Cougars’ first year in Big 12 was disappointing, but at least the finish was encouraging

BYU coach Kalani Sitake celebrates with players after a touchdown during a game against Sam Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Sept. 2, 2023. The Cougars started the year off with a victory over the Bearkats, but endured an uneven season that concluded with five straight losses. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

In many ways, the season-ending loss to Oklahoma State in double overtime served as a microcosm for the BYU Cougars’ entire first season in the Big 12.

A less-than-inspiring start. A promising, even brilliant second quarter. A crash of epic proportions in the third quarter. A spirited comeback late in the fourth quarter, and then a crushing ending in overtime.

“And to respond the way they did, especially the last two weeks with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, obviously we would have liked to win those games. But I can build off guys that want to work hard and want to be here and want to fight.” — BYU coach Kalani Sitake

From struggling to put away Sam Houston and Southern Utah in September, to stunning Arkansas, losing a fairly close one at Kansas (blamed on turnovers) and then scraping past Cincinnati in their Big 12 home opener at the end of September, the Cougars got off to a 4-1 start and all seemed well in Cougarville.

Then the bottom started to fall out. The 44-11 loss at TCU on Oct. 14 was the beginning of the end, the game when it became apparent that BYU was not ready from a talent and depth standpoint to go toe-to-toe with even the mid-tier teams in the Power Five conference.

Sure, the Cougars rallied to beat Texas Tech 27-14 to get to 5-2 and make it appear that they were on their way to one of their stated goals — six wins and bowl eligibility — but the win was more about the Red Raiders’ ineptitude with a third-string quarterback than it was about BYU’s ability to be even…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cougars-first-big-12-disappointing-233000030.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2023-11-28 23:30:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.