Sitake wants to keep BYU hungry during bye week

PROVO, Utah (ABC4 Sports) – Coming off a 34-28 win at Baylor, #17 BYU is 5-0 for the first time in three years. But head coach Kalani Sitake is going to make sure his team keeps its underdog mentality during the bye week.

“That’s our job,” Sitake said Monday. “We’ve got to we got to keep them that way. Just remembering that not a lot of people believed in them from the beginning. I’m not really worried about proving doubters wrong. We knew from before preseason that we had a special team.”

BYU played almost a perfect first half Saturday against Baylor. The Cougars racked up 303 total yards and 31 points. But BYU managed just 66 total yards and three points in the second half as they had to hold on for the win.

Sitake insists there wasn’t conservative play calling in the second half, just a lack of execution.

“There’s this thought that that we’re not being aggressive in the second half when we have a lead,” Sitake said. “It’s not true. We faked a punt on fourth-and-10, backed up in the second half. We threw the ball on third-and-nine, and got an interception. If anything, in terms of being conservative, maybe we should have been a little bit more in this game.”

After winning its first every Big 12 Conference road game, that followed an impressive 38-9 win at home against Kansas State, Sitake likes the direction the team is headed into its first bye week of the season.

“I think we’ve improved every week,” he said. “I’d like to see us play our best ball when we take on Arizona after the bye week.”

Even though their best offensive lineman Connor Pay is doubtful for the Arizona game, BYU should be back to full strength at running back with LJ Martin set to return.

“We’re anticipating getting LJ back for Arizona game,” Sitake said. “Hinkley [Ropati], getting him back fully, along with Sione Moa. We should be at full strength at running back by the time we get to the game against Arizona.”

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