How the ‘little things’ meant a lot in BYU’s 18-15 win over SMU Friday night

DALLAS — Tight end Keanu Hill caught one pass for 8 yards and a two-point conversion toss from quarterback Jake Retzlaff.

Offensive lineman Brayden Keim’s name appears in the box score only once — in the defensive statistics report.

Yet those two BYU football players were as responsible for the Cougars’ gritty 18-15 upset win over SMU as Retzlaff, kicker Will Ferrin, tight end Mata’ava Ta’ase, Enoch Nawahine and Harrison Taggart, who led BYU with eight tackles and also had two pass breakups and two quarterback hurries.

Hill and Keim made touchdown-saving tackles after interceptions, with Hill tracking down SMU’s Kobe Wilson after a 34-yard return, and Keim stopping Mustangs’ defensive lineman Jared Harrison-Hunte after a 13-yard return to the BYU 3.

Homesteading SMU had to settle for a 28-yard field goal after Hill doggedly fought past blockers and caught Wilson at the 35, while the Mustangs fumbled the ball back to BYU three plays after Keim’s heroics.

“Getting them to settle for field goals, I think it helped us win this game,” said BYU coach Kalani Sitake, whose team is now 2-0 for the fifth-straight season . “This was a total team effort.”

The Cougars will try to get to 3-0 for the fourth time in the Sitake era next Saturday at Wyoming, which hosted FCS Idaho Saturday in Laramie.

“We definitely need to play better. We know that. But we have to celebrate the wins, too,” Sitake said. “We have to go through the process the entire season. Part of that is celebrating. We know there are things to worry about for the future, but we will deal with that (later).”

Another heads-up play that might have gone unnoticed was Tanner Wall blocking SMU’s Brashard Smith into a bouncing punt. Keelan Marion jumped on it to give BYU the ball at the SMU 36. Wall was given a second chance after officials reviewed a late hit for targeting, but decided it didn’t warrant an ejection.

Backup safety Crew Wakley came up with several defensive plays that may have saved touchdowns, including one during the second play of the fourth quarter when the aforementioned Smith had broken free for a long run. Wakley jarred the ball loose. Smith was able to regain possession, but didn’t find the end zone.

Two plays later, Marque Collins came up with a nifty interception on the 5-yard line.

And don’t forget how reserve running backs Miles Davis and Nawahine filled in admirably for LJ Martin and Hinckley Ropati.

“It feels good to lean on the depth that we have,” Sitake said. “Miles has played a lot of football here, so the moment wasn’t too big for him.”

It wasn’t too big for the defense, either, as stars such as Tyler Batty, Jack Kelly and Jakob Robinson held SMU out of the end zone. It was the first time since 2016 (a 33-3 loss to TCU) that SMU failed to score a touchdown.

SMU’s 261 total yards was its lowest output since 2022 in a 29-27 loss to Cincinnati.

The Cougars didn’t score after Darius Lassiter’s 57-yard catch-and-run, but the receiver’s refusal to go down easily inspired his teammates, Retzlaff said. Lassiter called it one of the top five catches of his college career. Sitake said the effort was there, if not the execution, for the offense.

“Obviously not our best performance, but you have to give a lot of credit to SMU for what they did. We will have to find an answer and find ways to get more efficient in all three phases,” Sitake said. “There is room for us to improve in all three phases. I don’t want anyone to think they should be patting themselves on the back.”

But they should get some credit. Especially the guys who did the little things.