A common theme among the most optimistic BYU football fans goes like this: “If I had told you the Cougars would be 5-1 at the mid-season mark with three wins against Pac-12 opponents, you would have taken that in a heartbeat.”

Problem is, college football games don’t happen in a vacuum. Every win or loss has far-reaching implications and some wins and losses mean more than others. Sure, 5-1 is a good record and three wins against Pac-12 teams is nice. But what those blue-goggled BYU fans are ignoring is that as an independent, the Cougars are not the masters of their own destiny. They must depend on what other Power 5 and Group of 5 teams do to reach anything better than a middling bowl game.

Check it: There are four playoff spots and 12 slots available for a New Year’s Six bowl game. So far this season, college football has been chaos and BYU has a good shot at finishing in the Top 10 with an 11-1 record should they run the second half table. But if you’re counting on the college football bowl committees – and even ESPN for that matter – to pick BYU over Power 5 teams with one, two or even three losses (the right losses, anyway) or Group of 5 teams such as possibly undefeated Cincinnati or Coastal Carolina for a New Year’s Six bowl berth, you’re dreaming.

Did you happen to notice that Arizona State – a team BYU beat 27-17 a few weeks ago – is one spot ahead of the Cougars in the AP Poll?

With that bit of cloudiness out of the way, let’s move on.

The first half of the Cougars 2021 season has sure been fun, hasn’t it? From big wins to the shockingly bad performance at home against Boise State last week, it’s been an interesting ride for BYU fans.

Here’s a look at some highlights and lowlights from the first six games.

MID-SEASON SUPERLATIVES

Offensive MVP

If you pick anybody other than Tyler Allgeier, you haven’t been paying attention. The junior running back practically single-handedly won the Arizona State game with his stunning defensive play after an interception and ran all over Utah State in a game that was closer than expected. He did have a pretty costly fumble against Boise State but we wouldn’t be surprised if he has a huge game against Baylor. Through six games Allgeier has 121 carries for 637 yards and eight touchdowns, averaging a healthy 5.3 yards per carry.

Defensive MVP

BYU plays about 25 guys on defense so the statistics are pretty evenly spread out, but let’s go with junior linebacker Payton Wilgar. He’s a versatile defender who can get out in coverage (tied for second on the team in pass breakups with three) and also lay the wood on a runner (35 tackles, six tackles for loss). Wih the loss of Keenan Pili to injury, Wilgar will be counted on even more during the second half of the season.

Coaching MVP

It’s one thing to have a lot of talent in the room. It’s another to be able to utilize it. The BYU wide receiver group might be the most talented the Cougars have ever had and Fesi Sitake is charged with figuring out a way to get them all involved. Between Neil Pau’u, Gunner Romney and Puka Nacua BYU has managed 44 catches for 978 yards and seven touchdowns. Throw in the other Nacua (Samson), who has two scoring catches, plus talented guys like Keanu Hill and Chris Jackson and that position group has really shined in 2021.

Biggest Disappointment

No question the loss to Boise State will sting for a while. One loss in the independent era can be terribly damaging to the Cougars national cache. But maybe BYU fans can take solace that against the Broncos everything went wrong that could go wrong. Offense, defense and special teams all performed way below what those units had been producing. It’s highly unlikely that kind of dumpster fire can happen again, right?

Best Weekend

On Friday, September 10, BYU announced it would be joining the Big 12 for the 2023-24 season, sending Cougar fans into heaven. For so long, BYU had been trying to align itself with the big boys only to be turned away by religious bigotry (we see you, Pac-12) or other circumstances beyond their control. Then the next day BYU fans rushed the LaVell Edwards Stadium field after the Cougars ended Utah’s nine-game winning streak in the series with a 26-17 victory. Try to name a better weekend for BYU Nation.

Biggest Win

BYU’s 27-17 victory against Arizona State is looking better each week as the Sun Devils are on a tear. But if anybody tells you it’s bigger than the 26-17 win against Utah, they’re lying. Nine straight Utah wins (over 11 years) was excruciating for Cougar fans to live with season after season. BYU and Utah don’t play next season so Cougar Nation can enjoy delicious Ute tears for two years.

Most Outstanding Play

Is there any question? The entirely of college football stopped what they were doing to watch Tyler Allgeier chase down Arizona State’s Merlin Robertson (once a BYU commit) after an interception and strip him of the football with a mighty swing of his arm. Some other cool plays: The well-executed touchdown pass from Jaren Hall to Samson Nacua for a touchdown to end the first half against Utah; Ryan Rehhow’s school record 83-yard punt against Arizona State; Talmage Gunther’s massive hit on special teams to cause a fumble, also against Arizona State; Malik Moore’s one-handed interception against Utah State.

Weirdest moment

ESPN has a lot to do during a college football game, but somebody didn’t fact check during the South Florida game. The World Wide Leader showed a split screen with BYU starting quarterback Baylor Romney on one side and on the other someone they identified as injured former starter Jaren Hall. Only it wasn’t Hall; it was 16-year-old recruit JJ Tuha. BYU nation got a pretty big laugh out of it.

Most impressive fan moment

Cougar Nation always shows up for BYU road games in large numbers, but outdid themselves when the Cougars met Arizona in Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium. Announced attendance for the game was 54,541 (only 21,970 showed up the night before for UNLV-Eastern Washington), which is a pretty big crowd for two traveling teams. Of that 54,541, it appeared to be about 80 percent Cougar blue and they were treated to a victory to start the 2021 season.

Puzzling Trend

BYU coaches have praised tight ends Isaac Rex and Dallin Holker for their blocking, so it’s not as if they aren’t contributing to the offense. But between them these two uber-talented athletes have just 15 catches for 169 yards in the first six games, with three touchdowns (all by Rex). Maybe there aren’t that many opportunities with a deep Cougar wide receiver group or maybe opponents are taking away the tight end options. We’re just saying Rex and Holker are matchup nightmares for defenses and should be getting more targets.

Winning Formula

BYU won its first five games virtually the same way: Get a lead, don’t make mistakes and make a couple of big plays in the fourth quarter to put the victory away. The Cougars margin of victory through the first five games was 9.8 points, which was some cause for concern. Against Boise State, things went south in the second quarter and BYU couldn’t find a way to catch the Broncos. If there’s anything the Cougars need to do in the second half of the season its to figure out other ways to win.

Best Quote

“I’m going to bed ’cause I’ve got to go to church in the morning. God first!”

Senior defensive end Uriah Leiataua is a quote machine anyway but he got this one right after the victory against Utah. It became a popular meme on social media and you can also buy t-shirts with the quote.

Final thought

College basketball coaching legend John Wooden once said this: “Losing is only temporary and not all encompassing. You must simply study it, learn from it and try hard not to lose the same way again. Then you must have the self control to forget about it.”

BYU coaches and players have all repeated this week that losing to Boise State was tough but they have to learn and move on. We’ll find out pretty quickly if the Cougars can do that because the road trip to Baylor on Saturday is going to be fraught with peril and adversity.

Kalani Sitake’s mantra of “love and learning” is going to be put to the test the rest of the season.

Newsletter