‘Not a one-hit wonder team’: No. 22 BYU rides into Waco with more to prove against Baylor Bears

WACO, Texas — The way BYU football coach Kalani Sitake sees it, the No. 22 Cougars still haven’t done anything yet.

At least, that’s how the coach in his ninth season in Provo is painting the picture this week as undefeated and surprising (to everyone else) BYU faces exasperated Baylor (2-2, 0-1) in the Cougars’ first Big 12 road game of the 2024 season.

“Our approach this week,” said Sitake, “is to stay humble and hungry. … We only get 12 guaranteed opportunities, and we have the fifth one coming up, so we have to take advantage of it and take advantage of the time we have to be on that field.”

That field is McLane Stadium, capacity of just more than 45,000, where the Bears handled the Cougars rather easily three years ago, winning 38-24 behind the quarterbacking of one Gerry Bohanon, who is now Jake Retzlaff’s backup at BYU (4-0).

While almost all the intangibles were working in BYU’s favor last week before its 38-9 beatdown of No. 13 Kansas State, all the situational advantages on Saturday (10 a.m. MDT, Fox Sports 1) seem to be pointing toward Baylor, coming off a downright gut-busting 38-31 overtime loss at Colorado.

“Our team is very gutted right now, and so frustrated,” Baylor coach Dave Aranda said.

For Baylor, the biggest thing to watch Saturday is how the Bears bounce back from that devastating setback.

For BYU, the main storyline is how the Cougars will perform in a game that will be played during daylight hours. As all of Cougardom knows, BYU is 0-10 in its last 10 day games (kickoffs before 6 p.m.) against Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. That includes an 0-6 record on the road.

The Cougars have scored 19.9 points per game in those contests, and given up 38.1.

Conversely, BYU is 28-3 in night games since 2019, causing some fans to refer to them as the “Vampire Cougs.”

Is there anything to it?

BYU coaches and players say no, that the disparity exists because most of their night games are at home, and generally because they’ve faced stiffer competition in day games (such as last year against Oklahoma) than in night games.

Sitake doesn’t like to talk about it, saying only that the staff uses all of its resources to study it and provide answers to what are the best practices to be ready for games played earlier in the day. Although the Cougars lost 31-24 to Oklahoma last year in a game that kicked off at 10 a.m. in Provo, they played as well as they had all season and probably should have won.

“We have been in this situation before. We can adjust our schedule depending on whatever the kickoff time is. That is what we do,” he said Monday. “We have had our support staff, our strength staff, our sports scientists that can get us in the best place where we can play at our best when kickoff happens.”

This week, that has included asking the players to wake up at 6:30 a.m. to get their “body clocks” accustomed to it.

“It sucks, actually,” said receiver and punt returner Parker Kingston, whose zany and improbable 90-yard punt return for a touchdown against KSU is a candidate for college football play of the year. “I have set my alarm for 6:30. I wake up, and am like, ‘Are you kidding me.’ I lay in bed for 20, 30 minutes.”

Kingston acknowledged there is a “stigma” associated with BYU’s struggles in day games, but he doesn’t buy into it.

“It is just like playing football when you were a kid — waking up, going to play, and having the rest of the day to watch college football,” he said.

Said defensive lineman John Nelson: “I think the early kickoff time shouldn’t be that much of an issue.”

Added safety Crew Wakley: “I don’t think anybody on the team is worried about what time we are playing. We are just excited to play ball. There haven’t been any concerns in the locker room or throughout the offices here about what time the game is at.”

The more important task, the Cougars have said all week, is to match the intensity that Baylor is expected to display, after losing to BYU 26-20 in double-overtime in Provo two years ago, and after losing to the Buffs.

Receiver Darius Lassiter said the Cougars will remain the same team whether they are nationally ranked, undefeated, or coming off a disappointing performance.

The statement they want to make this week, the senior said, is to prove they are for real.

“That we are not a one-hit wonder team,” Lassiter said. “We are going to come out there and be competitive. We are going to give you our best every time we come out there and we are going to do it with love in our heart and a smile on our face. I feel like this team is only scratching the surface of what it can be.”

No matter if it is day or night.