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BYU wide receiver Keanu Hill (1) stands on the field after an NCAA college football game against Oklahoma State Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023, in Stillwater, Okla. (AP Photo/Mitch Alcala)

Mitch Alcala, AP Photo

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BYU head coach Kalani Sitake talks to the officials during the Big 12 game against Oklahoma at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

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BYU defenders make a tackle during the Big 12 game against Oklahoma at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

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West Virginia's Devon Carter, right, is forced out of bounds by BYU's Eddie Heckard during the first half of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023, in Morgantown, W.Va. West Virginia won 37-7. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson)

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BYU's Keelan Marion is tackled by a pair of Texas players during a Big 12 college football game in Austin on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU football isn’t getting a lot of buzz heading into 2024.

Early prognosticators dismiss the Cougars, slotting them in the bottom tier of the Big 12 and as low as No. 90 in the nation.

BYU did end up 5-7 last year, lost all five Big 12 road games and finished tied for 11th in the conference, which clearly had a big impact on how the Cougars are being regarded getting ready for this fall.

The fact that BYU was four plays from beating Kansas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to get to 8-4 and reach a bowl game?

The fact that the Cougars were in the first year of a new defensive system after coaching changes?

The fact that BYU had significant injuries at key positions?

The fact that the Cougars had a large number of players commit to returning, resulting in an experienced foundation?

All those things are either ignored or irrelevant, according to some observers.

So BYU is definitely under the radar, something Cougar head coach Kalani Sitake is going to work with.

“I like where we’re at currently right now,” Sitake said earlier this month. “The underdog role is back for us now. So we’ll have a chip on our shoulder and away we go. It will be fun.”

BYU players, however, certainly aren’t happy to be viewed as a mediocre team heading into the season.

“I feel like I would rather be recognized (than be the underdog),” Cougar junior safety Micah Harper said after the BYU football media golf scramble at Cedar Hills golf club in Cedar Hills on Monday. “But I can see both sides and they can be really good. At the end of the day, when you’re underappreciated, you can sneak in past people. But I also like being in the front of the race and just staying out there.”

Harper explained that the low predictions aren’t something the players talk a lot about right now, choosing instead to focus on improvement.

“I wouldn’t say that we talk about it that much, but we all have our personal goals,” Harper said. “We all have our team goals. I feel like we are all aligned together and we all want to accomplish those goals. All the outside noise doesn’t matter. People are going to talk regardless, good or bad.”

BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said he doesn’t put much stock in the concept of being a favorite or being an underdog, either in a game or for the season.

“I honestly don’t even think about that,” Roderick said. “I’m always just very focused on the task at hand. I think it’s useless to think about the total number of wins before the season. I know it’s fun for fans and people to look at the schedule and speculate about wins, but I don’t think that way. To me, it’s about what can I do today to get better, what am I’m doing. And I ask each of the players do the same thing.”

He said the Cougars need to get the job done to be able to go get their first win, then move on to the next one.

“If you look too far ahead or you worry too much about if you’re an underdog or favorite or whatever, you can easily just lose sight of the things it takes to win the next game,” Roderick said. “We’re trying to get our guys just to focus on the process of what it takes to win, then not worry about the end result. The result at the end will be something that we’ll all be proud of if we just take care of business right now.”

There is nothing BYU can do at this point to change what happened in 2023 (and the impact it had on how the Cougars are perceived), so Roderick instead chooses to see the silver lining from the disappointing finish.

“It might have been a blessing in disguise that we didn’t pull out a win in one of those last two weeks,” Roderick said. “If we won one of those games, you go into December and you go to a bowl game and everybody’s feeling pretty good.

“They’re thinking, ‘we did pretty well and made it to a bowl game in our first year.’ Then you go right back into January and start your whole routine again. I think not making it to a bowl, not playing as well as we had on offense in the three years prior, was a wake-up call for everyone. Everyone wants to prove we are better than that.”

His perspective is that whatever people predict doesn’t have a lot of impact. All that matters is what happens on the field starting on Aug. 31.