No. 11 Cougars’ struggling rush defense will be tested Saturday at Central Florida

After the euphoria of Friday night’s 38-35 win over Oklahoma State subsided a bit, the undefeated BYU Cougars turned their attention to this Saturday’s matchup with UCF in Orlando and quickly realized that if they want to keep their perfect 7-0 record intact they better figure out a way to stop the run better than they did at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

Oklahoma State rushed for 267 yards in the loss, and put together scoring drives of 75, 75, 76, 79 and 76 yards. The Cowboys were 9 of 13 on third down and 2 of 2 on fourth down. Albeit with one of the best running backs in the country, Ollie Gordon II, they exposed BYU’s rushing defense as being less-than-stout.

That doesn’t bode well for this week’s Big 12 game, as UCF is No. 3 in the country in rushing offense, averaging 280.3 rushing yards per game. The Knights are averaging 5.98 yards per carry.

Kickoff is at 1:30 p.m. MDT Saturday at 45,301-seat FBC Mortgage Stadium and the game will be televised by ESPN.

“They just had way too much success on us (after) what we have been able to do all year long,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said of OSU’s offense, which totaled 421 yards. “We will just go back to the film and find ways to get better. You have to credit them for stressing us a little bit. I think UCF is going to do the same thing next week. So we gotta be ready for it.”

The Knights (3-4, 1-3) have lost four straight games after a 3-0 start which included a 35-34 win over TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. They let what would have been a season-defining win get away Saturday night, blowing a second-half lead and falling 38-35 to No. 9 Iowa State in Ames, Iowa.

“We gotta find a way to get over the hump,” UCF coach Gus Malzahn said after the gut-punch at Jack Trice Stadium.

Prognosticators say that could come this week, as UCF opened as a slight favorite over a BYU team (7-0, 4-0) that is tied atop the Big 12 standings with ISU and moved up to No. 11 in the Associated Press Top 25 , No. 12 in the Coaches Poll, on Sunday.

“You have to give credit to Oklahoma State for stressing us a little bit. I don’t mind it,” Sitake said. “I don’t mind the stress and the growth that we can make from this game.”

It needs to come quickly.

Senior RJ Harvey leads UCF in rushing and is No. 5 in the country with 890 yards; He’s No. 6 in the country in rushing yards per game, 127.1, and No. 12 in yards per carry, 6.69 yards.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Jaccuri Brown made his first start for the Knights after transferring from Miami and quickly showed why he was one of the top prep quarterback recruits in the country a couple years ago. Harvey rushed for 196 yards and Brown for 154 yards against the Cyclones, becoming the first UCF tandem to rush for 100 or more yards in a game since the 2021 Gasparilla Bowl.

The Knights gashed a good ISU defense for 354 yards on the ground. Harvey had an 80-yard TD run and now has 3,105 rushing yards in his career. The Big 12 is loaded with outstanding RBs like Harvey, Gordon, Texas Tech’s Tahj Brooks and Kansas State’s DJ Giddens.

BYU’s rushing defense dropped to 64th in the country in that category after the Oklahoma State game, and is giving up 141.6 rushing yards per game, 4.24 yards per rush.

“It was uncharacteristic of what you have seen from our defense. I will have to watch the film. I have the feeling that guys were trying to do too much. Everyone is trying to get the energy and the momentum of creating the turnovers, because that can be exciting, but it can also be a hindrance sometimes when guys are going out of their own responsibilities to try and make a play,” Sitake said.

“I thought we freelanced a little bit for the sake of trying to make the big play.

That is my first initial impression. And it put the defense in tough spots, and it hurt us, especially in the big plays and the run plays. So we will go back to that and try to find ways to get these guys to play more disciplined.”

BYU is 2-1 all-time against the Knights, the most recent win a 49-23 battering in the 2020 Boca Raton Bowl. BYU won 24-17 in Provo in 2011, while UCF won 34-27 in Orlando in 2014.

After posting eight tackles, including a tackle for loss against OSU, BYU linebacker Isaiah Glasker said the Cougars have learned they can’t take anything for granted in the Big 12. Any team can beat any other team in the league this year.

“Playing Oklahoma State, they were just super physical. That’s kinda like what our defense needed to kinda wake up a little bit,” Glasker said. “It is going to help us move on to the next game and be more physical coming into these games to come.”

As for their struggles on third down to get off the field, the Cougars are now 102nd in the country in that category, allowing opponents to convert 42.1% of the time. That’s not good.

Safety Tanner Wall said that will have to change the final five games of the regular season for the Cougars to reach their goal of playing in the Big 12 championship game.

“We believe in each other in all three phases. Guys who don’t play believe in the guys who do play. Throughout the week, everyone buys in to their role and the level of belief on this team is very high,” Wall said. “Our level of belief helps us to have the expectation to win, which ultimately is what allows us to put together drives at the end of the game like that. When everything is on the line, we trust and know our guys are going to get it done, and we are going to go out and win games. And that is exactly what we did.”

Cougars on the air

No. 11 BYU (7-0, 4-0) at UCF (3-4, 1-3)

• Saturday, 1:30 p.m. MDT

• At FBC Mortgage Stadium (Capacity: 45,301)

• Orlando, Florida

• TV: ESPN

• Radio: 102.7 FM/1160 AM