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Saturday's first-ever meeting on the gridiron of BYU and West Virginia at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., will pit a team 200 miles away from the nation's capital against a team more than 2,000 miles away.
So new BYU coach Kalani Sitake has a plan. The Cougars will leave Provo on Thursday to give themselves an additional day in the Eastern Time Zone to get ready for the clash, which kicks off at 3:30 p.m. EDT — 1:30 p.m. MT.
The Cougars will also travel to Michigan State and Cincinnati on Thursdays to get ready for those Saturday games.
'I think when you go two time zones [away], it makes it difficult, so we are leaving a day early, trying to get acclimated to the area," Sitake said Monday at his weekly press briefing. "We will practice here Thursday, and then head out there, and we will be ready to go. Other than that, the climate won't be [anything to worry about]. The kickoff is 3:30 there, so it will be pretty hot. But that's college football. It is going to be hot for us, it is going to be hot for them."
Sitake was on the 2000 BYU team in coach LaVell Edwards' last year that made trips to Florida State for the opener, to Virginia for the second game of the season and to Syracuse in Week Six. He knows what it is like to make that trek two time zones away.
"We are going to have a lot of fans there," he said. "It is a neutral site, so we saw what happened the last neutral site game we had [in Arizona]. So I am looking forward to playing at a great place, FedEx Field, and having our players be in the nation's capital, it is going to be a lot of fun."
Having made the trip to New York City with BYU's basketball team last March for the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), defensive end Corbin Kaufusi believes going a day early is a good move.
"I think so, especially, the time change, you want to always say it doesn't effect you, but whether it is subconscious or not, it has its little tolls it will take on people. I don't know how it will be with football, but I think it is a good move," Kaufusi said.
Said receiver Garrett Juergens: "We are excited. It will be good. We will be ready and rested and ready to show the East Coast what we can do."
More comments from Sitake at the press briefing:
On the offensive line's struggles without Ului Lapuaho in there:
"Obviously you want all your guys. Lui has been banged up all fall camp. In some ways, when you are missing some practice time, it hurts being able to run so many plays that we do. Not having him in, obviously you want all your guys, but we have to deal with it. Obviously, that's part of college football is dealing with your depth. I thought Austin [Hoyt] and Thomas [Shoaf] coming in did some good things. We can always improve, always do better.
I would like it to be a more cleaner game on the offensive side so we … we have shown flashes. We have been able to score points when we need to, in a two-minute situation. We just need to see more consistency from every position, because when we are clicking, it works well."
On the balance between surprising an opponent vs. out-executing them:
"Well there are not a lot of surprises in college football, in football altogether. It is tough to surprise your opponent. I think everyone is pretty much prepared for it. So we just have to find our identity on every phase, and have something to be able to hang our hat on. Right now, offensively, we don't have that right now.
When we need to get a play, you usually go to your go-to situations, types of plays, and we are still trying to find that. It is way too late, going into Game 4 right now.
So we got to establish that soon and find our identity and go with it. I think that, I've said it before; The new system, it has been in place for awhile now. So it is time to start executing and start mastering some of these plays, some of these schemes."
On his impressions of WVU's offense:
"They have the ability to score, and they have a bunch of athletes. We have seen great athletes the first three games, so no different. We were excited for the schedule, and now we are looking at it, saying, 'let's go.' This is another challenge. They are a high-powered offense. Rich Rod has his footprint there, obviously. So there are some familiar things that we've seen, but there are also some things that they do differently to go with their skill and their talent.
It is going to be a challenge, but I think we will be in a good position if we play our type of ball and everybody is assignment sound and doing all their jobs. I am excited for that."
On how the depth is holding up through three games:
"I think [weight room work] is helping us stay as healthy as we can, especially playing the high caliber type of teams that we can. We are playing a physical style of football, but I think our guys working out — staying in the weight room [helps]. We had a great lift again today. I think that is our motto. We are going to keep working hard in the offseason and in the weight room. That's going to be our deal. That helps keep us healthy and helps keep us strong. That is going to pay off in the long run, especially when teams start to wilt.
Right now, we are getting stronger. All we have to do is play smart, play assignment sound, and that's the encouraging part.
It is sad and encouraging at the same time: we have lost two games by a total of four points and we haven't even played close to what we can do, to our potential, especially on the offensive side. We still gotta lot of ways to go, and I am encouraged by the improvement we are going to make this week."
On linebacker Fred Warner's status after the linebacker hobbled off the field vs. UCLA:
"Oh, he is going to be fine. It's no big deal."
On Jake Oldroyd's status and Lapuaho's status:
"Yeah, we are still looking at Jake, and Lui, we will say how he progresses right now. It is tough to say right now. I am not the trainer. Last week, there were some questions about some other players. Sometimes it comes down to a game time decision, and for me to make a statement right now on Monday, it is difficult for me to tell the future."
On whether there will be late additions to roster, like OL Kyle Johnson:
"He's not healthy yet, no. If they are in pads, there is a chance they could play, but if they are not, then no."
On OL Brad Wilcox's status:
"No, he is not in pads, so he won't play."
On whether he knows WVU coach Dana Holgorsen:
"I have been a big fan. I have followed him. If you look back in the history of football, there is, I remember when Hal Mumme and Mike Leach would come here. He comes from that tree. I remember when they would come here, when I was playing.
I have followed them as they branched out and went to different places. He's a great coach and does a great job with his program. He has added his own style to it, but the foundation is there.
You look at the history with college coaching, you kinda find their roots. If you look at my background, you can find where my philosophies come from offensively and defensively, and so the same thing with him.
He's got his own scheme, his own style, and it is really, really effective. He has a great staff and does a great job coaching. You are not going to find a lot of coaches who have success without being great coaches themselves, and he's up there with the best of them."
On whether Taysom Hill is going through a learning curve and him getting caught vs. UCLA:
"Yeah, but I think the secret with Taysom, it is no longer a secret — looking at UCLA, they did some things to limit his movement. They tried to challenge him in different ways. He's got to find ways to make plays. If it is not through his legs, he's got to find ways to do it through his arm. But there are things that we can do to help Taysom, and put him in his strengths, that we can do offensively.
We did a little bit of that, but we just gotta be consistent and get him into the position where he can do well all the time and just feel comfortable.
Because the transition and everything, we have talked about it before, allowing him to feel comfortable and in the two minute situations, we are three for three in running down there and scoring. I dunno, maybe that is something that he is more comfortable with. He seemed more comfortable in that type of setting, and there is no ego involved here, so we are not going to do our own thing just to spite our own scheme , our own thoughts and philosophy. We will do what it takes to win, and that's one of those things that we definitely explored. We just want to allow him to play at our best."