2024 BYU Football - Year 2 in the Big 12

[Maximus]

What % chance do you give byu being undefeated vs utah

[myboynoah]

Danny Kanell doing The Lord's work.

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[SteelBlue]

What % chance do you give byu being undefeated vs utah

Ok St.: Night game, 6-0 vibe. They have a QB problem. Feels like a lock.
UCF: They've gotten worse each week. Benched their QB and got no change against Cincy at home. I've gone from thinking we lose this one to feeling confident.

Honestly feeling like we have a 90% chance of this happening.

[USUC]

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[Clark Addison]

Good story on "non-traditional" BYU fans. One more of the many reasons to be grateful to Tom Holmoe after reading this.

I flew to Provo to hang out with the beer-drinking BYU fans (extrapointsmb.com)

[PaloAltoCougar]

Good story on "non-traditional" BYU fans. One more of the many reasons to be grateful to Tom Holmoe after reading this.

I flew to Provo to hang out with the beer-drinking BYU fans (extrapointsmb.com)

Very nice article. I liked his observation that BYU athletics serve as connective tissue between fans at very different places on the faith spectrum.

[Bo Diddley]

Good story on "non-traditional" BYU fans. One more of the many reasons to be grateful to Tom Holmoe after reading this.

I flew to Provo to hang out with the beer-drinking BYU fans (extrapointsmb.com)

We tailgated before the Kansas State game. If you passed by the Workforce Services building that day, we were in the parking lot. I was the only non drinker there.

[myboynoah]

Nice article. Thanks for linking.

Didn't know Wake Forest was started by Baptists. Also found out it was heavily funded by tobacco money.

On UNO, maybe Matt needs to get out more. About 20 years ago I did a short stint in the Middle East supporting a team doing aerial surveys. We all lived together in a gated compound and, as we were in a Muslim country, there wasn't much to do "on the town." The team members were all former military and quite the imbibers. Every night after work we would gather in someone's bungalow to drink and play a rousing round of cards. The game of choice? You guessed it, UNO. Lots of hard liquor and "Payback's a m***** f*****!" after each draw four card way played.

[Goatnapper'96]

This is a really fun year so far. I think in most years there is a group of great teams with top tier ability and if things come together for them they are just better than everyone else. Almost always this tier comes from the historical blue bloods and generally comprises your top 2-4 teams. After that tier is a tier of about 15 teams IMO. This tier consists of a couple of blue bloods not having a great year given their talent and resources and then a group of really consistent teams from tier 2. Tier 2 is probably about 25 teams and then those have really good years with good luck-few injuries, fortuitous schedule and playing good or bad at the right times and they end up winning 10 or 11 regular season games. Going into this year I thought that Utah had played itself into that second tier of programs. BYU was on the verge of joining that tier in after the good years in 20 and 21, but we fell out and then fell hard. Clearly, this team has the capability to there if we can finish the regular season with only 1-2 losses. My criticism of Sitake has been about the inconsistency. I have felt he weathered a tough period in BYU football history with independence, low resources, difficulty recruiting, wacky schedules and little to play for the last 2 months of the season and doing it all right against the teethe of Whitingham's pinnacle and the rise of Utah football with all the advantages it had. Bluntly, I thought Sitake took over at a difficult time for BYU. Given that totality-I thought he did well. But the lack of consistency screams 'players coach" to me. I hope this year causes that concern to go away-so far so good.

Great win on Saturday. Great team balance between good offensive, defensive and special teams play. The offense is balanced and showing the ability to run the ball. Retzlaff is more than a game manager. Very good football team-perhaps the best team BYU has had since 1996. BYU has built an amazing atmosphere-dare I say BYU has made itself "cool." BYU has always been weird-we were just really good at football during much of weirdness. Now we may actually be putting together a culture surrounding the program and an atmosphere that is the envy of many-in addition to a team that is the envy of many more. Carving out a niche as wholesome and cool will make BYU attractive to folks/recruits who share the social conservative approach but not religion. To a long time fan like me-this metamorphosis is almost as amazing as what is going on in basketball. This very well could be a good time to play football at BYU from a player's perspective. It is just a class act all the way around-BYU has something to offer good players. Hopefully, this allows us to consistently field players of similar or higher natural talent levels to what we see on the field this season Let's see that consistency not just throughout a season but from season to season. There really is a lot to be excited about wrt BYU right now.

Onto Oklahoma State.

[falafel]

This is a really fun year so far. I think in most years there is a group of great teams with top tier ability and if things come together for them they are just better than everyone else. Almost always this tier comes from the historical blue bloods and generally comprises your top 2-4 teams. After that tier is a tier of about 15 teams IMO. This tier consists of a couple of blue bloods not having a great year given their talent and resources and then a group of really consistent teams from tier 2. Tier 2 is probably about 25 teams and then those have really good years with good luck-few injuries, fortuitous schedule and playing good or bad at the right times and they end up winning 10 or 11 regular season games. Going into this year I thought that Utah had played itself into that second tier of programs. BYU was on the verge of joining that tier in after the good years in 20 and 21, but we fell out and then fell hard. Clearly, this team has the capability to there if we can finish the regular season with only 1-2 losses. My criticism of Sitake has been about the inconsistency. I have felt he weathered a tough period in BYU football history with independence, low resources, difficulty recruiting, wacky schedules and little to play for the last 2 months of the season and doing it all right against the teethe of Whitingham's pinnacle and the rise of Utah football with all the advantages it had. Bluntly, I thought Sitake took over at a difficult time for BYU. Given that totality-I thought he did well. But the lack of consistency screams 'players coach" to me. I hope this year causes that concern to go away-so far so good.

Great win on Saturday. Great team balance between good offensive, defensive and special teams play. The offense is balanced and showing the ability to run the ball. Retzlaff is more than a game manager. Very good football team-perhaps the best team BYU has had since 1996. BYU has built an amazing atmosphere-dare I say BYU has made itself "cool." BYU has always been weird-we were just really good at football during much of weirdness. Now we may actually be putting together a culture surrounding the program and an atmosphere that is the envy of many-in addition to a team that is the envy of many more. Carving out a niche as wholesome and cool will make BYU attractive to folks/recruits who share the social conservative approach but not religion. To a long time fan like me-this metamorphosis is almost as amazing as what is going on in basketball. This very well could be a good time to play football at BYU from a player's perspective. It is just a class act all the way around-BYU has something to offer good players. Hopefully, this allows us to consistently field players of similar or higher natural talent levels to what we see on the field this season Let's see that consistency not just throughout a season but from season to season. There really is a lot to be excited about wrt BYU right now.

Onto Oklahoma State.

bravo! love this. go coogs!

[Joe Public]

I’ll put these here:

McKay Coppins piece in the Atlantic touching on Jake Retzlaff at BYU -

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/jewish-quarterback-mormon-college-byu/680292/?gift=66OeTwjwIWd7-zlTK2lFDuPPDBjQSiQigiPGkQLITuA&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

ESPN article mostly on 1984 BYU FB team but briefly connecting to the 2024 team -

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/41849252/byu-1984-national-title-2024-college-football-playoff

[PaloAltoCougar]

I’ll put these here:

McKay Coppins piece in the Atlantic touching on Jake Retzlaff at BYU -

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/jewish-quarterback-mormon-college-byu/680292/?gift=66OeTwjwIWd7-zlTK2lFDuPPDBjQSiQigiPGkQLITuA&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

ESPN article mostly on 1984 BYU FB team but briefly connecting to the 2024 team -
https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...otball-playoff

Both of those are great, thanks.

[Bo Diddley]

Thanks. Those were great.

[Uncle Ted]

Great reads! Thanks for posting.

[falafel]

I’ll put these here:

McKay Coppins piece in the Atlantic touching on Jake Retzlaff at BYU -

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/jewish-quarterback-mormon-college-byu/680292/?gift=66OeTwjwIWd7-zlTK2lFDuPPDBjQSiQigiPGkQLITuA&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

ESPN article mostly on 1984 BYU FB team but briefly connecting to the 2024 team -
https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...otball-playoff

Really good stuff, thanks Cope.

Makes me wonder if all those games are available on BYUtv.