No points for you: BYU football defense sets tone in shutout win over Sam Houston
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- BYU players celebrate with junior defensive back Jakob Robinson after he made his second interception during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU junior defensive back Jakob Robinson intercepts a pass in the end zone during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU junior defensive back Jakob Robinson breaks up a pass during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU defenders make a tackle during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU freshman running back LJ Martin attempts to elude a tackler during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU junior defensive lineman Isaiah Bagnah makes a tackle during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- A BYU defender makes a tackle for a loss during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU junior punter Ryan Rehkow punts the ball during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- A BYU ball carrier gets tackled during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU head coach Kalani Sitake watches the action during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU fans cheer on their team during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU players try to push senior quarterback Kedon Slovis into the end zone during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU tight end Isaac Rex fights for extra yards during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- A BYU running back carries the ball during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU senior quarterback Kedon Slovis dives into the end zone during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU mascot Cosmo pumps up the crowd during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- Members of the Veikoso family pose for a photo with the flag and uniform honoring former BYU lineman Sione Veikoso before the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023. Sione Veikoso died in an accident in December 2022.
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- BYU fans fill the stands for the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU freshman kicker Mathias Dunn and the rest of the team prepare to take the field before the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU players celebrate scoring a touchdown during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU defenders hem in a Sam Houston ball carrier during the game at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU freshman running back LJ Martin attempts to elude a tackler during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU defenders make a tackle during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU fans cheer on the football team during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
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- BYU defenders make a tackle during the game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
The good news and the bad news …
For the BYU football team Saturday night in its season-opener at LaVell Edwards Stadium against Sam Houston, the good news was that junior defensive back Jakob Robinson was phenomenal, junior punter Ryan Rehkow averaged 53.2 yards per kick and the Cougar defense pitched its first shutout against an FBS opponent since 2012 (a 47-0 home win over Hawaii).
The bad news, however, was that the BYU offense struggled mightily for much of the game and the Cougars only managed two touchdowns in their 14-0 victory over the Bearkats.
“I’m really pleased with a bunch of guys who played tonight and overall I’m just happy that we got the win,” BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said. “I think we had too many long faces in the locker room and I had to cheer them up a bit. Obviously, we felt like we didn’t play our best.”
Rehkow and Robinson deserved to share Player of the Game honors since both played enormous roles in ensuring the Cougars came out on top.
Robinson had two monumental interceptions for the BYU defense.
The first came in the third quarter with the Cougars leading by just seven points after Rehkow’s poorest play of the night. A fake punt turned into a disaster and a turnover on downs deep in Cougar territory.
After a pass interference call gave Sam Houston a first-and-goal at the BYU 5-yard line, the Bearkats tried to run a rub route on the edge to free a wide receiver.
But Robinson read it from the start and went up high to haul in the pick, ending Sam Houston’s best scoring opportunity of the game.
“I saw on film last night when I was watching that they like to do a little rub route in the red zone,” Robinson said. “They had that same formation and so I just jumped it.”
His second interception was even more jaw-dropping as he reached out one hand on a bad third-down pass by Bearkat quarterback Keenan Shoemaker, somehow managing to bring it in and get under the ball before it hit the ground.
“We were in Cover-3 and I just bailed,” Robinson said. “I saw the quarterback look toward that receiver so I just jumped it again. I don’t blame the quarterback for throwing to my side. Just look at me, I guess. I’d throw it to my side too.”
That gave the Cougars the ball at its own 45-yard line and set up the second Cougar touchdown.
Sitake said Robinson’s interceptions were huge plays, while BYU junior linebacker Ben Bywater credited the defensive coaches for getting the players ready.
“I tip my hat to the whole defensive staff,” Bywater said. “They really put us in the right places to make big-time plays. Look at J-Rob (Robinson) here. That’s two picks. That doesn’t really happen.
“I thought we played well across the board. I feel like we were firing on all cylinders. I’m really proud of the way the guys fought. Getting a shutout is not easy in college football.”
Part of the credit for keeping the Bearkats from scoring has to go to Rehkow, who punted nine times and consistently flipped the field with his booming kicks. His long was a 65-yarder and he pinned Sam Houston inside the 20-yard line four times.
“I thought Ryan Rehkow kicked it really well,” Sitake said. “The way he punted was amazing. And that fake punt was on me, not him. I was trying to create a spark but sometimes you don’t create a spark by doing something like that. I like what he did but I don’t want him punting that many times.”
In addition to Rehkow’s huge punts, BYU also got excellent punt coverage from freshman Marcus McKenzie, who was often the first guy down the field and made some big tackles.
“We had Marcus at punt gunner this week,” Robinson said. “He’s a freshman and he was killing it. It was just fun to watch him go down and make tackles.”
While the Cougar defense and special teams generally did well, the elephant in the room after the game for BYU was the poor offensive performance.
“You’ve got to appreciate a win and we didn’t have any turnovers,” Cougar senior quarterback Kedon Slovis said. “You’ve got to stay positive but as an offense we have higher expectations than what happened tonight. We know we are better than that and we’ll come out better in the future.”
The home team appeared ready to go with a quick start on offense, mixing in runs and passes on the first eight-play drive to score on a 5-yard run by Slovis.
But things didn’t go well from there as BYU had a tough time finding open receivers or running room on the ground against the stout Sam Houston defense.
“Sam Houston has a really good defensive team,” Sitake said. “We’ve known that. I’ve said this teams won national championship a few years ago, and they have a really good coach. I felt like they had a really good game plan but we need to find ways to get explosive plays and get points on the board.”
Slovis finished the game 20-of-33 passing for just 145 yards and didn’t have any completions for more than 18 yards. When asked how he evaluated his own performance, he responded, “pretty harshly.”
“I’m not happy with it,” Slovis said. ” I have higher expectations for the offense and really everybody I feel like felt that way after the game. I tried to kind of try to remind everyone that it’s not going to be perfect. We’ll make some mistakes but we have to move on. And there were times were offensive moving better but we had too many self-inflicted wounds.”
The bright spot for the BYU offense was seeing freshman running back LJ Martin make the most of his opportunities in the second half as he led the team with 91 yards rushing on 16 carries.
“The whole team just supported me to do whatever I do,” Martin said. “It was really easy just to go out there and try to make the most of the opportunity I was given. The offensive line blocked their tails off. I felt like holes were wide open.”
The bottom line is the BYU is 1-0 to start the year but certainly isn’t satisfied with where it is at.
“It’s sort of nice when you can win games and everybody’s really disappointed about it,” Sitake said. “A lot of the offensive guys are not happy while defensive guys are fired up because we got the shutout and got turnovers. But I just want to make sure they know that we win and lose as a team.”
