Many college football pundits are sleeping on the Cougars' defense. And that's OK with them.
The Big 12 is a big conference with a short memory — and BYU couldn’t be happier.
Seven months removed from belittling No. 23 Colorado 36-14 in the Alamo Bowl, the team with the best defense in the league has all but slipped off the radar. In fact, it’s almost like the conference stored 2024 on a floppy disk with limited storage space, and there was no room for BYU.
Maybe that helps explain why there aren’t any Cougars on the preseason All-Big 12 defensive team or why the departure of quarterback Jake Retzlaff has all but torpedoed any notion of BYU as a contender.
Fortunately for the Cougars, they keep backup files in Provo and it’s all right there. When Jay Hill powers up his PC, the third-year defensive coordinator not only likes what he saw last season, but he loves what he sees coming in 2025.
BYU’s elevation from being picked 13th in the Big 12 to finishing 13th in the AP Top 25 had little to do with magic and everything to do with defense. The Cougars led the conference in scoring defense, total defense, yards-per-play, turnovers (22 interceptions), passing efficiency defense and they finished fourth among the 16 teams in rush defense.
There were some notable departures, including Tyler Batty, Jakob Robinson and Harrison Taggart, but key cogs are back — Jack Kelly, Isaiah Glasker, Siale Esera, Tanner Wall, Evan Johnson, Raider Damuni, Mory Bamba and Tommy Prassas.
Hill’s top priority was to not only rebuild BYU’s defensive line, but to improve it. The Cougars added starter-type depth through the transfer portal — Keanu Tanuvasa (Utah), Tausili Akana (Texas), Justin Kirkland (Oklahoma State), Anisi Purcell (Southern Utah), Sani Tuala (Citrus College) and returned missionary Hunter Clegg (Utah).
Provided they stay healthy, the new group joins Bodie Schoonover, Viliami Po’uha, John Taumoepeau, Joshua Singh, Logan Lutui and Ephram Asiata as returners who each played in no fewer than 11 games last season.
Hill’s defense is designed to create chaos because chaos leads to mistakes, and his synchronized disruption starts at the line of scrimmage. If the defensive line is as upgraded as BYU thinks it is, there is no reason to believe the chaos won’t continue.
Last year, a dozen defenders had interceptions, and the Cougars forced multiple picks thrown by some of the biggest names in the Big 12 — Shadeur Sanders (two), Avery Johnson (two), Sawyer Robertson (two) and Noah Fifita (three). BYU also allowed the fewest touchdown passes in the conference.
Even with all that is returning, the strength of the defense might not be enough to keep the Cougars in next month’s preseason polls. Losing Retzlaff is a perceived disaster by the pundits, and the last thing Aaron Roderick was expecting; however, because of the defense, Retzlaff’s replacements are more prepared than people think.
For the last year, Treyson Bourguet (junior) and McCae Hillstead (sophomore) have had to face their defense in practice. Everything Hill threw at the Big 12, which bedazzled even the best, he threw at those two. Bear Bachmeier (freshman) will get his first full dose of it when camp begins next week.
If you practice against the best defense in the league, then playing the other defenses, while difficult, shouldn’t be as ominous. This gives Hill’s defense a second assignment for camp. Not only will they be honing their own havoc, but they will also be prepping the new quarterbacks to deal with what will be coming at them.
Head coach Kalani Sitake has two conflicting loves. He is thrilled when the program/players get props and he’s quite OK when it doesn’t. Sitake is a puppet master for the under-appreciated, and the way his Cougars are hardly being talked about is fine with him.
ESPN tabbed BYU as a top-10 team before the Retzlaff saga and the Cougars were a frequent mention as a conference contender. Much of that has changed — for now. Losing an experienced quarterback will always matter, but in the end, the strength of the BYU defense might matter more.
“They don’t know — but they ‘bout to find out!” is what Sitake shouted in the BYU locker room to pump up the Cougars before they beat Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium. For this fall’s encore, Sitake might have to tweak it to, “They should know — and they ‘bout to get reminded!”
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com
Category: General Sports
