At rock bottom again, BYU approaches final game at Hawaii looking to build for next year

Provo • Shortly after his football team seemingly hit rock bottom — again — with a humiliating 16-10 loss to lowly UMass at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday, coach Kalani Sitake said the upcoming week will be one of the most important weeks of the season.

That sounded strange, because neither BYU (3-9) nor former conference rival Hawaii (3-8) has anything left to play for in their 7 p.m. MST matchup in Honolulu on Saturday. It will be Senior Day for the Warriors, but Senior Day didn’t go well for BYU against UMass or for UNLV against BYU the previous week.

Sitake said because BYU won’t be going to a bowl game for the first time since 2004, the team has to cram a lot of work into this week, work it normally would have gotten in practices preparing for a bowl game.

“We have to make a lot of improvements,” Sitake said. “We have to find a way to use every minute that we have in preparation going into this game. It is important for the younger [players], too.”

Most coaches say they are going on a “business trip” when they travel to the Islands to play Hawaii, but Sitake, who was born in Hawaii and still has dozens of family members there, stopped short of saying that. The Cougars will take some time to enjoy the trip, although nobody in their right mind is calling this BYU’s bowl game.

The season, with nine losses for the first time since 1955, has been too disappointing to mention any kind of reward for an underachieving group of players and coaches alike, even with all the injuries that have beset the team.

“It is going to be warmer,” Sitake said. “We just have to grind and get to work and find a way to adjust and not let the time difference and the distractions happen, but also acknowledge that we are in Hawaii. I think we have to give them a little bit of that experience, you know? But the focus will be working and making sure we find a way to win. The goal is to win the game.”

Freshman quarterback Joe Critchlow played poorly in the loss to UMass and admitted as much, but Sitake said coaches didn’t want to put freshman Kody Wilstead in the game due to its tightness and other reasons he chose not to elaborate on.

“I feel like we are going to have a lot of things to improve on when we finally do break down the film,” said Critchlow, who threw four interceptions and was sacked seven times. “I feel like the team is really eager to get back to practice this week, finish the season strong. We still have one more game, and there are a lot of improvements we can make on the offensive side of the ball.”

Sitake said it was a “difficult locker room” after the loss, but his message was to finish well for the seniors and begin building for next year.

“We prayed and talked about staying together and staying united and finding a way to become a better team and finding a way to get this thing turned around,” he said.

Hawaii is struggling as much as BYU is, having lost eight of its last nine games, but the Warriors will surely be motivated to add one last dagger to their former nemesis’ season of misery.

Receiver Dylan Collie redshirted at BYU in 2012 before serving a church mission and then transferring to UH and will be at the center of that emotional focus. Collie has caught 50 passes for 533 yards and four touchdowns this season.

The Warriors lost 38-0 to Utah State in Logan on Saturday and finished 1-7 in Mountain West play. The Aggies racked up 475 yards and held the Warriors to 318.