Not good enough. No sir. No ma’am. Not good enough to even keep it close. Not against this team.
And so, as it turns out, yeah, BYU simply wasn’t good enough to beat Texas Tech, wasn’t good enough to win the Big 12 championship, and, in the minds of those who control such things, isn’t good enough to make the College Football Playoff.
Check, check and (probably) check.
Everyone — including Kalani Sitake — clearly saw the first two manifestations on Saturday, and the third was seen just as clearly on Sunday, when the college postseason was set.
After suffering a 34-7 defeat against the Red Raiders, their second loss to Texas Tech this season, Sitake made the following declaration: “They’re the best team in the country.”
He said it with such conviction, adding that he wants his team to be just like them.
Right now, the Cougars are far from the second best.
Based on the way BYU played against Tech— with all the aforementioned on the line at AT&T Stadium — the 11 angry men and one angry woman on the CFP committee were right all along. That’s hard to admit, given that the powers that be there were leaning away from BYU specifically and the Big 12 in general straight from jump this season. And maybe that was the worst part of what happened on this occasion.
The biased were justified.
Those who never believed BYU was worthy of qualification were correct.
Nobody can argue the point, not anymore. BYU doesn’t deserve a spot in said playoff. Those of us who thought it did were wrong. It’s not up for debate. Leave that back and forth now to other teams — Notre Dame and Miami and the rest — hovering on the edge of the top spots. It really is funny — not the humorous kind — and eye-opening, too, how 11 wins can be wiped out and away by one pathetic performance. And that’s exactly what BYU put up against the Red Raiders, evidenced as it was by the lopsided final count.
While the Cougars didn’t just want perfection against TTU, they needed it — and they rather convincingly failed to get it.
Mistakes — interceptions, fumbles, missed tackles, missed blocks, missed assignments — and, not to be ignored, the vast talent discrepancy that caused them, were very much on display in this game. Texas Tech played as it was able and the confident opposing force that pressed up on BYU exposed and underscored the Cougars’ weaknesses.
They couldn’t keep pressure off Bear Bachmeier. They couldn’t sustain drives on the ground. They couldn’t stir explosive plays to bail out other inefficiencies. Their trick plays didn’t work. Their receivers couldn’t find space. Bachmeier couldn’t find his targets, however tight the windows were. Their coaches couldn’t find answers. And as that offense burped and lurched, the defense couldn’t keep its fingers in a dam that was bursting all around it. That’s a mixed metaphor, but a descriptive error is fitting in summing up BYU’s mess of a day.
It even got to the point where you had to wonder if the thought blew through Sitake’s mind, especially as a relatively close game got worse and worse as the minutes churned by, if coaching Penn State for a bajillion dollars wouldn’t have been such a bad option after all.
Beyond the fact that Texas Tech had more, better athletes, making matters worse for the Cougars was to what the Red Raiders attributed their overwhelming success. “We love each other,” coach Joey McGuire said, “that’s our competitive edge.”
Wait. Wasn’t that supposedly BYU’s competitive edge?
Not here. Not now.
The Cougars found out: Love can be one cruel mother.
The Red Raiders, full of devotion and adoration for one another, earned their bye, then. The Cougars earned their bye-bye-bye.
The good news? BYU absolutely owned this game for the first 10 minutes. And then …
And then came the bad news, which was everything that happened after that.
The Cougars moved down the field impressively for an opening touchdown at the 4:58 mark of the first quarter, running the ball and throwing it, too. A nice mix. Next thing, the Red Raiders rose up as BYU flubbed up, unable to find consistency in any area, but particularly on attack.
You want BYU numbers? You only think you do.
They went like this: total yards — 200; passing yards — 137; rushing yards — 63; average yards per pass — 4.7; average yards per run — 2.1; first downs — 14; interceptions — 2, fumbles lost — 2.
Freshman quarterback Bachmeier, limping as he was with a gimpy left ankle, was horrible, but he had a lot of company — his offensive line couldn’t help him find time or comfort in the pocket or anywhere else, his receivers couldn’t get open, his running backs, including BYU’s best offensive player, LJ Martin, couldn’t carry the load.
And that about covers it.
The Cougar defense did what it could to keep the game within shouting distance — BYU trailed, 13-7 at the half — but 21 unanswered points in the third and fourth quarters, boosted by the Cougars’ offensive blunders, did that group in. Texas Tech gained more passing yards than BYU got in total yards. Its ground game nearly tripled the Cougars rushing total.
“We put our defense in some tough positions,” Sitake said.
There were signs of desperation and even fear on the part of BYU’s offensive coaches throughout. One such instance came early on, after Tech cut BYU’s only lead to 7-3. On the Cougars’ next possession, they faced a third-and-11 from their own 23-yard line. Instead of passing, Bachmeier handed the ball to Martin who had no chance of picking up the needed yardage, forcing a punt.
That might have seemed like a little, inconsequential thing, but it showed not what the Red Raiders thought of BYU’s limited offense, rather what the Cougars themselves — including their coaches — thought of their own limitations. Shortly thereafter, Texas Tech took the lead on a touchdown, and it never looked back. A subsequent fake punt on its own side of the field, which failed on an incomplete pass, further demonstrated BYU’s resignation and capitulation to its wretched state. It might as well have screamed out, “We’re scared!”
The second half, as mentioned, showed why the Cougars should have been frightened, straight on through to the end. The cold, hard truth is this: BYU has work to do. A whole lot of work. It has ground to make up against an opponent that is great this season and is bound to be great, with a stellar incoming recruiting class and more money to throw at its talent for seasons to come.
At this juncture, BYU is good, just not good enough. And on account of that, the Cougars won’t be making a run to and through the College Football Playoff; instead, they’ll likely make a run about a thousand miles to the southeast to the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando. It’s a difficult consolation prize to accept, given what might have been.
One bit of encouragement requiring a reach around the moon at present for BYU comes, ironically enough, from the Texas Tech Red Raiders themselves. If they can dominate, if they can get into the playoff so decisively, with a first-round bye, out of the Big 12, then BYU — with its money, its commitment, its coaches, its facilities and funding, its advancement in recruiting — might be able to do likewise.
Sitake indicated he was hoping/planning for a return to the title game and perhaps more in the seasons ahead. “Soon,” he said, with a more pleasing, promising result.
That just seemed far-distant on this particular Saturday afternoon.
“We’ll build from this and get better,” Sitake said. “… I’d like to get a third chance at them.”
He and his team, if they do continue to improve, almost certainly will. Just not this year.
A note to readers: This story was updated after the College Football Playoff selection show aired on Sunday morning.