Halloween Celebration: BYU Football’s Biggest Trick Or Treats

PROVO, Utah – To get into the Halloween spirit, let’s roll out the biggest trick or treats so far from the 2021 BYU football season.

It’s pretty self-explanatory, so grab the fun-size candy bars and enjoy.

Halloween Treat: BYU’s wide receivers

The BYU wide receiver unit is as good as advertised. Coming into the season, BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said this group was the deepest he’s had since he arrived in 2018. It’s lived up to the hype with Puka Nacua and Neil Pau’u leading the way. Gunner Romney recently suffered another leg injury, but this group has the depth with Keanu Hill and Chris Jackson to overcome if Romney is out for most of the remaining games.

Halloween Trick: Depth at linebacker

When Keenan Pili went down with a season-ending injury, it exposed some depth at BYU’s linebacker unit. Ben Bywater is a rising star and him getting the chance to be elevated into a more prominent role has been natural for him, but after Bywater, there’s been a dropoff.

Switching Chaz Ah You from safety to linebacker feels out of place and the wrong move and the younger guys at linebacker haven’t been as ready as you’d like to see after losing a future NFL talent in Pili.

Treat: Jaren Hall

For some reason, there has been a vocal minority within the BYU fan base that hasn’t been impressed with Jaren Hall. Remember, he’s only started in eight games in his BYU career. However, he’s already put together two 300-plus yard performances, and when healthy, he is dynamite on the ground.

Hall’s decision-making has been better than anyone could have expected. He had a near-disastrous interception against Arizona State that Tyler Allgeier bailed out, but he’s taken care of the football this season.

What’s exciting for BYU is that Hall is only a sophomore. The Spanish Fork native has a bright future ahead of him if he can stay healthy.

Trick: Physicality against future Big 12 rival Baylor

BYU went into Waco to take on future Big 12 rival Baylor on October 16 and the Cougars were utterly outmatched in the trenches on both sides of the ball. It was likely a wake-up call for Kalani Sitake and his program to ramp up the talent level before play as a Big 12 member begins in 2023.

Treat: 4-0 against the Pac-12

The league that has never wanted BYU sure likes scheduling the Cougars. Maybe that will change in the future now that BYU has posted a 4-0 record against Pac-12 wins. The Cougars are the only team that has faced at least four Pac-12 foes this year with an undefeated record. BYU’s wins have come against Arizona, Utah, Arizona State, and Washington State.

There’s still one more chance to get another victory over the Pac-12, the regular season finale against USC in the historic LA Memorial Coliseum.

Trick: Field goal kicking

Last season, Jake Oldroyd was a Lou Groza Award finalist as he was perfect on field goal attempts. This year hasn’t gone as smoothly. The sophomore kicker from Texas has dealt with back pain this year that has limited his availability. But in the game he has played, his accuracy has been inconsistent. Oldroyd has missed at least one field goal in three of the last four games. Will he bounce back? There’s a good chance for that, but if he doesn’t, it changes how BYU’s offense approaches their playcalling in opponent territory.

Treat: Kalani Sitake celebrations

Get you a coach who gasses up his players like Kalani Sitake. Is there anything more sharable than Kalani Sitake getting excited down the sideline after a big play?

Trick: Navy blue helmets

Okay, look, the navy blue helmets are clean. If I was dressing up for Halloween and a BYU football player was my costume, I’d want the navy blue lid. It might be the best helmets out of the collection BYU has now. But, the results don’t lie; BYU is 0-2 in those helmets. I’m just saying.

Treat: The ROC

BYU’s student, The ROC, has brought the noise this season. There were years where the ROC was a no-show at football games. However, this year has not been one of those years. Maybe it’s a new appreciation for attending live sporting events after a year like 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, it could be the quality of opponents that have rolled through LES this season. Whatever it is, BYU students have done a great job elevating the gameday atmosphere at BYU home games to levels I haven’t seen in over a decade.

Trick: Scoreboards at LES

The screens are massive, a massive upgrade from the previous version. But it’s Halloween and construction on the scoreboards is barely wrapping up. I know there are supply shortages all around the globe these days, but come on now.

Treat: BYU proving 2020 wasn’t a fluke

This season has had a different look and feel than last season, but this has been a tougher schedule. To be ranked late in October with a chance to secure ten wins, it’s been quite the season thus far for BYU. If Kalani Sitake’s team finishes strong this year, they could be a trendy preseason Top 25 pick next year with Jaren Hall returning.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.

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