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BYU's Darius Lassiter takes a selfie with fans after the Cougars' 38-35 victory against Oklahoma State at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Friday, Oct. 19, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Jo Jo Phillips (13) greats fans after the Cougars' 38-35 victory against Oklahoma State at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Here’s what’s going on inside Darnell’s head after another really late night at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

“Vampire Cougars”? How about “Vampire Sports Writers”?

To be honest, I’m pretty surprised that I’m still covering an undefeated college football team.

The Cougars weren’t great Friday night, especially defensively, where it didn’t seem like tackling or defending the read option was part of the practice plan last week. The offense had three turnovers as well.

But when the game was on the line, magic happened.

Or luck, if you believe most of the Ute fans on social media that, amazingly, stayed up all night to watch BYU-Oklahoma State and then on into the wee hours of the morning to try and tear down the Cougar victory.

What’s the term? Oh, yeah. “Rent free in their heads.”

Good and/or lucky

Luck plays a pretty big part in sports, and anybody who has played or watched any type of game or competition has experienced both sides.

Sometimes you get the breaks, and sometimes the breaks go against you.

A lot of credit goes to Oklahoma State, which put its bye week to good use and played really well offensively. Their game plan had the BYU defense chasing from behind most of the game. The Cowboys 17-play drive to take the lead in the final two minutes was pretty incredible. OSU converted three third downs and two fourth downs on that drive.

When OSU coach Mike Gundy was asked in the post-game if a performance like Friday would give his team momentum to “get things right” he responded, “I think we got it right tonight, didn’t you?”

Another bit of wisdom from Gundy: “College football is a pass/fail game.”

Yup.

Good? Lucky? Doesn’t matter.

All that matters is BYU won. It passed Test No. 7.

On to Test No. 8.

Now it’s time for Perfectly Rational Overreactions (PRO’s) from BYU’s stunning 38-35 victory against Oklahoma State.

PRO No. 1: Darius Lassiter is freaking uncoverable and BYU’s best receiver.

Lassiter has had some nice moments as a BYU receiver but he became a star on Friday. When asked if he celebrated with Retzlaff after the game-winning play, he just said, “I don’t remember.” Players kind of lose their minds in those situations and no one can blame them.

In the past three games, Lassiter has 19 catches for 335 yards and two touchdowns, including a pair of 100-yard performances. He’s got good size (6-2, 210) and deceptive speed. While Chase Roberts is probably Jake Retzlaff’s favorite third down receiver, Lassister is a big-play guy that has started to develop really good chemistry with his QB.

PRO No. 2: The BYU defense has some serious issues.

There are some things going on with the defense that concern me. Tackling in the past two games has been subpar. The constant substitutions seem to put experienced starters on the sideline and freshmen on the field in key situations. The way the Cougars defended the read option was atrocious. Kalani Sitake said there was some “hero ball” going on where guys were trying to do too much instead of their 1/11th and that sound right.

Then there’s BYU’s late down performance: Arizona was 11 of 19 on third downs two weeks ago. Oklahoma State was 9 of 13 on third down and 2 of 2 on fourth down, which means they kept their drives alive on 11 of 13 opportunities. OSU missed a field goal on one of those drives so the Cougar D forced exactly one punt all night long.

I know this group came into Friday’s game No. 1 in pass efficiency defense but sometimes numbers lie. I see what I see. BYU can’t get off the field and it’s going to cost them if they can’t figure out third downs.

PRO No. 3: Jake Retzlaff has his defining moment as a BYU quarterback.

The mark of a great player is to come up big when it counts. Retzlaff was not having his best game on Friday. He threw a pair of interceptions and at one point it looked like he might have hurt his left shoulder making a tackle on one of those picks. But Retzlaff made that last drive happen. His throw to Lassiter was money but his decision to turn upfield instead of going out of bounds to stop the clock resulted in 20 additional yards that set up the game-winning play. That’s a daring move with just over 30 seconds to go.

After the game, Retzlaff was asked what he loved about his team. He said “The way there’s no flinch. We know who we are.”

Weird stat of the year: Retzlaff has throw for 218 yards in each of the past three games.

Finally PRO No. 4: BYU is now 7-0 and a team of destiny.

What will it take for you to believe?

Close calls are all a part of special seasons. The 1984 team was honored before the start of Friday’s game and that national championship season survived Hawaii (an 18-13 win), Wyoming (41-38) Air Force (30-25) and eventually Michigan in the Holiday Bowl (24-17). When the Cougars went 14-1 in 1996, there were close wins against Texas A&M (41-37), New Mexico (17-14), Wyoming in the WAC Championship Game (28-25 in OT) and eventually Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl (19-15).

A team of destiny? It’s a nice turn of phrase but doesn’t get you any more victories. The Cougars have to keep improving and fix the leaks in the defense. Hey, next week BYU is at UCF and the Golden Knights went into Saturday No. 4 in the country in rushing offense (268 yards per game). That will be a challenge.

Who Carried the Boats and the Logs?

Who can choose between Retzlaff and Lassiter?

I can.

Retzlaff had his comeback moment and Lassiter bookended the game with huge plays. We tend to give most of the credit to the quarterback (and the blame) so I’ll stick with The BYU Jew. His story is fantastic, from his religion to his journey from missing out on his senior year in high school because of COVID, to taking on the junior college challenge to overcoming a tough start to his Cougar career last season. How can you not love Jake?

Impress me

I’m not a huge fan of fireworks. You’ve seen one fireworks show, you’ve pretty much seen them all. The hassle of locating parking, finding a good place to watch them and then navigating your way back home through insane traffic is not worth it to me anymore.

However … If all of those fireworks shows are replaced by drone shows?

I’m in.

The fantastic drones at LES on Friday night produced BYU logos, words to the Cougar fight song and even one where it formed the shape of a football player (No. 12, so Retzlaff) throwing the ball.

That’s some “Spiderman: Far From Home” level stuff. I’m surprised there wasn’t a big reveal where a curtain was pulled back and Mysterio was shown operating the controls.

Remember, remember

If you get a chance, read a couple of stories about the 1984 national championship season. One is from Bill Connelly on ESPN.com (“Why BYU’s 1984 national title still matters in college football”) and another in our own Daily Herald (“40 years later: Former BYU SID Ralph Zobell remembers 1984 national championship season”).

I was serving a church mission in 1984 and our mission president gave us permission to watch the game. It started late in the eastern time zone (I was in Ohio) and most of the other missionaries had fallen asleep by the time Robbie Bosco threw the winning touchdown pass to Kelly Smith in the final moments of the Holiday Bowl.

Paranoid coaches

The whole episode with Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham and quarterback Cameron Rising is over (we think) after it was announced Rising’s injury is season ending. After weeks of being cagey about whether or not Rising was healthy enough to go, the Utes can turn things over to freshman Isaac Wilson and get on with their season.

The whole thing makes me laugh. Whittingham told reporters he didn’t want to give his opponents a competitive advantage by telling them who is starting at quarterback.

What’s so funny? Hey, ALL coaches are paranoid freaks. Even if he had announced Rising was the starter the opposing coach would STILL prepare for Wilson because of the paranoia of not being prepared for EVERYTHING.

That’s all for now, but for this: There is a Starbucks AND a Dutch Bros. within a block of my house. I thought I lived in Utah. When did I move back to Oregon?

BYU fans have a few weeks to recover before the next home game (Nov. 16 vs. Kansas). Take a deep breath and enjoy your week.