BYU was one of the worst pass rushing teams in the country last year. Why did the Cougars want to run it back with the same pass rushers?

Provo • Kalani Sitake is acting like he has an ace up his sleeve.

It’s quietly been the story of the offseason inside BYU’s offices.

Even as some people question the direction of the program (Vegas is projecting the Cougars to win about four games), the head coach has a simmering belief that everything will work out.

In due time, he thinks, the world will see what he sees.

Go down the list:

No quarterback? Sitake said he’s actually confident in two.

No offensive line improvement? He thinks Cougs will be able to run the ball.

Picked near the bottom of the league? Sitake thinks his group will eventually prove people wrong.

“There’s nothing wrong with people on the outside not knowing what we have. We’re watching practices and seeing the talent that’s there. We’re way different than we were last year,” he said earlier this month.

But nowhere will Sitake have to be more right — nowhere will he have to prove everyone else wrong — than on the defensive line and the pass rush.

Sitake went bold this offseason when it came to his pass-rush approach. After watching BYU rank 131st out of 133 FBS teams in sacks per game, he decided he wasn’t going to bring in any reinforcements at edge rusher.

Instead he’ll run it back with Tyler Batty and Isaiah Bagnah and he believes they will both improve.

The two players didn’t pair well together last year, when Batty was the do-it-all-man on the defensive line and Bagnah was playing catch up.

Batty finished with six sacks last year. Bagnah had one. Batty ended with 19 hurries. Bagnah, the player supposed to be his wingman, had just two.

Maybe the most troubling was that Bagnah’s win percentage — beating his block when he was assigned to pass rush — was just 2.8% last year, per Pro Football Focus. That was second-worst out of any defensive linemen on the team.

Granted, Bagnah was dealing with some health issues. But was that enough to explain away the performance and have Sitake feel confident the pass rush will come alive this year?

Even edge rusher coach Kelly Poppinga agreed last year was a poor showing.

“They’ve got to complement each other,” he said. “We didn’t really have that last year. We had like a one-trick pony that was kind of doing everything.”

But there might be one clue that explains why Sitake feels so confident in that group. Poppinga indicated that maybe Sitake’s ace was already on the roster — not a portal addition. He said Logan Latui was fighting with Bagnah for the second edge rusher position.

Latui only played 156 snaps last year. That was far fewer than Bagnah’s 457 and Batty’s 695 snaps on the line. But Latui had a sneaky win rate last year, at 7.9% (for reference, Batty’s was over 12%). And he got off four hurries and one QB hit.

If he is the missing link to pair off of Batty — plus an improvement by Bagnah — Sitake might be proved right.

“If we have pressure that Batty continues to do [this year] along with our defensive tackles and the rush end in Zay or Logan [we will get better]. We just have to have four guys doing it up front rather than one,” Poppinga said.

Until then, we will wait and see.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brigham Young Cougars defensive tackle Atunaisa Mahe (62) and defensive end Isaiah Bagnah (13), sack Southern Utah Thunderbirds quarterback Grady Robison (5), in football action between the Southern Utah Thunderbirds and the Brigham Young Cougars, at LaVell Edwards Stadium, on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. (Rick Egan/)

Still no quarterback

Fall camp is ending without a quarterback named. Even as the rest of the country used Monday to name their quarterback, the Cougars said it is still a battle between Jake Retzlaff and Gerry Bohanon.

Sitake said there was no separation after a second scrimmage last weekend that lasted around 70 live plays and over 120 overall (including special teams snaps).

BYU will end camp this week and turn to Southern Illinois. Who takes the first snap is still anyone’s guess.

A season-ending injury

Last year, BYU had several devastating injuries in fall camp. This year has been relatively quiet. But one player will miss the season.

Offensive lineman Joe Brown tore his ACL before fall camp started and had surgery last week. He was projected to be an insurance policy on the offensive line as a backup guard. He went through spring camp as a freshman out of Lone Peak.

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BYU was one of the worst pass rushing teams in the country last year. Why did the Cougars want to run it back with the same pass rushers?

BYU was one of the worst pass rushing teams in the country last year. Why did the Cougars want to run it back with the same pass rushers?

BYU was one of the worst pass rushing teams in the country last year. Why did the Cougars want to run it back with the same pass rushers?

BYU was one of the worst pass rushing teams in the country last year. Why did the Cougars want to run it back with the same pass rushers?

BYU was one of the worst pass rushing teams in the country last year. Why did the Cougars want to run it back with the same pass rushers?