The Official 2026 BYU Football Thread

[Joe Public]

Suck it, Fifita and AZ! Sorry the last 9 months bore no fruit.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Grow a set you two.

Arizona has been planning for this game since last season. Their dc said it. Their qb said it. Fifita is also the reigning 1sr team B12 QB. They won 9 games last year.

I dint know if byu is a CCG team yet, but five losses? STFU.

Haha. No kidding.

Great win. Phew.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Man, it was like being in an oven at the stadium. Stupid clouds kept avoiding us.

[BigFatMeanie]

Haven’t had any game-day threads yet this year. If we make one will it be bad juju?

[BigFatMeanie]

Man, it was like being in an oven at the stadium. Stupid clouds kept avoiding us.

Yeah, it was toasty. I’m on the west side and we finally had shade by 4pm, which was very welcome. My daughter said someone in the student section fainted because they had been waiting in the sun for hours for the game to start.

[All-American]

Haha. No kidding.

Great win. Phew.

I always think we will struggle to get bowl eligible. Makes for a lot of pleasant surprises.

But I mean, sheesh, that second half defense could beat anybody.

[Pelado]

Definitely a tale of two halves.

I think Roderick was trying to be a bit too tricky in the first half by going away from LJ. RG3 said it was because Arizona was loading the box, but I didn't really notice them doing that (not that they didn't). And the defense was really struggling getting Arizona's offense off the field (except for the INT). Several of Fifita's best passes were sooooo close to getting batted/tipped at the line. Credit to him for the arm angles and everything that got those balls through to his receivers.

They (mostly) flipped the switch in the second half, with LJ getting a lot more touches. Not only did that lead to more consistent drives, keeping Arizona's offense off the field, it also opened up everything else on the offense - runs from Bachmeier, play action passing over the top to Legend, etc.

Really liked the second-half defensive shut-out. Was especially fond of one of their last possessions when they sacked Fifita twice in a row. He had been pretty squirrelly so it was nice to get him on the ground.

I was pretty optimistic about this game and was expecting much more of the second half than the first. I'll try to be satisfied with the win, covering the 7.5-point spread, and eclipsing the double digit margin. Too many one-score games last season made it too easy for the CFP committee to dismiss BYU.

[grapevine]

Do they look at margin of victory for rankings now? You might kneel to avoid a fumble. But if margin of victory is effected may need to run in. Even if byu fumbled game won. BYU csu game 74, byu fumbled the snap and CSU recovered and scored touchdown next play. Got celebration penalty. Kick was wide, but didn’t know until someone asked official. Ot wasn’t invented for College football yet. Hs uses margin of victory up to a certain amount of points now in maxpreps. So some ruts now

[BlueK]

I always think we will struggle to get bowl eligible. Makes for a lot of pleasant surprises.

But I mean, sheesh, that second half defense could beat anybody.

We're at least a couple of years removed from that reality. We're pretty good now. Maybe consider upgrading to not expecting to make the playoff but at least go to a much better bowl than we ever had a chance to as an independent. It’s not too much out on a limb there since every Big 12 bowl is better than what we could have had before, even with 10 wins.

[Pelado]

BYU's latest rankings/ratings:

AP: 11
Coaches: 13
FPI: 18
FPI Resume: 15
FPI Efficiencies: 17
SP+: 18
Massey Composite: 18

Latest Austin Mock CFP projections from The Athletic:

Projected record: 8-4
Projected seed: NA
Likelihood to make playoff: 16%
To win conference: 9%
Host home playoff game: 6%
First round bye: 2%
Win championship: <1%

Other Big 12 schools with higher projected likelihood to make playoff:
Texas Tech: 61%
Utah: 26%
Kansas State: 19%

[BlueK]

BYU's latest rankings/ratings:

AP: 11
Coaches: 13
FPI: 18
FPI Resume: 15
FPI Efficiencies: 17
SP+: 18
Massey Composite: 18

Latest Austin Mock CFP projections from The Athletic:

Projected record: 8-4
Projected seed: NA
Likelihood to make playoff: 16%
To win conference: 9%
Host home playoff game: 6%
First round bye: 2%
Win championship: <1%

Other Big 12 schools with higher projected likelihood to make playoff:
Texas Tech: 61%
Utah: 26%
Kansas State: 19%

So given the above, I'm assuming the Athletic is expecting the 4 losses to be ND, TT, Utah, and KState. I'm biased but I can't see losing to all four of those. Maybe two. This is looking to be the third year in a row of being underrated all year. It kind of sucks because it seems to affect the CFP committee.

[USUC]

So given the above, I'm assuming the Athletic is expecting the 4 losses to be ND, TT, Utah, and KState. I'm biased but I can't see losing to all four of those. Maybe two. This is looking to be the third year in a row of being underrated all year. It kind of sucks because it seems to affect the CFP committee.

Is this simply for to a lack of style points? Kalani is never going to pour it on when a game isn't in doubt. Utah mild style points to the maximum. I wish we did when we had the opportunity.

[Pelado]

So given the above, I'm assuming the Athletic is expecting the 4 losses to be ND, TT, Utah, and KState. I'm biased but I can't see losing to all four of those. Maybe two. This is looking to be the third year in a row of being underrated all year. It kind of sucks because it seems to affect the CFP committee.

Is this simply for to a lack of style points? Kalani is never going to pour it on when a game isn't in doubt. Utah mild style points to the maximum. I wish we did when we had the opportunity.

My guess is that the main problem right now is that they're including preseason and/or prior season assumptions in their model.

Comparing BYU's results so far this season against Texas Tech in particular, I see very little other explanation for Mock's model showing so much preference for the Red Raiders over BYU.

Abilene Christian is a ranked FCS squad while Utah Tech is likely among the worst FCS teams. That said, Abilene kept things a lot closer to Tech than UTU could manage against BYU.

Arizona is liiely a much better team than Oregon State and I believe the margin of victory in each game was similar. The BYU advantage with regards to those matchups was that they were playing Arizona at home whereas Tech played the Beavers away from home.

[Green Monstah]

I can see a path to 3 losses (Utah, ND, and ASU). But I’m really struggling to see 4. I also see us as a 1-loss team at the end of the regular season.

8-4 prediction with 13 returning starters seems disrespectful from the algo!!!!!

[Joe Public]

So given the above, I'm assuming the Athletic is expecting the 4 losses to be ND, TT, Utah, and KState. I'm biased but I can't see losing to all four of those. Maybe two. This is looking to be the third year in a row of being underrated all year. It kind of sucks because it seems to affect the CFP committee.

It shouldn’t be predicting losses to TT or KState; they aren’t on our 12-game schedule. Maybe it’s a computational thing that isn’t considering specific match-ups. I’m not sure. I do think that four losses - especially now that the ARIZ game is in the books as a win - is high.