football and basketball uh giving away tickets all we got it all for you guys so check it out it's locked on Cougar's Insider group there's a link in the show notes whether you're watching and or listening to this and join us there today all right uh before we go on today's show it's your guys's time to shine with your thoughts on the game so we'll first go over to our our lockd on cougars Insider group get some thoughts here uh first comment here I'm going to pull up I'm just going to go randomly right here rker the defense is legit holding a team averaging 50 points at home to 15 is absolutely insane I want to know what the average starting field position was uh for SMU excuse me what average starting field position for SMU was too super impressive defensive performance offense needs some work I think it's putting it lightly uh I I'll have to do some research on the average starting field positions I'll check back with you on that rker but that is true SMU had a niname win streak going at home when BYU came to SMU they were averaging it's not just 50 it was like 53 and change in that nine game win home streak BYU limit them to 15 points and dominated I mean dominated defensively you can't take that away from Jay Hills crew they were absolutely lights out uh all right other questions here uh Gary offense looked awful give some credit to SMU but a lot of questions remain I think I alluded to that just a minute ago there are still a ton of questions about this BYU offense and yeah SMU does deserves deserves some credit they made plays obviously because when you have a defensive lineman literally fall down he pops back up and Jake Roff has just thrown a pass it's supposed to go to a screen a tight end middle screen to Keanu Hill the defensive lineman just plucks it out of the air big big big time play by that young man uh to make that play but man just brutal brutal stuff uh laramy the defense balled out uh Nick oh man is there any hope with a was you poop emoji offense at the end of the day A-Rod has seemed so overmatch for too long I I can't disagree with you because it's it's the offense I said it's fundamentally flawed right now and it's not it's not good because it looked like a bit of a return like like people have mentioned to the 2023 Jake rlof and you can't have that uh let's see here Tyson I've never really had a problem with Aaron Rodrick but I feel like his play calling tonight was abysmal okay so you're you you're turning on him Tyson I can understand that uh let's see Spencer Gonzalez incredible grit and discipline which he said was Jake's word won that game so to Jake redoff I hard to tell how much talent SMU really has and the coaching ability they posed uh they posed based off of their games the defense was inspiring and offense look they had willpower hoping to see brighter and higher caliber of offensive output next game I think that's a positive take and I think all of us are hoping for that Spencer because trust me I think the only person that enjoyed that game is Kyle Whittingham that that sounds weird to say but that was a very Kyle Whittingham like yes yes like a sickos like a Kyle winingham sickos type win he absolutely loves that stuff uh Jake by the way a w is a w great that is a w celebrate wins take the wins you never throw those wins back uh let's see defense is just unbelievably Elite the offense dot dot dot needs some work but a win is a win that comes from Brandon all capable all all yeah absolutely uh let's see other things I I agree with what the commentators say excuse me I agree so Carter Carter says this I agree with the commentators when they said this team will go as far as Jake takes them can't make boneheaded mistakes and yeah there was boneheaded is a good term for it if Jay can get out of his own way BYU can play pretty good football the problem is right now he's kind of in his own head and that's like I have no inside knowledge that's me speaking from the outside but watching him in that game it just felt like he was in his own head and I think some of those bad memories from last year probably crept up uh Bryce says this BW you may go into conference play three and0 but the offense and special teams have a lot of work to do that's a good point special teams the punter situations still is very much unsettled Sam vanderhart as well as um Landon Rico I want to say Ryan Rico but it's Landon neither one of them really said hey I'm I'm the guy at punter uh return decisions from kelen Maran still remain curious on kick returns so yeah special teams does need work I I agree with that uh Jensen says this uh defense is legit but the offense is going to be a limiting factor well for the time being it absolutely is a limiting factor it's just crazy to think about that Robert asked this how many sacks in tfl so far 2024 versus 2023 I know sacks off the top of my head BYU with the three they had against SMU is now up to five on the season all of last year BYU had wait for it 11 sacks they're nearly halfway to that total through two games that was 11 sacks in 12 games last year they're gonna blow right by that it feels like so uh be why you got the win that obviously you celebrate that like I said you never throwback uh losses or not throwback losses you never throwback uh wins when it comes to winning in college football but like I mentioned is really anybody content and happy with how things look right now if you're not a BYU defensive player no I I I I I still believe that BYU offense owes a just a big thank you they gotta go say thank you thank you thank you to the BYU defense for bailing them out in that game all right couple more thoughts here uh before we go I I just look at this and it was a crazy crazy circumstance uh in this game all right let's see uh Scuttle says this Scuttle butt one it's Gary Ty and laramy we need to enter conference play with a solidified QB if it's rlof this offense is screwed he's shown who he is and today was a regression to the mean last week was the outlier I'm gonna say this Scuttle prepare to be disappointed I just don't see them making the switch to Gary fulltime this week could I be wrong about that sure I absolutely could be wrong but I just don't see it happen uh Peyton butcher says this how is redoff better than a QB that won Big 12 Championship two years ago once again I think you need to divorce yourself from the Gary Bohanan that won that big 12 championship and led them to the Sugar Bowl and the Gary Bohanan of today we don't know what the Gary Bohanan of today looks like truthfully under the lights right now so I think you need to divorce those two things from one another uh Mark Dalton Dunn Jake Retzloff take care of that ball exclamation point it's true you and I'm anybody who talks to him I'm sure is saying that exact same thing he's got to take care of that football it's really really tough uh so I don't know it's just it feels like and I I'm just scrolling through some of these comments and a lot of them are redundant at this point because it's a lot of just the same stuff uh being thrown at us but uh you got to figure out and we got to find a new way to go about things on offense do I have the perfect answer no because if I did I'd be making a lot more money than I'm doing in podcasting in radio right now but we'll see what happens uh laramy trip to the high planes BYU going back to a place that let's just put it this way the fan base they loathe the Cougars yeah um oh I did have that a question asked about that um by the way it was think one of our last things sent in the lock on cougars Insider group let's see if I can find this here oh yeah Byron how many Bo fans did have to be what you have at the game and what was the total attendance I have not seen a to I have not seen a total attendance number so I don't have that but Spencer Linton who was there on site in Dallas said he estimated 10,000 BYU fans I had a friend who was in the stands there and I said hey what's the give me a percentage he said 35 at worst 35% BYU fans at worst he thought it was more 40 45% of the fans in attendance were BYU fans so you know what let's finish on a positive note cougar Nation yet again y'all showed up you were loud you were proud and the Cougars for all their faults delivered a W for you and they are two and0 once again I'm going to go back and rewatch this tape hopefully have some notes for you guys on what maybe can be improved uh coming up on Monday on a film review Monday of the podcast so stay tuned for that but in the meantime thank you for all of your support thank you for being every dayers here on the podcast thank you for making your first L first listen excuse me it's late wow excuse me first listen and first view of the day and of course until next time this is been the locked on cougars podcast