On his most recent podcast ‘Always College Football‘ former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy talked about BYU, the playoff, as well as the biggest surprises and disappointments so far this season.
McElroy, who also works as the color commentator with Sean McDonough as the No. 2 college broadcasting team for ESPN — right behind the all star team of Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit — had high praise for the Cougars.
Big 12 Football Power Rankings: BYU, Colorado Rise — Utah, UCF Fall (Week 6)
McElroy is no stranger to Provo and to BYU as he’s called a number of games, including memorable ones such as BYU’s 30-27 overtime over USC at LaVell Edwards Stadium as well as BYU’s 29-26 overtime road win over Tennessee.
The audio starts at 16:30. Here’s what McElroy had to say about the Cougars:
“I’m giving out some awards for some teams that we have not talked a whole lot about. And there might be another time here in a few weeks where they enter the playoff conversation that we just had. But I wanted to give out some superlatives this year to some of the biggest surprises in the first month of the season.
We’ll start with the BYU Cougars. Now they took a big step back last year… you look at where they were last year and this has not been a team that has been scared to play against Power 5 competition. They went toe-to-toe against the Big 12 and Pac-12 teams for years. They actually faired very well in those matchups. However, in their first year at the Power 5 level, they took a step back. They went 2-7 in the conference last year and missed a bowl for just the second time since 2005. But here in year two, Kalani Sitake has his team rocking and rolling.
They are 5-0 and eclipsed their projected season win total this year at 4.5. The defense, and the defense of line has been off the charts good. They are 16th nationally in yards per play allowed — last year they were 92nd. You watch that d-line and you understand why they’re so improved. Jake Retzlaff, their quarterback, was the No. 1 Juco player in the class of 2023. He spent last year watching Kedon Slovis and got some playing time at the end of the season. He’s now starting to come into his own after BYU was picked to finish 13th in the new-look Big 12 preseason projections. For that, BYU is one of the biggest surprises and a great story! Let’s see if they can keep up that play on both sides of the ball.”
The Cougars are off to a 5-0 start for just the eighth time in school history and the third time under head coach Kalani Sitake. Impressively, Sitake has already matched Hall of Fame head coach LaVell Edwards who went 5-0 just three times over his 29 seasons.
And with last week’s historic win over Baylor, BYU moved up to No. 17 in The Associated Press Top 25 poll. It also mark’s BYU’s 281st overall appearance.
The Cougars have a bye this week before hosting Arizona on Oct. 12 at LaVell Edwards Stadium. If Arizona wins this Saturday against Texas Tech, the Wildcats would likely come in ranked and would set up a Top 25 Showdown between BYU and Arizona. With the game already scheduled for FOX at 2:00 PM, the Top 25 matchup would likely secure BYU hosting FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff too.
You can bet BYU fans will be cheering like crazy for another Arizona win this weekend.
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Big 12 Football Power Rankings: BYU, Colorado Rise — Utah, UCF Fall (Week 6)
