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BYU's Devaughn Eka (left) and Journee Tonga carry flags onto the field before a college football game against Utah Tech at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

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BYU's LJ Martin carries the ball against Utah Tech in a college football game at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

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Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Here’s what’s going on inside Darnell’s head as I contemplate the value of one second.

The first full weekend of college football certainly had its, shall we say, polar opposites: Plenty of mismatches and blowouts (like BYU’s 63-7 win against Utah Tech) and the shenanigans that led to Michigan’s stunning answered Hail Mary to beat Western Michigan.

Many of the media members in the press box at LaVell Edwards Stadium were following the final moments of the Michigan-Western Michigan game instead of BYU-Utah Tech and more than one social media post gleefully pointed out the significance of former Utah coach (and BYU linebacker) Kyle Whittingham falling flat on his face in Game 1 in front of more than 100,000 fans at the Big House.

In fact, there were several that jumped the gun and posted that Western Michigan had pulled off the upset.

No so fast, my friend.

It was a pretty remarkable finish and made all the more controversial because the game management staff was obviously looking at a different game clock than the one we were following on the broadcast to allow one more second and one more play.

While Michigan escaped with the dramatic victory, the bigger issue was how awful the Wolverines looked the first 59:59 of the game. Yikes, Kyle and former BYU quarterback Jason Beck (Michigan’s offensive coordinator) have a lot of work to do, don’t they?

The clock controversy reminded me of this anecdote: Alex Jacobsen is a former Orem High football coach. I was covering a playoff game up in Salt Lake and the Tigers were trying to run out the last few minutes of the game. Jacobsen thought the clock management by the home team was pretty creative, and I heard him say, “I hope that clock operator isn’t a math teacher at this school.”

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

PRO No. 1: Legend Glasker is the greatest freshman to ever don a BYU uniform.

I wrote a feature on Glasker for our BYU Game Day section. One of the questions I asked him was what play call would get him excited. He said: “Something like a jet sweep, maybe. We have a lot of those in the playbook, or just a deep post. I’ve got to be ready for all of it.”

(Narrator: “He was, in fact, ready for all of it.”)

Look, I was just trying to write a story about how well-prepared Glasker was for the college game. I had no idea he would predict exactly how he would score his first touchdown (and his third).

Turns out the coaches weren’t kidding about how well he had practiced since joining the team in January.

He’s got some competition as best freshman ever (Austin Collie, Luke Staley, Harvey Unga and Aaron Francisco come to mind off the top of my head) and it’s just Game 1. But Glasker looked pretty good.

PRO No. 2: The supposed depth of the Cougars is a myth.

The BYU defense stopped Utah Tech cold for about 2 and 1/2 quarters. Then the 2s, 3s and 4s came in. The Trailblazers had a drive of 15 plays, 75 yards and 7:45 off the clock in the third quarter and 14 plays, 60 yards and 7:34 off the clock in the fourth. Utah Tech put up 135 of its 184 total yards on those two drives and scored its only touchdown on the first one.

I know the Cougars were playing vanilla defense at the time. But if there’s that much of a drop-off between the starters and the backups on defense, that raises a bit of an alarm in my book.

PRO No. 3: Kelly Poppinga has it all figured out as BYU’s new defensive coordinator.

Kind of hard to judge because we only got to see the regular rotation for a few series and starting linebacker Isaiah Glasker was held out of the game, though it appears he’ll be 100 percent next week for Arizona. It also looks like the Cougars have lost starting safety Raider Damuni for what could be a significant amount of time due to an injury. Certainly Utah Tech’s offense wasn’t much of a threat and next week it’ll be Wildcats quarterback Noah Fifita BYU is facing, so we’ll know more then.

And finally, PRO No. 4: The Cougars are going undefeated this year.

The Utah Tech game went pretty much exactly as it should have for the Cougars, who looked strong and powerful against an inferior opponent. Tougher test are coming, but there wasn’t much to surprise anyone in Game 1. Still, 1-0 is a great start in any season. Take it and run.

Who Carried the Boats and the Logs?

I first saw this term in something former BYU linebacker Kyle Van Noy wrote and I thought it was a good one.

While Glasker had a terrific debut, the running backs room was the star on Saturday. LJ Martin, Sione Moa, Devaughn Eka, Journee Tonga, Preston Rex, Logan Payne and Charles Miska combined to get the Cougars to over 300 rushing yards and 6.7 yards per carry. RB coach Harvey Unga is doing good work there.

A special mention to the BYU student section, which stayed in their seats through the entire blowout. Kalani Sitake mentioned several times in post-game interviews that several of the players who transferred in from other power conference schools said they had never seen anything like that.

Funny stuff

Some great responses to the Michigan-Western Michigan finale on social media. My favorite was from Brian Fagan (@bdfagan): “Prior to Western Michigan, college football teams were 110,352-0 when leading at the end of regulation, dating back to 1869.”

Second favorite was from multiple sources, showing a road sign: “Welcome to Ann Arbor. Set your clocks back one second.”

Get off my lawn

For some reason, former Cougar and radio host Ben Criddle thinks I’m kind of a old curmudgeon just because I don’t like the direction college sports are headed. I don’t think I complain all that much but he started a regular segment when I call in be interviewed on ESPN The Fan called, “Get Off My Lawn,” a nod to Clint Eastwood in the movie “Gran Torino.”

So I’m duplicating it for you lovely folks who read this column on the regular.

There out to be a law against playing car crashing sounds or horns honking on radio commercials. Nearly gives me a heart attack every time and I start getting flashbacks to getting t-boned back in 2020.

I miss my Honda Pilot.

That’s all for now, but for this: I’ve vowed not to eat any chocolate chip cookies at BYU football games this year. The problem is that those press box cookies are so good, one turns into three turns into five pretty easily.

Of course, I did have a mint brownie at halftime. I mean, you have to, right?

Hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day. Let’s get back at it now, shall we?