State of the Program: BYU Cougars

Head Coach: Kalani Sitake is entering his 10th season as the head coach of the Cougars with a 72-43 record. During his time with the program he led them through Independence and into the Big 12. He has 3 10+ win seasons and 2 Top 15 finishes to his resume. Last year’s 11-2 season was a great one and now he looks to build upon it to turn this program into a Big 12 power.

Program Outlook: BYU is one of the most unique programs in the country. They’re a nationally recognized brand but their religion is a huge part of the school, this limits their recruiting pool. What else is unique is a lot of athletes will step away for mission work and then come back so this often one of the older (in terms of age) teams in the sport. This program always felt destined for the Big 12 or Pac-12, and even before getting there they won a National Title. It’s going to be exciting to monitor what they do next.

How does the 2025 Roster look?: BYU ranks 54th in the country returning 58% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. In this space last year I lamented BYU’s drop off in physicality as a reason for their struggles in 2023 when I said “Generally we aren’t ever going to see the Cougars loaded with tremendous athletes, but this is a program that’s been competitive by priding itself on playing a bruising, physical style of ball. The last couple seasons has seen that fall away, now they need to find their way back to it.” They clearly answered that call in a big way, BYU was a big, tough, bruising squad that played fast especially on defense. RB LJ Martin will lead the way for the Cougars, he’s one of the better backs in the conference and runs with great vision. Martin will be running behind a big, physical Oline that does have a couple starters to replace. The passing game will see pressure to step up and QB Jake Retzlaff is currently slated to return, there’s an investigation that puts his status in doubt but if he plays he will need to continue to work on his accuracy and being healthy will help he was nursing an injury toward the end of the regular season. It will also help that he still has his top target in Chase Roberts back. Someone younger will need to step up next to Roberts and TE transfer Carsen Ryan out of Utah will hopefully contribute as well. BYU’s defense will be led by LBs Jack Kelly and Isaiah Glasker who are guys no offense looks forward to going up against, they’re both likely future NFL guys. The defensive line and secondary will both generally be next man up units. The only exception was the addition of DT Keanu Tanuvasa from Utah, major Holy War beef with this one, let’s just say BYU fans are thrilled and Utah fans are not. The rest of the Dline will be a big and physical unit as well. The secondary has Safety Tanner Wall to lead the way but corner is a position that will especially need some sorting out.

Screenshot from FBSchedules.com

2025 Schedule Thoughts: BYU has a manageable schedule overall. Their non-conference will open with Portland State who went 3-8 last year at the FCS level, they play Stanford next the Cardinal are coming off a tumultuous offseason. It wraps up with a game at East Carolina, that will be their biggest non-conference challenge. The Big 12 schedule appears manageable as well, generally BYU has a lot of games they can expect to win. The key stretch will be Utah, at Iowa State and at Texas Tech. Speaking candidly that Iowa State road game after Utah is an awful draw and BYU is seemingly being punished by the Big 12s sudden refusal to put rivalry games in the week they belong. The Holy War is an intense emotional game, going on the road to face a good Iowa State team immediately after is so difficult. Outside of the Iowa State draw this schedule doesn’t get too much in the way of BYU’s playoff aspirations.

Final Thoughts: 2024 was a huge year for BYU and Kalani Sitake, not just because of the wins but because they got their prevailing identity back. BYU escaped with a lot of close wins last year but part of that was the nature of a team that was carried by a tough defense. BYU is going to be a team at the top of the Big 12 again. The schedule sets them up to win no less than 8 games but they have the possibility of making a playoff run.