Saturday afternoon\u2019s come-from-behind 41-27 win<\/a> over plucky Iowa State, is getting healthy again. <\/p>\nStarters LJ Martin and Siale Esera left the game in the first quarter with injuries and never returned, while linebacker Jack Kelly, defensive lineman Anisi Purcell and even quarterback Bear Bachmeier got dinged up during the physical contest in front of 61,500 at Jack Trice Stadium.<\/p>\n
A couple of guys who didn\u2019t play, safety Raider Damuni (ribs) and receiver JoJo Phillips (clavicle), are expected back for Texas Tech, which plays at rapidly improving Kansas State this week, while RB2 Sione Moa\u2019s status is less certain as the redshirt freshman deals with compartment syndrome. <\/p>\n
Amazingly, BYU has remained undefeated, improving its record to 19-2 over the past two seasons. Only Ohio State (21) has more wins over that stretch than the Cougars. Indiana, Oregon, Notre Dame and Texas have also won 19 games since the start of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019re in a really good spot (despite the injuries),\u201d Sitake said. \u201cWe just have to keep working, keep finding ways to get better and stay humble and stay hungry and make sure that we improve from this week to the next time we play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sitake said the Cougars will \u201ctake advantage of the bye coming up\u201d and get an early start on preparing for the Red Raiders and the rematch of the 2023 game won 27-14 by BYU in Provo against Texas Tech\u2019s third-string quarterback.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will use our second bye differently than we did our first bye because the science tells us to,\u201d Sitake said. \u201cSo we\u2019ll do everything we can to get our team ready mentally, physically and spiritually to get ready for the next one in a couple weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what the science says to do this week, Sitake smiled and said: \u201cThat\u2019s our competitive advantage. Not telling anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
The coach also wasn\u2019t interested in saying much about the injuries, as is his way. BYU\u2019s next availability report, as mandated by the Big 12, is not due until Nov. 5. That\u2019s a day after the first official College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings will be released, and the Cougars can probably expect to be right around the top 10 of those.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s heady stuff for a program that lost its senior quarterback, Jake Retzlaff, to Tulane three months ago. Resilience in the face of adversity, the emergence of Bachmeier, and a little bit of good fortune has enabled the Cougars to surprise the college football world.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou create your own luck. That\u2019s what we keep preaching to these guys,\u201d Sitake said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just assume everything. You have to preach (resilience), and everything\u2019s got to be intentional when we\u2019re teaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel good about the entire process of what we\u2019ve gone through, but there is still a lot of room for improvement,\u201d Sitake continued. \u201cWe will celebrate (for a day). I want these guys to be happy with what they\u2019ve been able to accomplish before we get into this bye week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin\u2019s injury is the most disturbing, partly because he\u2019s one of the top rushers in the country, but also because the Cougars are thin at the running back position and have been since a player they were counting on, Pokaiaua Haunga, withdrew from school before fall camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am always concerned with the guys that get hurt and that can\u2019t finish the game, but Preston (Rex) was able to step in and Enoch (Nawahine) was able to step in, and hopefully LJ is ready to go by the time we take the field in the next couple weeks. But I can\u2019t tell (anything else) about that right now,\u201d Sitake said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is concerning that he did not finish, but we\u2019ve seen guys not finish before, and come back the next time. I\u2019m gonna stay positive and be optimistic about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tight end Carsen Ryan took the biggest hit of the game, delivered by Domonique \u201cBig Citrus\u201d Orange, but seemed to be no worse for the wear. He caught two passes for 13 yards, and made some nice blocks that sprang Martin and Bachmeier for touchdown runs.<\/p>\n
Bachmeier carried the ball 12 times, and was wearing a sleeve-like wrap on his lower right leg in the postgame interview room.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just happened real quick. Just a little bruise,\u201d Bachmeier said, shrugging it off. \u201cThey don\u2019t want it to swell up or something like that on the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bachmeier did slide on one particular play<\/a>, after picking up a first down, and was not happy with himself for doing that.<\/p>\n\u201cYou always like to think you\u2019re a quote, unquote, \u2018tough guy,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI am actually kind of mad at myself because I wussed out on one of those runs where we trying to milk the clock and, yeah, I slid down. It was kind of a wussy move. I always pride myself on being very competitive and being very tough. That\u2019s just the way I was raised.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what they will do during the bye week, Bachmeier said, \u201cI am not entirely sure what our plan is. I am sure we will keep the process the same and just continue to do what we\u2019re doing. We can\u2019t get complacent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cougars on the air<\/p>\n
No. 10 BYU (5-0, 8-0) at No. 13 Texas Tech (4-1, 7-1)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nov. 8, kickoff time TBD<\/p>\n
\u2022 At Jones AT&T Stadium<\/p>\n
\u2022 Lubbock, Texas<\/p>\n
\u2022 TV: TBD<\/p>\n
\u2022 Radio: 102.7 FM\/1160 AM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AMES, Iowa \u2014 The BYU Cougars\u2019 first bye of the 2025 football season, which came after they had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,3125,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-254211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-news-feed-local","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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