Unbelievable: BYU again shows it isn’t ready for Power Five football, gets embarrassed at home by Iowa State
The BYU football brand, painstakingly built by LaVell Edwards and nurtured with varying degrees of success by Gary Crowton, Bronco Mendenhall and Kalani Sitake, is taking a major hit in the Cougars’ first season in the Big 12.
Whether it can recover from the second massive blow to its reputation as a solid program at any level — remember 2017? — in seven seasons remains to be seen. Early reports are not favorable.
Saturday night’s thoroughly humiliating 45-13 loss to Iowa State in front of 60,754 fans who deserve far more from this once-proud program is the latest indication that BYU simply is not ready to compete in a Power Five conference. The Cougars were beyond awful on defense, mistake-prone on special teams and soft as a pillow on offense, resulting in one of the most embarrassing home losses in program history.
“Not a good outcome,” said a somber, almost defeated-sounding Sitake, in the understatement of the night. “There are not a lot of things going right for us right now. We are definitely disappointed in the performance.”
It begs the question: What have these guys been doing the past two years?
Having received an invitation to play with the big boys of college football in September of 2021, the program has seemingly moved backward, rather than ahead.
That 26-17 win over rival Utah a day after the announcement came feels like it was forever ago. Have the Cougars regressed that much?