BYU head football coach Kalani Sitake didn’t hesitate for long when asked during Monday’s press teleconference what had surprised him about his team’s showing through four weeks of action.

“I’ll have to say that the surprise for me is that we’re not just playing consistent football,” Sitake said. “I talk about playing our best. I guess I had this expectation that we would be a lot further along with the amount of veterans that we have on this team. I think you have to give credit to the people that we are playing but I feel like we could still be a lot better as a team. That’s my job. I’m not criticizing anybody else except for myself.”

He said it’s a “huge emphasis” to get the Cougar players and staff functioning at the level they want to be at.

But it’s not necessarily easy to do.

When BYU sophomore defensive lineman Tyler Batty was asked what the athletes need to take on themselves to reach that higher level of efficiency, he paused to think about how to put the answer into words.

“I think we all expected us to have a little bit better rhythm defensively and just have things clicking a little bit better,” Batty said. “It’s a hard question to answer because if we knew all the answers we’d be rolling and have the best defense in the nation right now. What we’ve learned from the first few games is that it comes down to assignment-sound football, just the fundamentals.”

He wants to see everyone get locked in on doing those things better because he thinks it will elevate the entire product.

“I think if our defense can really focus in on what we do as a defense and how we play football and just stay true to our identity, I think we’ll be able to play at that really high level that we all know that we can,” Batty said.

BYU sophomore defensive back Jakob Robinson believes that having the players come out stronger every week will make a big difference as well.

“I think it’s about just coming out with more energy,” Robinson said. “I feel like the last two games we’ve kind of had low energy. If we all come out with more energy, I think it will definitely help.”

Cougar junior wide receiver Brayden Cosper weighed in on the question with a big-picture perspective, pointing to efforts each day that he believes pay dividends when game day rolls around.

“Something we talk about a lot is doing the little things right during the week, things that aren’t directly about the game,” Cosper said. “You can obviously get a lot better in the game technique and all that stuff, but during the week are you going to class? Are you watching the film that you’re supposed to be watching? Are you calling your family to tell them you love them? I think those are things that we’ve harped on, doing the little things right during the week so that you can earn the right to be prepared and confident going into game day. Because those things matter. It’s part of our culture here. I think really buying in and doing those things will obviously help us a lot.”

It’s not that there have been a lot of problems and BYU’s 3-1 record is certainly not a bad record through four games.

“I’m just really thankful for the effort that our guys put in,” Sitake said. “They work really hard, and that’s in everything that they do. We have guys who are really bought in and give everything they have, and I really appreciate all the effort that they give us.”

But Sitake said his entire goal is to see his team put together 60 minutes of the best football it can and he hasn’t seen that yet this year.

“I want to see our team play better, play a good football game and play at our best,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve seen that yet. I don’t think it has been clean enough for all 60 minutes. I’m looking forward to getting that done.”

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