BYU football calls first spring scrimmage ‘back and forth’
-
- BYU football players run a play during a scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Monday, March 17, 2025.
-
- BYU freshman receiver Tei Nacua catches a pass in the end zone during a scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Monday, March 17, 2025.
-
- BYU freshman running back Logan Payne avoids a tackle during a scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Monday, March 17, 2025.
-
- BYU sophomore running back Sione Moa runs toward the sideline as a defender tries to tackle him during a scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Monday, March 17, 2025.
So did the BYU football team’s offense or defense get the upper hand in its first scrimmage of spring camp on Monday?
Cougar head coach Kalani Sitake’s answer was basically just yes.
“It was back and forth,” Sitake said after the scrimmage on a teleconference on Monday. “The offense has had its moments, and the defense had its moments. It was kind of balanced in the overall performance.”
BYU junior offensive lineman Bruce Mitchell said there is so much competition going on that there isn’t really any clear delineation as far as which side did better.
“We play a lot of different situations, so it’s hard to determine who wins,” Mitchell said. “Sometimes we get the defense and sometimes they get us. We’ve got a really good defense, so that makes us better as an offense.
“It was back and forth. Maybe one of these times we’ll put up points or something and keep track of it, but I can’t say for sure. But it was a fun scrimmage. I think they’re making us better and We’re making them better, so we’ll be ready come fall.”
Sitake said that in the approximately 90 plays that BYU ran it was able to see some of the growth he wanted to see.
“We’re able to see some guys compete,” Sitake said. “That was a main thing. We wanted to kind of get used to the overall feeling of a game with refs and getting the calls in from the booth just doing like we would in a game with the headphones and all that stuff. I thought the guys did a great job.”
His assessment was that the Cougars are in good position for mid-March.
“Honestly, I think we’re further ahead than we’ve been,” Sitake said. “That being said, there’s still some room for improvement. But I really like the way the guys are working together, the team, the players and the coaches. We feel like it’s going really, really nicely for us. We’re obviously going to grade the film and see how they performed, but overall I thought it was good on both sides.”
Sitake sees players showing more familiarity and aptitude with what BYU wants to do on the gridiron.
“Some guys are really stepping up,” Sitake said. “You can see how comfortable people are getting with the scheme on both sides, and how comfortable they’re getting just with the overall experience of playing.”
He explained that one of the areas he emphasizes from the start is limiting the self-inflicted wounds that can cause so many problems for a team.
“I’m always looking at things like the penalties and discipline things,” Sitake said. “We didn’t have a lot of issues with false starts and things like that. We had a couple penalties that way and had a couple of holding calls on offense. Overall we had four penalties on the offense and one on the defense and I like that.”
He said part of the session was spent working on specific situations, just like the team has down throughout camp, and he saw both sides have success in those areas as well.
“I think it was give and take overall,” Sitake said. “I think we’ve been in these sometimes where it’s just one side wins the day, and that’s always frustrating. At the same time, when that happens you know where your deficiencies are and you can make up the difference. I think this is probably more balanced out. That should be a good sign for us, especially with the amount of snaps that we’ve gotten and the guys that were out there on the field.”
BYU junior safety Raider Damuni agreed with what Sitake said, saying he felt everyone got after it and made some plays.
“It was a good scrimmage today,” Damuni said. “It was our first real scrimmage of spring ball and so there’s definitely a lot of things that that we can be better at, we can improve on. Overall, as a whole for our first scrimmage, I thought that it was good. I thought we played pretty physical. The defense look good and the offense looks good always.”
Sitake said that these scrimmages are times when younger players get a chance to show they deserve more reps.
“We do have an idea of our ones will be and who’s competing for those spots,” Sitake said. “You have all these small competitions happening. I think the key is to get everyone bought in to the team, the vision and the goals that we want to accomplish as a team.
“When you get that going, then you allow them to compete for their starting spots. But we’re starting to realize that we have a really good, deep team. It’s just a matter of who’s going to be taking the first snaps.”
