1 / 2

BYU's Evan Johnson celebrates a sack against TCU in a Big 12 football game at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025.

Marcia Harris, Special to the Herald

2 / 2

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

❮ ❯

Here’s what’s going on inside Darnell’s head on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

My brain is still melted from Jonny Harline’s amazing rock-and-roll guitar version of the national anthem before the BYU-TCU football game Saturday night.

The former All-American tight end can really shred, you know?

I feel like Jimmy Hendrix was applauding like mad in heaven.

BYU’s 44-13 win against the Horned Frogs was as complete of a game as the Cougars have played all year. The offense scored on its first seven possessions. The defense, while it gave up some rushing yards, limited TCU’s potent passing game and came up with two interceptions. Will Ferrin kicked three field goals so special teams made a contribution as well.

Coming off of last week’s disappointing effort at Texas Tech, it was a much-needed response.

Not that the AP voters cared. The bias for SEC and Big Ten teams (and Notre Dame) borders on the ridiculous. There are three two-loss teams — Oklahoma, the Irish and Alabama — ahead of the No. 11 Cougars (9-1) in this week’s poll. Heck, Utah has been playing as well as anyone in the country after it’s loss to BYU and at 8-2 stayed right at No. 13 after pummeling Baylor.

When the new College Football Playoff rankings come out on Tuesday, I’m sure the Cougars and Utes will stay right on the fringe.

It’s what we’ve come to expect, but here’s what’s different: BYU controls its own destiny. Just keep winning and even biased college football “experts” can’t deny you.

Now it’s time for Perfectly Rational Overreactions (PROs).

PRO No. 1: BYU needs style points to convince the country it is legit.

Saturday’s game was over with the Cougars up 37-14 early in the fourth quarter but we’ve all seen this show before: BYU gets a nice lead, pulls back the reigns on the offense, puts in some defensive subs and the opponent scores once or twice late to make the game seem closer than it was. We were all expecting the final to be 37-20 or even 37-27.

But this time, Tanner Wall’s electric 68-yard pick six made the score 44-13 and the backups stood tall with a fourth down stop when TCU was threatening to put up not-so-meaningless touchdown in the final minute.

Kalani Sitake continues to say he’s not about style points, no matter how many times Cougar fans demand them.

I feel like oftentimes BYU earns a three-or-four touchdown win but lets up on the gas late and the game looks closer than it was. Last night was an exception. They honestly need more of those to make an impression on voters (and computer rating, really).

PRO No. 2: The BYU offense is back.

What a difference a week makes, right? Texas Tech’s defense is one of the top five in the country and the Cougars looked pretty inept against it last week. On Saturday, the execution was terrific and Aaron Roderick’s play calling didn’t miss very often. Bear Bachmeier looked really good. Sitake made a comment on his radio post-game about they don’t need to max protect Bachmeier like they did against the Red Raiders. Something to think about if there’s a rematch. Meanwhile, BYU plays at Cincinnati (82nd in the country in total defense) and hosts UCF (28th) the final two weeks of the Big 12 schedule.

PRO No. 3: BYU wouldn’t be able to beat Utah right now.

Certainly the Utes have been on a tear since their 24-21 loss to the Cougars on October 18, beating Colorado 53-7, Cincinnati 45-14 and Baylor 55-28 the past three games. It should be noted that Utah rushed for an average of 356 yards per game against those three teams. In losses to Texas Tech and BYU, the Utes managed 101 and 226 rushing yards, respectively. No need to do the math: If you can slow down Utah’s running game, you can beat them.

As far as whether BYU could beat Utah now, it’s irrelevant. No need to deal in hypotheticals. The two teams played and the Cougars won. End of story.

And finally, PRO No. 4: Two more wins gets BYU into the college football playoffs.

You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you? (said in the voice of Vizzini from “The Princess Bride,” obviously.) An 11-1 Cougar team makes the Big 12 Championship Game, likely against Texas Tech, but an 11-2 BYU team would be no guarantee to get into the playoffs. Ironically, it could be the Group of Five representative (whoever that might be) that could keep the Cougars out. I still have a hard time understanding how the CFP could keep BYU out if its only two losses were to Texas Tech, but I could see it happening. The Cougars need to keep winning, regardless.

Who Carried the Boats and the Logs?

So many excellent performances to choose from, right? This week I’m picking Bachmeier. He’s so much more than just his statistics, which were markedly better this week than in the game against Texas Tech. He’s a dual threat but underrated as a passer. He threw some dimes on Saturday. But the mental toughness and resiliency he showed is even more impressive.

We had visions

Early in the fourth quarter, Jackson Payne of the Deseret News and I were in the press box chatting about the need for BYU to pick up some style points. Payne said, “A pick six would change everything” which was followed by Tanner Wall doing exactly that.

I will say that I tweeted about the need for the Cougars to get a turnover right before Faletau Satuala got his pick.

By the way, Jackson is in his first year as an AP men’s basketball poll voter. Give him a follow and give him some feedback (@jackson5payne).

Off-target

The BYU women’s basketball team shot 9 for 41 (22%) from the 3-point line at the Marriott Center a few games ago. The men’s team missed their first 11 3-pointers at home against Delaware and started 0-for-9 against UConn on Saturday.

I remember when the Marriott Center Annex practice facility was opened in 2017, men’s coach Dave Rose said it would allow players to get extra shots up whenever they wanted.

It’s not working.

Maybe they should tear the MCA down and start over.

That’s all for now, but for this: My wife, my daughter and I have a friendly argument every November about the proper time to start listening to Christmas music. I contend that we should wait until after Thanksgiving; my wife and daughter insist on starting much, much earlier.

I gave the matter some thought and figured out how to program our Alexa Show (in the kitchen) to respond to the request, “Alexa, play Christmas music” with “I’m sorry. Christmas music isn’t allowed until after Thanksgiving.”

I came home one day last week to find my wife merrily putting out Christmas decorations. I slyly said, “I’m surprised you aren’t listening to Christmas music.”

So she said, “Alexa, play Christmas music” … and nothing happened. While cleaning she had accidently unplugged the Alexa.

We plugged it back in but then she wandered off. I went downstairs but eventually heard my daughter say, “Alexa, play Christmas music” and heard Alexa respond as I had programmed her.

I heard my daughter say, “What?” and then my wife asked Alexa the same thing, getting the same programmed response.

She immediately came downstairs because she knew it was me.

They’d been had and they knew it.

The payoff was worth the wait. The programming function is called, “Routines.”

Your welcome, guys.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas (in the future) and have a terrific week.