Daily Herald sports experts Darnell Dickson and Jared Lloyd address this week’s burning questions about BYU sports.

1. Back in 2013 and 2014, BYU football beat Texas by a combined score of 81-28. Of course, Longhorn killer Taysom Hill was the quarterback at the time. Is there someone on the Cougar roster than could play the part of “Longhorn killer” on Saturday?

DICKSON: Texas obviously wasn’t prepared for Hill in 2013 and didn’t learn any lessons for 2014, either. If there is a “Longhorn killer” on the BYU roster, it might be sophomore wide receiver Kody Epps.

That may seem like a reach because Epps hasn’t made much of an impact this season due to injury. But his two biggest games in 2022 came against Arkansas and Notre Dame.

Epps is a gamer and showed he could be a problem for opposing P5 defenses when healthy. If Kedon Slovis can get Epps going against Texas, things might get interesting.

LLOYD: Because Taysom Hill was so phenomenal in those two Texas games almost a decade ago, it’s easy to overlook one of the reasons the Cougar QB had such success: Running back Jamaal Williams.

Williams went for 271 yards on the ground against the Longhorns in those two games, which made the Texas defense have to respect him.

That’s why my choice is BYU senior running back Aidan Robbins. We finally caught a glimpse last week of the reasons why the Cougars wanted to bring Robbins in from UNLV because he was healthy enough to make some plays.

BYU needs something from the ground game and Robbins has the combination of experience, burst and aggressiveness to elevate the Cougar ground game, which in turn will make the BYU offense much  better.

2. Can the BYU offense make enough improvement this week to give No. 7 Texas a scare?

LLOYD: How many people gave Houston a chance at scaring the Longhorns last week? Yet there they were in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie. Earlier this season, Wyoming was in the same position.

So yes, absolutely BYU can scare the Longhorns — but they better bring an A (or at worst A-minus) level performance. They can’t afford a slow start or a slew of administrative errors — and definitely not a bunch of turnovers.

The Cougars need to execute really well to have a shot. They need QB Kedon Slovis to be crisp and accurate, while the blocking will need to be top-notch. But if that happens, hang on for what could be a really fun ride.

DICKSON: Epps and transfer running back Aidan Robbins were expected to be impact players on offense for BYU this year. We know the injuries have slowed them down, but both players are starting to get comfortable on the field again.

We saw the Cougars rush for a season-high 150 yards against Texas Tech, and that was encouraging. I would expect offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick to open things up more this week.

I think a lot hinges on how well BYU can protect quarterback Kedon Slovis against the Longhorns’ elite defense. He was pressured hard against Texas Tech and just missed on a couple of big pass plays. The Cougars will need to hit a few of those to hang with Texas.

3. The BYU defense will be facing a backup quarterback for the third straight week. TCU’s Josh Hoover threw for 439 yards and four touchdowns. Last week, the Cougars picked off Texas Tech backup Jake Strong three times. What will happen this week with Texas and backup Maalik Murphy?

DICKSON: Must be nice to have a four-star (Murphy) and a five-star (Arch Manning) as your backups.

Murphy was terrific in the spring game and got Texas fans pretty excited about the future. Well, the future is now for he and the Longhorns with Quinn Ewers out with a shoulder injury. Murphy (6-5, 238) is making his first start but has a tremendous running game, featuring Jonathan Brooks (825 yards, 6.4 yards per carry) to help him get adjusted.

The Cougars will mix coverages to try to confuse the young quarterback but getting pressure could be a problem. In the past three games, BYU has just one sack in 133 opponent pass attempts. If they can’t pressure Murphy, he might look more like Hoover than Strong on Saturday.

LLOYD: One of the things I’ve noticed over the years is that young players getting their first opportunities seem to be more susceptible to the momentum swings of a college football game.

If things are going well (like they were for TCU’s Josh Hoover against BYU), then the game seems easy. Everything is working. They can relax and often play some great football.

But if things are rocky, it can be tough for them to stay even-keeled (like Texas Tech’s Jake Strong against BYU or Hoover against Kansas State). They start pressing and making mistakes.

That’s why the Cougars have to make plays early and not let Murphy get settled in and comfortable. One way to do that is get a lead. Another is stuff the run game (easier said than done) to put the pressure on his shoulders.

4. Since the Blue-White scrimmage was cancelled, the first time we will see the BYU men’s basketball team will be its exhibition against Life Pacific on Nov. 1. What will you be watching?

DICKSON: We’ve been able to watch parts of a couple of practices but haven’t seen newcomers Ali Khalifa and Dawson Baker play a lot.

I feel like I have a pretty good read on the returners: Jaxson Robinson is going to have to become a go-to guy (15 points per game would be nice), Fousseyni Traore is going to be a beast down low, Richie Saunders is going to provide a ton of energy, Dallin Hall is going to run the show at the point, Noah Waterman is going to need to step up his game, Spencer Johnson is going to be the “Steady Eddie” of the group and average double figures, Trey Stewart is going to have to make the most of more playing time as a defensive stopper and Trevin Knell’s 3-point prowess is going to have to shine through.

Khalifa has a reputation as a wizard at the high post with his passing and has extended range. Baker is supposed to be able to create his opportunities on offense, which will be critical. So I’ll be watching those two guys to see how they mesh with the returners.

LLOYD: I like that BYU has eight guys who have played a lot of basketball together. I think that will pay more dividends than many realize or expect.

Every college basketball team has athletes. They wouldn’t be at the Division I level if they didn’t know the basics and have the potential to take on top-level competition.

That means the differentiator — particularly for the Cougars — is almost always playing cohesively as a team at both ends of the court.

So I want to see BYU have great flow on offense with great off-ball movement and excellent passing. I want the Cougar defense to understand how to mesh individual guarding and team help principles.

If I see BYU playing like a good team consistently, that will up my level of optimism for the upcoming season.

5. The No. 7 BYU women’s soccer team hasn’t played in a conference tournament since 2010 (MWC). How will the Cougars fare in the Big 12 Tournament as the No. 2 seed?

DICKSON: The Cougars were pretty successful winning WCC championships (seven of them) from 1999 to 2010.

The most interesting aspect of the Big 12 Tournament will be how opponents choose to play BYU, which prefers an up-tempo, high press attack. A lot of teams “park the bus” defensively to frustrate the Cougars and hope for a breakout counter to get a goal.

The styles are pretty drastically different and honestly it’s not much fun to watch if opponents choose to slow the game down. With so much at stake (an automatic NCAA Tournament berth) I would expect the lower seeds to play conservatively against BYU.

The Cougars have to show patience and play their game as best they can to succeed in the tournament. This is important to BYU because a good showing in the Big 12 Tourney could secure a top four seed in the NCAA’s, which would mean plenty of home matches on South Field.

LLOYD: This is tournament soccer, which is much different from regular season soccer in the college ranks because you can’t have ties. So go play until someone emerges victorious.

I think that suits BYU well because this is a deep Cougar team that I feel can stay fresh while playing at an elite level longer than a lot of other Big 12 teams.

The biggest thing for BYU is to avoid those backline blunders that have allowed opponents to get easier goals, particularly early in games. That can be devastating in a tournament format.

If the Cougar defense can play solid, I don’t know how many teams can beat BYU. Yes, a good opponent can get a really nice goal, but keeping the Cougars from scoring is a tall task as well.

I think BYU is ready and I expect them to make a deep run in this tournament to set the stage for the NCAA tournament.

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