BYU Completes Final Fall Camp Scrimmage, Focus Begins Shifting Towards Navy

PROVO, Utah – BYU football held its final fall camp scrimmage on Thursday inside an empty LaVell Edwards Stadium. A good simulation of the atmosphere the Cougars will see against Navy on Labor Day night.

According to head coach Kalani Sitake, BYU ran 85 plays in the scrimmage with 30 of those plays coming in a live portion which allows full-contact.

“Our goal was to go the whole entire thing live but I think it was better for us to get only 30 or so reps of live-work today. It’s been a really physical camp and looking at our guys I think that was the best goal for us,” Sitake said.

Final scrimmage of #BYU fall camp concluded today. Kalani Sitake estimates 85 plays were ran (said he will check final number) with 30 or so reps in live work.#BYUFootball @kslsports

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) August 20, 2020

Throughout BYU’s camp, there have been days where Sitake proclaimed the offense won the day. Who won on Thursday? The answer is kind of foggy but maybe the defense had a little bit of a bounceback performance.

“I think it was harder for the offense to move but I think the defense and offense both did some good things on both sides of the ball,” Sitake said. “Had some good work on special teams and I was really pleased with the day. So I think we got exactly what we wanted from it.”

No decision yet on the starting quarterback

One of the big questions entering the final scrimmage was the status of the starting quarterback job between Zach Wilson, Baylor Romney, and Jaren Hall. No official designation as to who will start has been decided yet according to offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes. When asked by KSL Sports about how the reps were divided up for the quarterbacks in the scrimmage, Grimes didn’t divulge those details but continues to be impressed with the three signal-callers.

Jeff Grimes on #BYU's QB competition: "I think the experience that we have there is certainly showing in practice and they're all making progress every day. You probably won't hear much else until we're ready to announce something."#BYUFootball @kslsports

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) August 20, 2020

“I think the experience that we have there is certainly showing in practice and they’re all making progress every day. You probably won’t hear much else until we’re ready to announce something.”

Work starts to shift towards Navy

Now with the final fall camp scrimmage in the rearview mirror, the focus starts to shift towards the Midshipmen and their high-powered triple-option attack that was number one nationally last year averaging 360.5 yards per game.

“We’ll get some more live work next week and then, you know, we’ll see how much live we need to go next week. In order to simulate the scheme, we have to see our guys cut live looks from our skeleton and give us the best option to see it as quickly as possible,” said Sitake. “So we’ll do whatever it takes and then seeing that we’re gonna have our first two opponents be this type of scheme, it helps out getting an early jump at it and have our guys learn it, and it’s good to have it back-to-back.”

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.