No. 17 BYU football looking to prove it wants bowl win more
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- BYU prepares to play in the 2024 Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.
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- BYU football players and cheerleaders enjoy the festivities leading up to the 2024 Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024.
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- BYU football coach Kalani Sitake addresses his team during practice for the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024.
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- BYU football players enjoy the festivities leading up to the 2024 Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024.
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- BYU football players enjoy the festivities leading up to the 2024 Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024.
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- BYU head coach Kalani Sitake talks to the crowd during the festivities leading up to the 2024 Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024.
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick and defensive coordinator Jay Hill all coached at Utah during a stretch from 1999 to 2017 where the Utes won 14 of the 15 bowl games they played in.
What was the key?
All three said it starts with embracing the moment.
“I think you’ve got to be excited about the game and the matchup,” Hill said earlier in December. “I think you’ve got to handle these practices the right way. I think the last two weeks of practice has been as good a practice as we’ve had on defense, so I’m excited about that. But guys have got to be excited about the matchup.”
Roderick said: “I think the biggest thing about bowl games is that usually the team that’s most excited about being there usually wins. That’s the first thing. You’ve got to show up excited to play and be excited to finish the season on the right note. It starts with just enthusiasm and being excited about the game itself.”
Some teams that start hot like the Cougars did and then have their big dreams dashed late in the season have a tough time recovering, but Roderick doesn’t believe that will be a problem for BYU this year.
“We’ve had a fun year,” Roderick said. “We’ve had a great year. I think everybody is excited to play this game, for sure. And we’re playing against a really good team that we respect a lot. I think it’s one of the most exciting games this month.”
On paper, Saturday’s 2024 Valero Alamo Bowl matchup between the No. 17-ranked Cougars (10-2) and No. 23-ranked Colorado (9-3) is certainly intriguing. Both teams were part of the four-way tie atop the Big 12 standings but lost out on a chance to play in the Big 12 championship game due to tiebreakers.
That led BYU junior quarterback Jake Retzlaff to say he personally thinks of the bowl as the “people’s Big 12 championship” in the team press conference on Thursday.
Both the Cougars and the Buffaloes talked extensively about the challenge they faced by lining up to play each other.
Colorado defensive coordinator Robert Livingston, for example, said watching film of BYU clearly showed what makes the Cougars so good this year.
“The best complement you can give them is you feel them every time they play,” Livingston said. “There’s a real attitude with how they play. They play connected football.
“Obviously they run the heck out of it. They do a great job. They’re physical on all levels. The quarterback is a great athlete. They play hard. It will be a great challenge.”
Hill echoed those sentiments when talking about going up against the Buffalo offense.
“I think it’s a fun challenge for us,” Hill said. “Their pass offense against our pass defense will be the matchup everyone will be looking at on our side of the ball. We are obviously going to have to do some things to get pressure on (Colorado senior quarterback Shedeur Sanders) and to disguise our coverages. He is a very intelligent quarterback, so if you just sit in one thing and he knows where to go with the ball, he’s very accurate.”
BYU’s offense will also need to be crisp, according to Roderick, because it is going to be battling a really good Colorado defense.
“It’s a very NFL-style defense,” Roderick said. “Their defensive Coordinator came from the NFL and obviously Coach Prime (Deion Sanders) is an NFL guy. They’ve got a bunch of NFL coaches. They have very skilled players, play lots of man coverage, and their pass rush is for real. Those defensive linemen want to get after the quarterback. They are a very good defense. I have a lot of respect for these guys. They’re good.”
Despite the higher ranking, the Cougars come into the bowl game as the underdogs — which BYU junior wide receiver Chase Roberts said isn’t a big deal.
“That’s just always how we’ve been,” Roberts said. “Ever since the start of the season, we were the underdogs when we came to winter workouts, spring ball, fall camp. That’s the mentality we’ve had going into each game and that’s the mentality we have going against Colorado. Every game has been a statement game, so we are going to go make another statement on Saturday.”
Seniors on both teams don’t think motivation will be an issue since this is their college football swan song.
“For guys like (senior defensive lineman Tyler Batty) and me, this is our last chance in a BYU uniform, and that’s plenty of motivation,” Cougar senior offensive lineman Connor Pay said. “This is the last time we get to wear that Y on our chest and be with our teammates. You want to go out and perform the best you ever have. It’s your last chance. There’s nothing to hold back. That’s the mentality that we’re taking to this game, at least for the seniors.”
So what sign should BYU fans look for to know their Cougars are all-in on playing their best?
“We’ll be dancing in the end zone and having fun on the field all game,” Retzlaff said. “You’ll see when we play best, I know we have a lot of smiles among all of us. There’s a lot of smiles when we’re playing our best. You’ll see the smiles come Saturday, and we’ll be excited to hit that field.”
Valero Alamo Bowl: No. 17 BYU vs. No. 23 Colorado
TIME: 5:30 p.m. MT
TV: ESPN
WHERE: Alamodome, San Antonio
THE WORD: This will be the 13th meeting between BYU and Colorado with the Cougars trailing, 3-8-1 … The two schools have not played since the 1988 Freedom Bowl in Anaheim, Calif., where the Cougars edged the Buffaloes, 20-17 … BYU and Colorado were previously members of the same conference, beginning with the Rocky Mountain Conference from 1922-1936 and then the Mountain States from 1937-1947 … This will be BYU’s first appearance in the Alamo Bowl and the 41st bowl overall dating back to the 1974 Fiesta Bowl. Among their 41 bowl appearances, the Cougars have played in 21 different bowl games in 12 states … BYU’s 41 bowl invitations rank tied for No 23 among college programs. In the Big 12, only Texas Tech has made more bowl appearances (42). The Cougars have gone bowling in 18 of the past 20 seasons.
