Cougar Insiders

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BYU will face one of the Big 12’s best passers Saturday when Arizona’s Noah Fifita comes to town. The Cougar defense will be tested with both coverage and designs to pressure the fifth-year senior.

This game will give us a solid glimpse into how good BYU’s defensive front is and how deep the secondary is with the absence of safety Raider Damuni, out with a leg injury for a few weeks.

Head coach Kalani Sitake told reporters he is very familiar with not only Arizona’s players but coaching staff and he has respect for what they bring.

“They have a disruptive defense,” said Sitake. “I mean, you look at how they played Northern Arizona and held them to nine yards rushing and under 200 yards total offense, a defensive effort that actually had a shutout. NAU had a late touchdown off an interception with three minutes left.”

Sitake said Fifita is smart and hard to confuse so BYU will have to do a great job in coverages and putting pressure on him. “He has a very strong arm.”

Sitake said Arizona will bring their best, “So, we’ve got to play our best.”

Question of the week: With BYU’s expected win over Utah Tech in the rearview mirror, here are two questions. Will Legend Glasker keep up the performance we saw last Saturday in LaVell Edwards Stadium against future P4 opponents like Arizona this week? Also, share your season prediction for wins and losses from this BYU team and predict a score for Arizona at BYU.

Jay Drew: If BYU freshman Legend Glasker was an unknown commodity when the season began, that’s no longer the case. The receiver from Lehi turned in one of the most memorable debuts in recent memory last Saturday in the cakewalk win over Utah Tech.

What will he do for an encore? Well, it can’t possibly be as good, can it? Certainly, Glasker will be keyed on by Arizona defensive backs this week, and it will be nearly impossible to repeat his feats against better, faster, stronger and more talented athletes Saturday.

It does help that almost every pass-catcher on BYU’s team is bigger and taller than Glasker, presenting some mismatch nightmares for opposing defenses. If Kyler Kasper or Jojo Phillips can command double teams, Glasker’s legend could grow even more (yeah, I had to go there).

I’ve gone back and forth on BYU’s final record this year, thinking it could be anywhere from 10-2 to 7-5. BYU won a lot of one-score games last year, and had to come from behind in nearly a half-dozen contests. That might catch up to the Cougars this year. We will see.

So I am going with an 8-4 record, thinking that BYU will have trouble beating Notre Dame at home and Utah, TCU, and UCF or Kansas on the road.

Prediction: BYU 34, Arizona 33

Dick Harmon: Back in spring practices, many of us had word that offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick and pass-game coordinator Fesi Sitake were kind of “hiding” a certain talent so he didn’t get poached during the transfer portal. It doesn’t take much of an imagination to see that athlete was likely Legend Glasker.

During fall practices, Glasker became an immediate threat and a successful weapon by the offense against what is supposed to be a very good BYU defense. What we saw in the game against an outmanned Utah Tech team just confirmed all that when he scored three touchdowns on his first four touches.

This kid is going to be fun to cover. I hope he keeps healthy. He isn’t that big, but he does have some shifty moves and speed that we haven’t seen at BYU in some time — if ever. His ability to reach top speed in just a few steps makes him very dangerous as a big-play threat.

I had the Cougars winning 10 games and losing two this season. After seeing Notre Dame, I think the Cougars will struggle to attack that Irish defense effectively, even in Provo. I think Utah will move the ball on the Cougars, but they won’t be able to stop BYU’s offense consistently. It could be a real shootout in Salt Lake City. After seeing TCU, I’m not as worried about that road game. UCF, after playing Notre Dame, will be a huge challenge for BYU, and I agree that Kansas will be dangerous on the road. I predict BYU will lose one of those three games on the road.

Prediction: BYU 34, Arizona 24

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BYU took care of business against Utah Tech last Saturday with the only big negative being an injury to veteran safety Raider Damuni. The blowout provided a glimpse into many personalities as recorded in my column. Here is an analysis of the game by Jay Drew and a recap on Monday from players and coaches.

BYU sophomore Kihei Akina went 1-1-1 in his first Walker Cup appearance for the USA in Ireland over the weekend. Women’s soccer played to a draw against Oklahoma to remain undefeated.

Comments from Deseret News readers:

While the ND game is exciting and expectations are high for this season, I might argue that the biggest game in BYU history could be a loss to Utah Tech. It could also be a loss to Arizona. The most important game in BYU history could be a loss to Colorado State when the expectations are so high for this season.

Looking past all of these other opponents, dismissing them as irrelevant, when they’re too many important games ahead of ND, is not healthy! — Just-Another-Opinion

The kicker looked pretty good to me. It’s not a crime to miss from 47 yards out. The ball looked like it might go through until it hooked left as it neared the goal line. I thought it was hard of the coaches to pull the kicker for that one. If they’d gotten the ball within 40 yards of the goal posts that kick might’ve gone through. Give the guy a break.

Also, the long kicker was putting kickoffs over the end zone half the time. The one punt the Cougs had went for over 50 yards in the air and the Tech returner called for a fair catch.

Despite new faces at all the positions I thought the kicking game looked pretty solid. — CougarCat

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