Five questions BYU football must answer in fall camp

Fall camp is in the air.

BYU football opened up fall camp on Thursday, officially beginning preparations for the 2021 season. The Cougars kick off the most difficult schedule of their independent era when they take on Arizona in Las Vegas for the season opener on Sept. 4.

Here are five questions BYU will start to answer over the next four weeks.

Will the Cougars be able to replicate the success from 2020 in 2021?

Did BYU deserve its national ranking last season? By this point, everyone’s heard the doubt surrounding BYU’s historic 2020 season — whether it be about the Cougar’s watered-down schedule or the fact that the pandemic caused constant cancelations and therefore some programs struggled to find their usual success. BYU is blocking that out now. But the Cougars will need to win plenty of games this season to shut up any doubters.

But do the Cougars feel like they have to quiet anyone? Probably not.

Sure, BYU hadn’t seen success to the level of 2020 in a while, but the Cougars have only had one losing season (2017) since the 2004 season. So, BYU hasn’t fared that badly.

However, if they want to keep the momentum going and continue in their search of a Power Five conference, the Cougars will need to have more seasons like the one they had in 2020.

“We have to continue to practice every day with that chip on our shoulder that we’ve got something to prove,” offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said. “Most people don’t care what we did last year. For some people, there’s an asterisk by it and for others it’s just over now, it’s time to move on. So, we’ve got to keep that hunger, that chip on our shoulder to prove something.”

Will the Cougars be able to handle their toughest schedule of the independence era?

BYU is entering its 11th season as an independent. Athletic director Tom Holmoe has been able to consistently get a handful of Power Five programs on the schedule.

However, they’re usually all in the first half of the season, which in turn gets the Cougars pretty banged up early on.

This year, BYU is playing the most Power Five programs ever (seven) but has them spaced out a bit.

The Cougars will open with three consecutive P5 opponents, switch to three top Group of 5 teams, go back to three P5 programs, then play two teams from the Big Sky and Sun Belt before closing out the season with its seventh P5 team.

Add in the fact that BYU doesn’t have a bye week until mid-November and it’s a lot, but hopefully the way the schedule is set up can bring some balance.

How will the quarterback race impact the team?

By this point, it’s clear the team won’t be announcing its starting quarterback anytime soon, but Roderick said they may not even make the decision until halfway through fall camp.

The two-week deadline is in place to provide the eventual starting quarterback plenty of time to prepare for the season opener, but how will that decision affect the rest of the team? Because the three contenders — Jaren Hall, Baylor Romney and Jacob Conover — will continue to split reps, will the two weeks be enough for the starter to get ready?

Luckily, the coaches have said that all three quarterbacks have the same playing style, which is very similar to Zach Wilson’s. So, no one will have to learn anything drastically new and the offense should look the same.

Will the offense be as even as it was last year with the run and passing game?

Speaking of the offense, can fans expect to see a well-balanced plan of attack? Last season, although the passing game saw more yardage (3,985 yards) than the rushing game (2,281 yards), the Cougars scored the same amount of touchdowns by both means (34).

If all three quarterback contenders do in fact play like Zach Wilson, fans can expect to see plenty of highlight reels featuring long passes, but the Cougars also have a heavy arsenal of rushers. BYU would be dumb to not use all the tools it has.

As mentioned before, staying healthy will be key. Two seasons ago, the Cougars lost a lot of talent in the running back room due to injury. So far, it seems like BYU is set up for success regardless of whether it chooses to run or pass the ball, but keeping all options available will be for the best.

Will the defense be able to build off last season’s performance?

Just like the offensive line, the defensive line took some big hits from departing seniors. Add in the loss of more seniors in other defensive positions and the entire defense is looking very young.

Super senior Uriah Leiataua said he believes Atunaisa Mahe will be a good replacement for big man Khyiris Tonga, even though the sophomore is smaller than his predecessor.

“He is so strong,” Leiataua said. “I kid you not, I think he’s just as strong as Khyiris, and that’s weird because he’s way smaller. And he’s faster, too, so it’s weird. But Naisa is scary good. He’s ready.”

Last season, the Cougars’ defense held opponents to 1,446 rushing yards and 2,370 passing yards, and an average of 4.8 yards per play. BYU held opponents to 15.3 points per game. The Cougars also only allowed opponents to complete less than 40% of third-down conversions and 40% of fourth-down conversions.

By the end of the 2020 season, BYU ranked fourth in scoring defense and 10th in total defense.

It can only be expected that BYU’s success will depend on whether the defense can put a stop to opponents both in the run game and the passing game.