BYU sports experts Darnell Dickson and Jared Lloyd address five of the big questions facing Cougar athletics this week:

1. What was the most impressive part of BYU’s double overtime victory against Baylor?

DICKSON: Defending the home field is something Kalani Sitake’s teams didn’t do well early in his career at BYU. Now the Cougars are 13-1 over the past two seasons at LaVell Edwards Stadium. The home crowd was fantastic on Saturday and to be honest, the breaks went BYU’s way, especially in regards to penalties. Something not a lot of people are talking about is how penalties completely turned around from last year’s game. In Waco, Baylor wasn’t assessed a single penalty in its victory over the Cougars. That seems pretty incredible for a college football game in this century. Against BYU in Provo, the Bears were tabbed with 14 penalties for 114 yards. You have to credit some of those penalties to the crowd and the atmosphere at LES. BYU was hit for nine penalties and 74 yards, for those who might have a conspiracy theory in mind.

LLOYD: The aspect of the game that impressed me most that also hasn’t been discussed a lot was that the Cougar never gave the game away. One aspect of that was that BYU had no turnovers, although Cougar quarterback Jaren Hall was lucky an out-route pass was knocked down at the line of scrimmage because a Baylor defensive back was sitting on the route and probably would’ve picked it. But the other was that, thanks to winning the overtime coin toss and the play of the BYU defense, the Bears didn’t have a single play where they could’ve won the game. The two game-winning field goal attempts and the two overtime fourth down plays were all moments where the Cougars could win — while Baylor never got any of those. Now BYU needed all four to finally get the job done but the level of maturity and determination the Cougars showed during the final minutes and the overtime periods allowed the home team to eventually come through victorious.

2. Who is your MVP of the game?

LLOYD: I can see a lot of candidates who certainly earned a nomination for this recognition, guys like wide receiver Chase Roberts (big catches and a nice TD throw), Max Tooley (roaming the field and making big tackles), head coach Kalani Sitake (got his guys ready and believing) and the entire LaVell Edwards Stadium crowd, but I’m going to give the nod to junior quarterback Jaren Hall. Not only did Hall play a steady game and get the offense to make big plays, but even more importantly his leadership could be seen before, during and after the game. Hall doesn’t get too high or too low but stays confident regardless of the situation. BYU needed that in all three phases of the game, since each had moments where it would’ve been easy to crumble. I think the way Hall led the Cougars made an enormous difference and thus he deserves to be the MVP.

DICKSON: I already mentioned the home fans so I’ll go another way with the MVP, which in this case is “Most Valuable Person.” Defensive coordinator Iliasa Tuiaki has taken a lot of flack over the years for his tactics, which don’t generally produce a lot of pressure on the quarterback. On Saturday, the Cougars really got into Blake Shapen’s head (18 of 28 for just 137 yards) and sacked him four times. Baylor did rush for 152 yards and converted some key third downs on runs. But when the game was on the line, Tuiaki’s defense got big and made huge, huge stops. After giving up 303 rushing yards the year before, the BYU defense was terrific on Saturday. And that’s why Tuiaki is my MVP.

3. What is the key factor in BYU’s road game at Oregon on Saturday?

DICKSON: There is an aura for the Ducks at Autzen Stadium and they rarely lose there. Of course, some of that is scheduling easy games and some of that is the relative weakness of the Pac-12 teams, but it’s still going to be a huge challenge for BYU to get a road win. My key factor is doing things “business as usual.” The Cougars are experienced and have been on big road trips before, so I think they’ll be focused on getting the job done in Eugene. The game plans by Tuiaki and offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick will put BYU in the best position to win the game, so execution under pressure will be the difference.

LLOYD: I see the biggest factor in Saturday’s showdown being whether the Cougars can out-physical the Ducks. In four of the last six games Oregon has played, opponents (Georgia in 2022, Oklahoma and Utah twice in 2022) were able to be more physical and the Ducks simply had no answers, resulting in four ugly, double-digit losses. If Oregon is able to find some answers and match BYU in the toughness department, it should be an entertaining game. As Darnell noted, the Ducks don’t lose often at home (20 straight wins) and none of those four defeats took place at Autzen Stadium. The Cougars have a bigger challenge being on the road but to me the formula for victory is the same.

4. What is the big lesson learned from the BYU women’s volleyball/Duke racial allegations saga?

LLOYD: I’m going to focus on the lesson we should be learning from situations like this, although I fear we aren’t:

Be kind.

If national commentators had expressed more kindness and compassion from the outset, recognizing that everyone deserves to be considered innocent until proven guilty, they wouldn’t have been so quick to rush to judgment about something that they didn’t personally experience. On the flip side, others could’ve been much more kind and compassionate to the Duke player, Rachel Richardson, instead of making accusations of intentional defamation and deceit.

Mistakes happen, people. In my experience, kindness is a much more effective tool toward helping people make better decisions than condemnation, anger and fear are.

DICKSON: The main message is “don’t jump to conclusions before you find out all the facts,” but that kind of subtlety is likely lost with the social media crowd as well as South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley.

We live in a world where it’s pretty much a daily contest to see who can flame on someone or something the hardest, to virtual signal about the latest perceived indignity or whatever. It’s disgusting, disingenuous and sad.

Ironically, both sides say they have the same goal, to eradicate racism. If only that were true. There are too many personal agendas in the way of any altruistic goals they say they have.

5. The BYU men’s basketball team has released its 2022-23 roster. What are your impressions?

LLOYD: Frankly, to this point, I’m not a fan of the huge roster turnover approach because I haven’t seen any signs that it is going to result in great basketball teams. That’s not just at BYU but anywhere. I look at arguably the most successful program in the country in the last few years, Gonzaga, and see a team that brings a couple of talented guys in every year — but always has the core group that establishes how the squad is going to function. When you rely heavily on turnover and transfers, you don’t get that. Sure, you may be able to win a few games but it seems those teams usually flame out and have disastrous games as well. This is the approach Mark Pope had to use at Utah Valley because it is an up-and-coming school, but I think BYU should be more established and be able to build with its own talented recruits. Perhaps this squad will prove me wrong and I hope it does — but until it does, I’ll be skeptical of how good the Cougars will be this winter.

DICKSON: They will all have to wear “Hello, my name is …” badges because there are 12 players on the roster that weren’t there last year. My initial impressions of the roster is that there seems to be some good potential but I have no idea how they will all come together. Mark Pope will be counting on the new guys to make huge progress and for the returning players to take big steps forward. Can players such as Gideon George and Fous Trayore become next level players and leaders? Can newcomers such as Noah Waterman, Rudi Williams and Jaxon Robinson become the players everyone thinks they can be? Those and many other questions are still to be answered. It’s going to be a challenge for Pope and his coaching staff in BYU’s last year in the WCC. Right now, I would put the Cougars behind Gonzaga, Saint Marys and San Francisco in any preseason polls, with teams such as Portland and Santa Clara right on their heels.

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