Cougar Insiders

September 29, 2026

No. 10 BYU jumps back into Big 12 action this week, when there are five in-conference battles going on that are key in the standings. Central Florida is at Houston; West Virginia visits Iowa State; Texas Tech plays at Colorado; Baylor travels to Arizona State; and Arizona hosts a red-hot Cincinnati team.

The Cougars take on TCU in Fort Worth on a weekend where there could be 5 to 6 inches of rainfall, certainly challenging both teams on the field and sidelines.

Former BYU linebacker and Green Bay Packer defender Brady Poppinga, brother of Cougar defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga, had a message for Kalani Sitake’s team coming off a bye week and playing at TCU this week.

Speaking on KOVO Radio ESPN Sports with Ben Criddle, Brady said the Cougars cannot think they are playing the team they’ve been studying on film the past two weeks because this version of the TCU team will be much better.

“It’s a conference game and it’s BYU,” said Poppinga, and TCU will be ready, hungry and prepared by veteran head coach Sonny Dykes. TCU will come out and make plays and believe they can do that all game long against the Cougars. Poppinga said that “vision” must be taken away by BYU.

“BYU must have the ability to take away the visualization of taking plays away from them. You do that by playing violent, physical football, execute with precision and making plays ourselves.”

The Cougars are favored by 6-plus points.

Question of the week: BYU’s trip to TCU this week brings back into focus the Big 12, where the Horned Frogs have a top-three league defense in limiting scoring and rushing. If BYU is to have someone break out in this game, predict who that will be and why. Give your game score prediction.

Jay Drew: In his weekly press briefing Monday, BYU coach Kalani Sitake went out of his way to mention how difficult it is to score points on the Horned Frogs. That wasn’t the case last year, when BYU put up 44 points on Sonny Dykes’ injury-depleted crew; however, history shows that BYU almost always struggles to move the football consistently and score on TCU.

I expect that Saturday’s game will be different, even if it is in Fort Worth. Mostly, Amon G. Carter Stadium has been a house of horrors for BYU. The Cougars haven’t won there since 2006. The stadium is much better now, but the Horned Frogs have been wildly inconsistent.

I keep thinking that sooner or later Jojo Phillips will have a breakout game for the Cougars. Maybe it will be this week, as TCU focuses on stopping LJ Martin, Kyler Kasper and freshman Legend Glasker. We will see.

I’m thinking that this is the week that BYU breaks out its two-headed tight end monster — Walker Lyons and Roger Saleapaga, the latter of whom missed the CSU game but is said to be ready to roll in Fort Worth.

Prediction: BYU 28, TCU 24

Dick Harmon: The Horned Frogs return from a disappointing loss to UCF last week, a game they had a chance to win. They’ve been inconsistent on offense, strong on defense, and always tough on BYU because of team speed and athleticism.

This BYU team is built a little differently. It has size, speed and athleticism on both sides of the line of scrimmage, and it will be interesting to see how these metrics are applied against a program that has almost always had an edge in those categories.

If TCU has any weakness, it may be its offense. Breaking in a new quarterback from Harvard with just four P4 starts has been a challenge, while TCU’s defense is in the top three in the Big 12. I think BYU’s defense will have some huge plays in this game. Look for corners Evan Johnson and Tre Alexander to have a big impact. This could be a situation where BYU puts a lot of pressure on TCU’s Jaden Craig. Defensive end Akana Tausili and Cade Uluave could have big games, and so could tackle Keanu Tanuvasa.

This will be a tough one. TCU is hurting. Players had a players-only meeting on Monday. They are angry at last week’s loss and have a lot to prove on their home field. They would love to knock off No. 10-ranked BYU to atone for their failings. This is a great test of BYU’s depth and speed against an athletic team on a weekend that is expected to be rainy with challenging conditions.

Prediction: BYU 28, TCU 17

While BYU’s football team took the week off, other sports excelled. Women’s golf won the Red Raider Invitational in Lubbock; the women’s soccer team upset No. 23 UCF; the No. 24 women’s volleyball team upset No. 17 Baylor; and the No. 3-ranked women’s cross country team dominated the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree with a team victory and top runners finishing in scoring position.

In this piece, Jay Drew explains how the injury bug continues to hit the football team. In basketball, Jackson Payne gives us a glimpse into freshman Dean Rueckert’s lifelong dream to play for the Cougars. Is BYU’s run game on track to be one of the best ever?

Comments from Deseret News readers:

Much ado has been made about the mistakes the third- and fourth-stringers have made when they’ve had their chance. Clearly the defensive players are scrambling as the offense starts a play, for example. I’m not too bothered about it. Reps are expensive during the week. Your ones get the most reps, by far; your twos get virtually all of the leftovers. The threes and fours are running the scout team, repping the other team’s schemes, rarely getting opportunities in practice to run your team’s scheme. That they are getting lots of game reps indicates you are getting top performance from your ones (and, for the most part twos). Getting the other guys game reps will pay dividends. While recognizing there have been mistakes and they need to be cleaned up, generally I’m just not worried about giving up TDs in mop-up time at this stage. — Sinew South

Weak defense is a major concern, but TCU should be an easy win. The real schedule starts vs. Iowa State. Best of luck Cougs, you will need it after this point. — Angron

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