While the Horned Frogs warrant a lot of attention, the bigger focus this week has been on not dwelling on last Saturday’s loss, but learning from it as much as possible. That’s certainly the case on the offensive side of the football, where Roderick completely owned his unit’s relatively poor performance, but is also excited for the opportunity to learn from it and get better.

“We’re trusting in the fact that we have a lot of veteran players who have learned a lot of good lessons from the past,” Roderick said. “Kalani (Sitake) always talks about situations like this that it’s an opportunity to learn. If you don’t use it as an opportunity to learn, then it’s a waste. So we’re disappointed in losing, but it’s a chance to learn some good lessons and improve this week.”

Front and center will be the anticipated improvements from BYU freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who has risen to the occasion in every game played this season save perhaps during last week’s loss to the Red Raiders. But that’s part of the process in most everyone’s development, which is the message Roderick conveyed to Bachmeier, who came away from Lubbock, Texas not the least bit frustrated.

“He was really hard on himself and he felt like it was his fault,” Roderick said. “He finally had a bad game, and it is what it is. He’s played so well all year, and each week he’s exceeded our expectations, and then he had a tough game, just like all of us did, me included…So I expect him to bounce back and play well this week.”

In short, Bachmeier is actually human and is prone to setbacks, much like the rest of us, as is the BYU team, in general. The goal now, again, is to prove that last week’s loss was the exception and not the rule, and the Cougars will have an opportunity to do as much squaring off against TCU team that will likely pose a tough challenge, although probably not to the degree the Red Raiders did a week ago.

“They’re very talented,” observed BYU Defensive Coordinator Jay Hill. “The quarterback is one of the best we’ve played in the last three years. He throws it well and he ripped us two years ago down there and played one of the best games of his career. It’s a typical TCU offense. They have speed and talent on the outside…So there’s a lot of things we have to gear up for to stop.”

Indeed Josh Hoover was nearly flawless in dealing the Cougars a 44-11 loss back in 2023, throwing for 439 yards and four touchdowns.

Defensively, TCU creates problems, too, all of which Roderick is working ardently to counteract as he hopes to help BYU’s offense regain the form shown through the first eight games of the season.

“We’ll have our hands full, but we do have a good offense, and we do have a good identity,” Roderick said. “We want to get back to it, and we just have to execute better. I think that being at home will help.”

A big part of regaining its form will the hopes of reestablishing a rushing attack that was all but stalemated last week against Texas Tech with the lack of big plays largely resulting from paltry running results.

“We establish the run most games, and then our play-action passes is where our explosive plays generally come from,” Roderick said. “We’ve been able to do that in every game this year, except (against Texas Tech), so we’ve got to get back to our identity.”

Of course a lot of what BYU hopes to do in the run game, and indeed with the entire offense, in general, rests on the shoulders of running back LJ Martin, quite literally. Martin incurred a shoulder injury versus Iowa State and was limited in his action during last week’s loss versus Texas Tech, although Roderick stated it had more to do with game flow than Martin’s shoulder injury.

“We weren’t able to give him a lot of carries because when we got down three scores we had to go (with a) two-minute (offense) just to stay in it,” Roderick said. “But he felt good and he’s ready to play again this week.”

Indeed Martin didn’t make an appearance on this week’s injury report as the Cougars hope to go forward as a relatively healthy team intent on reestablishing themselves as a serious national contender.