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Kansas head coach Lance Leipold speaks during Big 12 NCAA college football media days in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucas Peltier)

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Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham answers questions from the media during the Big 12 NCAA college football media days in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucas Peltier)

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Houston head coach Willie Fritz speaks during the Big 12 Conference NCAA college football media days in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucas Peltier)

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On paper, BYU football should be looking at a much easier home stretch than it had in 2023.

Last year the Cougars faced Iowa State (tied for No. 4 in the Big 12), Oklahoma (the No. 3 team) and Oklahoma State (the No. 2 team) in the last three weeks of the season.

This fall, on the other hand, BYU is slated to face Arizona State, Kansas and Houston, who the Big 12 media preseason poll ranked at No. 16, No. 4 and No. 15 respectively.

Given the historical inaccuracy of the preseason picks, those rankings should be taken with a healthy amount of skepticism. But the Cougars do have two of those games at home (just going to ASU), which should help.

Here is the last in a three-part series looking at what three of BYU’s opponents focused on at Big 12 football media days at Allegient Stadium in Las Vegas last week, starting with a resurgent program: Kansas.

Kansas Jayhawks

It’s a time of change for a Jayhawk program that has gone from being near the bottom of the college football world to become much more competitive — and a familiar face to Cougar fans is part of it.

Kansas head coach Lance Leipold hired former BYU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes to be the assistant head coach and co-offensive coordinator for the Jayhawks.

“Coach Aranda and Jeff Grimes and that staff won the Big 12 Conference (in 2021),” Leipold said on July 10. “And watching what they did when they played us and other things, I just thought we’d have a good fit. They have knowledge of the conference, and when we met and we talked about what we wanted to continue to do, did we have the right alignment once again, and I feel very confident that we do with Jeff as a coordinator.”

Kansas is also rebuilding its stadium, so the Jayhawks will be playing all of their Big 12 home games at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

“We have over 30 seniors, guys who have done an outstanding job helping us get this turned around,” Leipold said. “Part of me feels bad that they don’t get to play in large or get a chance to play in the new stadium renovated site. But then there’s a part that’s excited because we have a chance to play at an NFL stadium for conference football games. I think the locker room is pretty excited about it and we’re going to have to be ready to go.”

Kansas’s game against BYU, though, is on the road as the Jayhawks will come to Provo on Nov. 16.

Arizona State Wildcats

It was introductions for second-year Wildcat head coach Kenny Dillingham as Arizona State prepares for the transition to its new conference.

“We’re super excited to be in the Big 12,” Dillingham said on July 9. “We’re excited to play in all these unbelievable cities with the unbelievable atmospheres for our guys to play in. I think this is one of the best-coached conferences in the country. I think from top to bottom, I think every game is a grind. And we’re really excited to be a part of it.”

As he tries to get the Wildcats back on track, he said the focus is on getting stronger and tougher.

“If you watched this league and you look at the teams that have continually won in this league and the ones that are joining this league, it’s teams that are tough,” Dillingham said. “It’s also training and teaching our kids how to respond to adversity, the good and the bad. Those are the things that we’ve been harping on the last year. Those are the things in fall camp that we’re going to continue to preach.”

BYU will make its first trip to Tempe, Arizona, for the game on Nov. 23 since the 13-10 Cougar win in 1997.

Houston Cougars

The red-uniformed Cougars went through a wild range of experiences during their first year in the Big 12 but ended up with a disappointing 4-8 season, which means they are hungry to turn things around.

“I’m really trying to promote our strengths at the University of Houston,” new Houston head coach Willie Fritz on July 10. “We’re a Tier 1 academic institution. Our president has done an outstanding job of increasing enrollment. We’ve got 48,000 students.

“The other part of that that’s so important in this day and age is that we’re at the epicenter of football in the world in Houston, Texas. I love the fact I didn’t have to get on a plane to go recruit. I just stayed in my car the whole time when I went out recruiting. There’s plenty of great players throughout the state of Texas.”

He’s not one to talk about slowly getting his program up to speed. He believes Houston has the potential to be excellent quickly.

“We’ve got high expectations, just like all the coaches we’ve got up here,” Fritz said. “We want to win every one of these ball games that we play this season. That’s a process, learning about your team early in the season. Spring ball is great. Summer workouts are outstanding. But there’s nothing that compares to really playing real games. We’ll find out a lot about ourselves after the first couple weeks.”

Those lessons are ones that Fritz hopes Houston will have learned and get things clicking by the end of the year when they come to LaVell Edwards Stadium on Nov. 30.