Every football team in the country knows that buckling down and putting in the work during fall camp is vital to having a good season.

And getting off to a good start makes a difference.

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said Wednesday he was pleased with what he saw during the first practice.

“Our guys are in pretty good shape,” Sitake said. “We went through a script of a bunch of plays and got done early. We did no-huddle stuff and the guys are a lot cleaner than they’ve been. I can see that they’ve put a lot of work in this offseason. There weren’t a lot of mistakes made. The technique needs a little work but that’s because it’s day one. For day one, it was good, but we need to keep improving every day.”

Cougar senior quarterback Gerry Bohanon has been through the drill a few times over his career, so he’s learned what to look for.

“I thought today was a good day,” Bohanon said. “We need to go watch the tape and clean up some stuff, but I thought it was a good day. Everybody was juiced up, came out and competed and had fun. That’s what we want to do: execute at a high level. I have some little things to work on and fix, but I thought it was good to have everybody going hard.”

The overall objective of getting ready for the season is pretty clear. The individual and collective specifics, however, can vary widely depending on how it is viewed.

“I think we just have to continue to get better. We need to get better up front to improve the run game and down the field game,” Bohanon said. “We just need to kind of understand what we’re trying to do within every play. For me, it’s just about continuing to take in the offense, come out here and replicate it and execute at a high level. Now I’m at a good point where I can just get out there and react to whatever the defense does.”

BYU sophomore linebacker Harrison Taggart immediately pointed to the need to be unified as a team when he was asked about what the focus needs to be for the next few weeks.

“One of our main topics was becoming brothers, becoming one with the guy next to you,” Taggart said. “You need to know this guy’s got my back no matter what happens.”

Cougar junior quarterback Jake Retzlaff said that has been an area the team emphasized throughout the offseason as well, which should pay dividends in camp.

“Chemistry isn’t always going out and throwing the football all day,” Retzlaff said. “It’s going to the pool, hanging out, swimming, playing golf. The chemistry with the guys has made us a really tight group now and we’re just getting tighter and tighter every day.”

BYU watch list update

A pair of Cougar football players were added to watch lists for the 2024 season on Thursday.

BYU center Connor Pay was named to the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy Watch List for the 2024 football season. Established in 2005, the trophy is presented annually by the Wuerffel Foundation to the college football player who best combines exemplary community service with leadership and achievement on and off the field.

Pay, a 6-6, 312-pound senior, from Alpine, Utah, was recently named to the 2024 Athlon Sports All-Big 12 Team and to the East-West Shrine Bowl 1000 Watch List, which identifies the nation’s top NFL draft eligible players for the coming season.

As a junior in 2023, Pay was on the watch list for Rimington Trophy for a second-straight season and was named preseason All-Big 12 by Athlon Sports and Pro Football Focus. Following his sophomore season in 2022 he was named to the College Network All-Independent First Team.

In addition to his success on the field, Pay also excels in the classroom with a 3.84 GPA in entrepreneurial management. He was named CSC Academic All-District in both 2023 and 2024 and was selected to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team following the 2023 season.

Pay is actively involved in variety of community service endeavors. He regularly volunteers at local foodbank Tabitha’s Way Food Pantry and visits patients at the Utah Valley Hospital who are struggling with illness and accidents. Additionally, Pay has done volunteer work with the Make a Wish Foundation and is actively involved in the BYU True Blue Hero program that honors individuals in the community who are battling to overcome life-changing illnesses. From 2018-20, Pay served a two-year volunteer service mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Washington, D.C.

The Wuerffel Trophy is named after Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Hall of Fame inductee Danny Wuerffel, whose life mission is to inspire greater service in the world.

Beginning with the 2024 season, the Wuerffel Foundation has partnered with Allstate to unify college football’s highest community service honors. Eleven of the Wuerffel Trophy watch list honorees will be named to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team and become semifinalists for the Wuerffel Trophy.

The winner of the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy will be announced during the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show on Dec. 12, 2024. An awards gala will take place on Feb. 1, 2025, at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.

In addition, BYU wide receiver and return specialist Parker Kingston was also named to the Paul Hornung Award Watch List for the 2024 football season.

Established in 2010 by the Louisville Sports Commission, the Paul Hornung Award presented by Texas Roadhouse is awarded annually to the most versatile player in college football at the Division 1 FBS level.

Kingston, a 5-11, 180-pound sophomore, played in all 12 games as a freshman at BYU in 2023, finishing with 19 receptions for 207 yards and a touchdown. A quarterback in high school, Kingston also threw two touchdown passes and became just the seventh player in BYU history to throw a TD pass and catch a TD in the same game in the Cougars’ 38-31 victory at Arkansas. For his efforts versus Arkansas, Kingston was named to the Paul Hornung Honor Roll in week three of the season.

In addition to his offensive numbers, Kingston had six kickoff returns for 164 yards, averaging 27.3 yards per return, and 11 punt returns for 51 yards, averaging 4.6 yards per return during the 2023 season.

The Hornung Award is named in memory of the late football legend and Louisville, Kentucky, native Paul Hornung. The winner of the 2024 Award will be honored at the annual Paul Hornung Award dinner in Louisville in March 2025.

A native of Louisville, Hornung won the 1956 Heisman Trophy at Notre Dame and was the No. 1 pick in the 1957 NFL Draft. He played every position in the backfield during his career with the Irish, where he also punted, kicked, returned kicks, and played defensive back. While in the NFL, Hornung was a multi-threat offensive back and prolific kicker. He was a member of four NFL championship teams as an all-pro halfback for the Green Bay Packers.

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