{"id":255537,"date":"2025-10-28T00:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T00:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/255537\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T00:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T00:08:08","slug":"byus-plans-for-bye-week-include-plenty-of-prep-for-texas-tech-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/255537\/","title":{"rendered":"BYU’s plans for bye week include plenty of prep for Texas Tech \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even if star running back LJ Martin<\/a> is unable to play against No. 13 Texas Tech in 12 days, the No. 10 BYU Cougars will have enough talented running backs<\/a> to fill the sizable void, coach Kalani Sitake said Monday in his weekly press briefing with reporters.<\/p>\n

Cougars on the air<\/p>\n

No. 10 BYU (8-0, 5-0) at No. 13 Texas Tech (7-1, 4-1)<\/p>\n

Nov. 8, 10 a.m. MDTAt Jones AT&T StadiumTV: ESPN or ABCRadio: 102.7 FM\/1160 AM<\/p>\n

With his undefeated football team enjoying its second open weekend of the 2025 season this week, Sitake said everyone will have to wait until the Wednesday (Nov. 5) before to learn more about Martin\u2019s condition. That\u2019s when BYU\u2019s next injury report is scheduled to be released by the Big 12. Martin sustained an upper-body injury of some sort<\/a> on the last play of the first quarter of BYU\u2019s 41-27 win over Iowa State, a 4-yard run to the boundary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still evaluating it, so we will take some time to evaluate (it) and see where he\u2019s going to be at,\u201d Sitake said. \u201cI can\u2019t give you the answer. You guys know that (answer) wasn\u2019t going to happen on the Monday after the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Special Collector’s Issue: “1984: The Year BYU was Second to None”<\/p>\n

Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship season.<\/p>\n

But it had to be asked, as all of Cougar Nation holds its breath and prays that the 6-foot-2, 220-pound junior from El Paso, Texas, can play against the Red Raiders \u2014 who are at Kansas State Saturday. Martin is the ninth-leading rusher in the country, with 789 yards and five touchdowns on 132 carries.<\/p>\n

When Martin left the game last Saturday, BYU went almost exclusively to the air<\/a> to come from behind and beat the Cyclones. Preston Rex, a redshirt junior who played safety last season, had six carries for 17 yards and also caught one pass for 2 yards. <\/p>\n

Receiver Parker Kingston got two carries, while RB3 Enoch Nawahine got three carries for 10 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are considering everything,\u201d Sitake said Monday when he was asked if any other players would be asked to switch positions, as Rex was before the season started.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be in the best position possible, whether that\u2019s changing, not just the running back position, or (anything else),\u201d Sitake continued. \u201cThis is the time to work on it and give them extra reps this week with the bye coming up. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to consider all those things. And we feel good about our running back group. We just have to see how they\u2019re going to take to the reps that they\u2019re going to get and things like that. And we have to prep them even if LJ is ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitake said the only BYU player who has sustained a season-ending injury to date is linebacker Choe Bryant-Strother, and he noted that the brother of former BYU basketball great Elijah Bryant plans to return to the team next year for his final season of eligibility.<\/p>\n

Another positive sign in the \u201cMartin Injury Watch\u201d is that the running back attended comedian Adam Sandler\u2019s show at Delta Center on Sunday night with teammates Treyson Bourguet and Tiger and Bear Bachmeier and was shown in a picture smiling happily and with his right hand on Sandler\u2019s shoulder and no sling on either shoulder.<\/p>\n

Other running backs in the room if BYU needs to dip further into its existing depth are redshirt freshman Jovesa Damuni, redshirt sophomore Lucky Finau, walk-on Charles Miska and freshman Logan Payne. Sophomore Sione Moa\u2019s status remains unclear as he deals with compartment syndrome.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can do a lot of different things. All the running backs can run (well), too. It\u2019s not just LJ, and LJ is awesome at it, don\u2019t get me wrong, but we have guys who can run,\u201d Sitake said. \u201cYou just don\u2019t know their names yet, and hopefully we start to find out a little bit more about them as we go through the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

More takeaways from Sitake\u2019s 20-minute chat via Zoom on Monday:<\/p>\n

Kickoff time set for BYU-Texas Tech game on Nov. 8 in Lubbock<\/p>\n

The Cougars have won 35 of their last 39 night games, but if they hope to stay undefeated they will have to win while the sun is out in Lubbock, Texas, again on the second Saturday of November. Kickoff time is set for 10 a.m. MDT, which is 11 a.m. in Texas. <\/p>\n

BYU not only played well in the daylight hours in Ames last Saturday to get that monkey off its back, it also performed well (after a slow start) in its first game after that draining 24-21 win over rival Utah.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is now time to go back to work. We want to learn from the Iowa State game, but we have had plenty of time to receive praise and pat ourselves on the back,\u201d Sitake said, noting that dozens of BYU fans greeted the team at the Provo airport when it arrived back from Iowa Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the plan this week for Bye No. 2?<\/p>\n

Sitake didn\u2019t outline a specific plan this week in terms of when the Cougars will practice, but he did say the overriding goal is to improve the program in all three phases. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have a lot of work to do,\u201d he said. \u201cI still feel like we can play better as a football team. \u2026Really impressed with the effort our guys gave. We\u2019ll build off of it and make sure that we\u2019re ready for the next one, and getting an early start on Texas Tech and making a strong push for these last four games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cougars host TCU on Nov. 15, travel to No. 17 Cincinnati (5-0, 7-1) on Nov. 22, and finish up Big 12 play at home against UCF on Nov. 29.<\/p>\n

\u2018The guy asks for more\u2019<\/p>\n

Sitake is continually asked about the workload being put on freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier, and he continues to assert that the 19-year-old is up to the task. Bachmeier ran 12 times for 49 yards and a touchdown, and on Monday was named one of the Manning Award Stars of the Week. He was also named to the Davey O\u2019Brien Award Great 8 list, while safety Faletau Satuala earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, the guy (Bachmeier) asks for more. He has an appetite for more, and we\u2019re going to keep giving it to him. So it\u2019s good that he\u2019s named Bear, with a strong appetite, and he\u2019s ready for it,\u201d Sitake said. \u201cI think the key would be, what does he feel like he\u2019s really good at and that he feels comfortable with? We will take advantage of that during this week with the bye.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier (47) gets set to throw during warm ups before a game against Iowa State, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, in Ames, Iowa. | AP <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even if star running back LJ Martin is unable to play against No. 13 Texas Tech in 12…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,3125,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-255537","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\/255537","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=255537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}