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BYU's Tyler Batty greets fans after the Cougars' 34-28 victory at Baylor in Waco on Saturday, Sept. 28, 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 an exhausting Saturday morning.

Going 5-0 shouldn’t be this hard, should it?

Story Time

I covered Orem’s 30-28 victory against Maple Mountain in high school football on Friday. The Tigers head coach is Lance Reynolds Jr., son of former BYU assistant coach Lance Sr. Last week, Orem gave up 60 points in a 60-59 loss at Sky View. Lance Jr. asked his father for some advice, and Lance Sr. delivered.

He said this: Don’t overreact.

“He said that overreacting was a mistake, like revamping a bunch of stuff and then you’re starting from scratch in a lot of ways,” Lance Jr. said. “We did run the crap out of them (in practice), but we didn’t change much. We just said, ‘This is what we do, we’re going to get good at it and we’re going to be better than we were.’ And man, did they step up when we needed it.”

The Tigers were solid in the second half, making five straight stops to allow the offense to help recover from a 21-7 hole to win 30-28.

A wise lesson from Lance Sr., don’t you think? Some BYU fans want coaches fired and players replaced. Blow it all up. Saturday was not a vintage day for the Cougars in Waco, and exposed some real weaknesses on both sides of the ball. Kalani said the bye week is still a work week, and the Cougars need it.

On the other hand, Saturday was BYU’s first-ever Big 12 road win. Kudos for figuring out a way to overcome adversity and hang on for the win.

Now it’s time for Perfectly Rational Overreactions (PROs) from BYU’s harrowing 34-28 win at Baylor.

PRO No. 1: Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick was way too conservative in his second-half play calling.

He did kind of pull things back, but can you blame him? (Of course you can. That’s what being a fan is all about). He was already down his top three running backs and lost two of his best offensive linemen during the game. Jake Retzlaff, despite a very hot start, struggled against Baylor’s defensive adjustments. It was pretty obvious from Roderick’s play calling he wasn’t confident in attacking the Bears like he did in the first quarter. So he tried to play it safe and it almost backfired. Fortunately for the Cougars, the defense came through late to seal things.

Boy that first quarter, though. BYU took the momentum from last week’s upset of Kansas State, put that Special Stuff in a giant Stanley cup, hauled it to Waco and drank it in the locker room before the game.

Talk about stacking good plays. The Cougars could do no wrong for the first 12 minutes.

Things changed dramatically in the second half. BYU managed just 81 total yards, rushing for 45 yards and passing for just 36. Roderick played for a field goal that would have given the Cougars a 16-point lead, but Will Ferrin, who nailed two previous kicks, missed. Even if he makes it that’s still a two-score game and you can wonder about that call. When Roderick did get aggressive, letting Retzlaff throw it on a key third down, the ball was tipped and intercepted.

There has been a lot of buzz about “playing not to lose” but I think play calling is much more nuanced than that. It’s all about your belief that your guys can execute the plays.

PRO No. 2: After getting riddled by Baylor, Jay Hill’s defense is not elite.

Boy, is there egg on my face. I wrote a glowing feature comparing this group to the 2012 defense and they go out and get worked by Sawyer Robertson and the Baylor receivers. It was a really difficult matchup. Those Bears receivers caught EVERYTHING and the Cougar secondary was constantly a step or two behind. I know the coaches love to play a lot of guys back there but it seemed that Baylor took advantage of every single bad matchup. BYU will face a lot of great receivers in this league so maybe it was as good thing for the coaches to get a look at how they might be able to be better against future opponents.

The final three Baylor possessions went punt-downs-interception with the Cougars clinging to a six-point lead. Credit Hill and the D for coming up big when it counted.

PRO No. 3: The bye week will heal all of BYU’s wounds.

It’s great to be 5-0 but there is still so much to fix. There’s a long list of key players who are banged up. Certainly, the Cougars should get some back for Arizona on Oct. 12 but even if they don’t, they have a couple of weeks to get backups ready for play. Bye week is also a time for coordinators to break down their play calling and figure out how to break tendencies. BYU actually gets two bye weeks in 2024 (the other is before the Utah game) and how efficient it utilizes the break is going to be really critical. As long as the players are not satisfied (and they shouldn’t be after Saturday’s uneven performance), growth can still happen in the next two weeks.

Finally, PRO No. 4: At 5-0 BYU is a lock for a bowl game.

As we learned last year, nothing is ever a lock in college football. A 5-0 start is wonderful but there are really tough matchups ahead. No one can start making travel plans just yet. Being 5-0 (and 2-0 in Big 12 play) is better than most Cougar fans would admit to predicting. It’s been a fantastic start and a testament to the recruiting and development of good players by the staff. Lots of work still to do, for sure, but it’s clear this is a much better team than in 2023. Is BYU a Big 12 championship contender? After Kansas State, I thought “yes.” After Saturday, I’m going to need some more convincing.

Who Carried the Boats and the Logs?

I don’t think I’ve ever given this to a punter, but why not? BYU’s Sam Vander Haar punted three times for 51-yard average, including a 70-yarder downed at the 1-yard line. His 22-yard fake punt run was BYU’s biggest offensive play of the second half. I would say everyone else’s performances was way too inconsistent. I did think Tyler Batty had a really, really good game at defensive end and despite a couple of drops, wide receiver Darius Lassiter was a real impact player.

While your back was turned

Officials ought to be able to review personal fouls. It’s almost always both players in the wrong but the retaliator usually gets the penalty because the ref didn’t see the first act. In the case of a late personal foul on BYU offensive tackle Caleb Etienne, the officials were completely and utterly fooled by a magnificent flop from a yappy Baylor defensive back that would have earned eye rolls even in soccer. At that stage of the game, to call such a penalty is ridiculous.

I mean, I would hate for the game to take even longer because the ref is looking at a tiny TV monitor more, but get it right, OK?

Laugh it up, fuzzball

So my sister, Darlena, said she thinks I’m funny, too. Along with my wife and my kids, I’m moving closer to my goal of 10 people who think I’m funny. After telling my niece Becca a Dad Joke a few weeks ago, I think she’s still on the fence.

Working together

Last week I wrote about the nature of complementary football between the offense, defense and special teams. The Kansas State win was a perfect convergence of all three phases. Saturday was much less so but also worked. The offense’s hot start picked up a shaky defensive effort and the defense picked up a struggling offense late. Vander Harr made some huge plays on special teams. So the complementary play was messy, but it still made a difference when it counted.

That’s all I’ve got, but for this: So here was how the sausage was made in trying to get an interview with someone who could tell me about BYU tight end Mata’ava Ta’ase’s high school career for a feature I wrote a few weeks ago:

I left an e-mail message and a phone message with Ta’ase’s former high school coach, no response. I left an e-mail message with a guy who covers Arizona high school football and does a podcast, nothing. I got a hold of a sports writer from a newspaper in Arizona, but he said he didn’t cover the part of the state where Ta’ase played and referred me to another writer. That writer responded and got me in touch with Rusty Pagana, a former assistant coach at Mountain View Mesa, who coached Ta’ase and was a great interview.

Phew. To be fair, Ta’ase’s senior season at Mountain View Mesa was in 2015.

The message is clear. Time marches on.

Have a great bye week and remember to be kind. It doesn’t cost a thing.