Daily Herald sports reporters Darnell Dickson and Brandon C. Gurney use their sports expertise to riff on the hot BYU sports topics of the moment.

1. BYU was dropped five spots in the College Football Playoff rankings that were released on Tuesday night. Did that type of a drop surprise you and was it fair?

GURNEY: The problem BYU had with the latest poll is that most everyone either watched or was very aware with what transpired in a 29-7 gut-punch loss to Texas Tech. Did the Cougars look like a legitimate championship contender in the game? Nope, and the voting reflected as much. Too many national pundits, and more importantly voters, aren’t taking BYU seriously while BYU did nothing to prove a serious team in the loss. But still, it’s one game, and the committee should consider the Cougar’s larger body of work. I personally feel BYU should have been ranked No. 10, but the fact is that it’s not really going to matter much at all. The Cougar’s place in the CFP will be secured by winning a Big 12 Conference Championship and by no other means. I think that’s very clear.

DICKSON: Surprised? No. Was it fair? No again. The College Football Playoff committee is no better than any of the committee’s that came before and discriminated against any team not in the SEC or that was not Notre Dame. They can’t overcome their biases that have been born of years and years of the same old story. The good news for Cougar fans is that BYU controls it’s own destiny. Win out (including the Big 12 Championship game) and they are in the playoffs. Lose any game leading up to the end of the season, however, and they are toast. While moving into a power conference gives them a seat at the table, it’s still an uphill climb for the Cougars to win over the biased nature of the committee.

2. How serious of a concern is LJ Martin’s shoulder injury? He finished the game, but was noticeably limited in his production throughout the second half. How can BYU supplement Martin not being close to 100 percent healthy?

DICKSON: I don’t think even a healthy Martin could have made much headway against Texas Tech’s defense. After an initial push, the BYU offensive line wasn’t able to create any holes. The Cougars rushed 10 times for 45 yards (4.5 yards per carry) in the first quarter. In the ensuing three quarters, it was 17 carries for 22 yards (1.3 yards per carry). That forced BYU into a lot of second/third and longs and that was tough against the Red Raiders. As for the concern about Martin’s shoulder, it’s huge. There’s not much experience behind him and the Cougars need him in these next three games.

GURNEY: I think it’s a huge concern moving forward to the final stretch of the season. BYU hasn’t proven capable to present a running back that come close to spelling Martin effectively, and given the way the offense is run, the lack of Martin running at full strength could cause for dramatic changes within Offensive Coordinator Aaron Roderick’s system. The easy answer here is to spread the field and become a true pass-first offense, but changing identity isn’t easy, and even though Bear Bachmeier has become an enormous success this season, banking on him beating a defense while throwing it 30-40 times per game could be a shaky prospect.

3. What did Texas Tech expose about BYU, other than Martin’s injury situation, that the Cougars will need to address to close out the season strong? In other words, what’s the chief concern with this BYU football team other than the running back situation?

GURNEY: I’m very wary of BYU’s defensive tackle depth moving forward to the final three games of the regular season, and certainly should the Cougars manage to gain a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game. Justin Kirkland appears to be shelved for the season, but the bigger loss, from my perspective at least, is Anisi Purcell, who has proven much more effective than Kirkland this season, but also was precluded from this week’s depth chart. Football is a battle of attrition, and that attrition is often the most fierce for those along the defensive front. As far as what Texas Tech exposed, I don’t think it exposed much of anything other than the Red Raider defense is truly one of the top units in the entire country.

DICKSON: I’m not sure Texas Tech “exposed” much against BYU other than the Red Raiders are really, really good. Sure, the Cougars needed to run the ball better and the receivers needed to create separation more often, but how? Texas Tech was just that much better than BYU on Saturday. Could the Cougars have made the game closer by playing better? Absolutely. Special teams blunders ruined field position over and over. The BYU defense gave up too many chunk plays, even though it stiffened in the red zone. I think a rematch would be much closer but Texas Tech is one of the top two or three teams in the country, in my opinion. The Cougars simply aren’t there yet.

4. The BYU men’s basketball team is proving to be top heavy, at least with regards to who provides the points with AJ Dybantsa, Richie Saunders and Robert Wright III combining to account for 70 of the team’s 85 points scored in a win versus Delaware on Tuesday. Do you expect the scoring to be distributed more as the season wears on and is it necessarily a bad thing if it doesn’t?

DICKSON: I don’t expect the scoring load to change much over the course of the season, to be honest. Dybantsa, Saunders and Wright will have the ball in their hands most of the time. But there will be moments for others — Keba Keita, Kennard Davis Jr., Mihailo Boskovic, Tyler Mrus, Dawson Baker, Khadim MBoup, Aleksej Kostic and Dominique Diomonde — to step up and make wide-open shots because of the attention on the Big Three. What made last year’s team so good was the timely contributions of guys off the bench. That’s still very much a work in progress with this group.

GURNEY: It would be a concern if the fact wasn’t that Dybantsa, Saunders and Wright III are all just really, really good. I think most observers knew what they’d get from Saunders given his history, and expectations are always high for a No. 1 recruit nationally, which Dybantsa was last year. But Wright III is proving to be unlike any option BYU has posed at the point guard position. His ability to break down a defense is an exciting component and should prove a big key in the team reaching the anticipated new heights this season. That said, I expect other players to step up as the season wears on, and those players are likely Kennard Davis Jr. and Dawson Baker. All of these guys are still getting used to playing with one another, but considering just how talented the Big 3 are, I think it’s fine and warranted that they’ll take up the bulk of scoring responsibilities this season.

How surprising was BYU soccer’s Big 12 tournament run and what is a reasonable expectation for Jen Rockwood’s inconsistent team with regards to NCAA tournament play, which begins on Friday?

GURNEY: I think that any time you have a team as young as BYU’s soccer team this year that it makes sense that the players are peaking at exactly the right time. Subsequently no, it isn’t a surprise that the group managed to win the Big 12 Conference tournament despite taking a lot of losses during regular season conference play. Jen Rockwood is an elite coach and attracts elite talent to her program year-in and year-out, and with the momentum the Cougars currently have, a deep run in the NCAA tournament shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

DICKSON: Soccer is such a funny sport. The difference between struggling and winning is a very fine line. Moreso than in other sports, you can dominate the run of play in a match and take dozens of  more shots than your opponent, yet still lose because of one bad decision or defensive slip. Since there isn’t a ton of scoring in soccer, you have to make the most of your opportunities. BYU wasn’t doing that over the past month, and the Cougars are doing that now. There is still a lot of youth on this team (only one senior starter) and sometimes a group like that suddenly figures things out. BYU was a No. 4 seed in 2021 when it went on a run to the NCAA finals. Could the Cougars do that again? Sure, but they could also go out in the first round to a dangerous Utah State team. Should be fun to follow the fighting Jennifer Rockwoods for a while.