Jaren Hall: Wyoming Is Fundamentally Sound, Cougs Must Establish Run Game Early

PROVO, Utah – BYU got a reality check when they fell to Oregon in a game that wasn’t all that close, but now their attention goes to former Mountain West and WAC foe Wyoming.

The Cowboy’s season started off poorly with a 38-6 blowout loss to Illinois but since then they have improved each week and are now 3-1 on the year.

Last Friday night they had a big upset over Air Force winning 17-14 and held that Falcon offense to only 171 rushing which was well below their 508.5 yards per game average they had coming into this game.

The Cougar’s rushing game is a point of concern at the moment, in their last two games they have a combined 144 yards which is way down from the 314 yards they put up in their season-opening win over South Florida. BYU will have their hands full against this Cowboys rush defense.

BYU quarterback Jaren Hall gave Unrivaled his thoughts on the Cowboys during his weekly conversation on KSL Sports Zone.

“[They] are very fundamentally sound and do their job,” Hall said. “They don’t do a lot in their scheme or try to trick you. They play straight up and want to beat the guy across from them. We can tell they are a very disciplined team and fundamentally sound. We gotta be ready to go and squared away as their defense will be ready.”

BYU does seem to be more talented than Wyoming, but to get the win the Cougs need to run the ball better.

New Cougar Tracks with #BYU DL @Tyler_Batty2.

• Injury update
• His reaction to Holker leaving
• The response in practice after the Oregon loss
• Wyoming preview#BYUFootball @kslsports https://t.co/On1l4dVpy3

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) September 22, 2022

“We had such a good Week 1, Week 2 was a struggle but Baylor’s defensive line was crazy and probably the best defensive line we will see all year,” Hall said. “Oregon was physical too.”

“Running the ball… it’s hard to say I couldn’t tell ya. Coach [Darrell] Funk or Aaron Roderick would be more equipped to tell you that. For me, I just felt we didn’t put ourselves in good situations to stay ahead of the chains. If you get behind as fast as we did on Saturday we gotta throw the ball more and that got us out of a rhythm.”

Getting an early lead or at least not falling behind is a way to keep that ground game going in an efficient way.

If everyone can look at their film and see what they can do better then Hall thinks the entire team will rise up and be better heading into the next game.

“Learn from the film and look inward. It is tough right after the games as you are too emotional to try to dissect everything,” Hall said. “Take a day off then look at the film and watch it very objectively and see what is going on and see how you can play better. Try not to look elsewhere and point figures, so for us, we need to be mature enough to look inward and see what I need to do.”

Blaming others and pointing out flaws is a disaster waiting to happen. However, if BYU players can take a step back and look at the things they themselves can improve upon then this Wyoming matchup could go in their favor Friday night.

Where: LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah
When: Saturday, September 24 at 8:15 p.m. (MDT)
TV/Stream: ESPN2
Pregame: KSL Sports Zone, 7 – 8:15 p.m.
Radio: KSL NewsRadio 102.7 FM/1160 AM

Tune into Unrivaled every Monday through Friday, 3-7 p .m. on 1280 The Zone and 97.5 FM, orsubscribe to the podcast. Also, download the all-new KSL Sports app on iOS or Android.

Follow @JeremyMauss