BYU football checks in at No. 14 in preseason AP Top 25 poll | Fall camp enters week three
The preseason AP Top 25 is out and BYU checks in at No. 14, tied with USC with 839 points. KSL Sports BYU Insider Mitch Harper reacts to the Cougars' highest preseason ranking since the 1985 season, the year after BYU's national championship. It's only the 13th time in program history BYU has appeared in the preseason AP poll and just the second time in the Kalani Sitake era. Four Big 12 teams made the cut — Texas Tech at No. 12, BYU at No. 14, Utah at No. 21, and Houston at No. 23 — and BYU's October 17 home date with No. 4 Notre Dame is already circled in red. Historically, BYU has finished higher than its preseason AP ranking only twice (1981, 2009). Can the Cougars make it a third? Mitch discusses what this ranking means for expectations, the College Football Playoff picture, and how voters are viewing BYU's returning production headlined by Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year LJ Martin and quarterback Bear Bachmeier.
The ongoing Kalani Sitake–Brian Santiago dynamic also remains front and center.
Finally, Mitch recaps an eventful scrimmage as BYU enters week three of fall camp. The Cougars ran 102 plays at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday, and the offense had the upper hand. Bear Bachmeier was in a "great rhythm," according to Sitake, who gave the offense a "slight edge" over the defense.
