Steve Sarkisian has plenty of familiarity with Kalani Sitake and the schemes BYU's program uses
Despite the fact that No. 7 Texas and new Big 12 Conference rival BYU haven’t played since 2014, there will be a lot of familiarity with portions of the strategy employed by the Cougars on both sides of the ball in Saturday afternoon’s matchup in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
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That recognition and imitation begins at the top with Longhorns’ coach Steve Sarkisian, who played at BYU in 1995 and 1996 and was teammates with current Cougars coach Kalani Sitake and offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick.
“Obviously, BYU is my alma mater and I know a lot of those coaches well,” Sarkisian said Monday. “I can’t believe Kalani’s in year eight, and he’s doing a heck of a job and Roderick was a receiver of mine when I was there.
“These guys are really good coaches. They’ve got really good schemes. They’ve got a veteran football team. And they play extremely hard, they’re tough nosed, they’re hard-nosed. They play the game with a real mentality, real effort.”
While BYU has been challenged on offense this season, ranking 130th in FBS in yards per carry (2.78), they find ways to win. The Cougars (5-2, 2-2 in Big 12 play) have split their last four games after beginning the season with three wins and are a victory away from being bowl eligible.
BYU’s strength is its defense – the Cougars have forced 15 turnovers this season including five in a 27-14 win at home over Texas Tech last Saturday.
“If you just watch the Tech game the deciding factor was their ability to create five turnovers and what it meant in that game,” Sarkisian explained. “BYU is going to do things that aren’t on tape, and we have to adapt at that point. Adapting sometimes is when we can get them on the sidelines.
“BYU has a very aggressive style, a very attacking attack at the line of scrimmage. Their defensive line is penetrating – they’re trying to get into the backfield.”
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A running theme for opposing defenses this year has been changing schemes in preparation for a game versus Texas. The Longhorns have to be ready for a little bit of everything but a big part of success in that area is adapting to the changes when on the field and in the heat of the action.
“Sometimes you have to adapt in play, post snap,” Sarkisian said. “The coverages may be different than they’ve been playing and maybe the pressure is a little different and the matchups are different. As much as I love practice and practice is huge, adaptability in game to some of the newness that comes at you I think is critical.”
Sarkisian said BYU has a lot of confidence in its players and in their scheme.
“They do a good job on first down and second down of mixing things up and on third down, it’s about how can they get to the quarterback,” he said. “In the end they are ball conscious and you see the turnovers and when they come and why they come. I think their players are really aware of the coverages that they’re playing.”
As far as the Cougars’ offense, they have a veteran quarterback in former USC and Pittsburgh signal caller Kedon Slovis and like to use their tight ends – assuring Texas will have its work cut out for them. The Longhorns had difficulty defending crossing routes last week in their win over Houston.
“We’re gonna see a ton of crossers this week – that’s one of the staples of what BYU does,” Sarkisian said. “So we’re gonna have to play those better.”
