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When Utah and TCU were invited to join the Pac-12 and Big 12 back in 2010 and 2011, respectively, it took time to gain traction. It took changes in recruiting, funding, resources and experience to get TCU to the national championship game last year and the Utes to back-to-back Rose Bowls and league titles. How long will it take the Cougars to make waves in the Big 12?
Starting this season, Kalani Sitake and his boss, athletic director Tom Holmoe , will find out. Fortunately for Holmoe, Sitake, coordinators Aaron Roderick and Jay Hill, defensive line coach Sione Po'uha, defensive end coach Kelly Poppinga, tight end coach Steve Clark and offensive line coach Darrell Funk have all been involved as coaches on P5 teams. With Sitake, Hill, Roderick, Clark and Po'uha, those experiences were at Utah and most of that came when the Utes were making the transition from the MWC.
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With fall camp beginning Tuesday, we will now discover more about BYU's preparations and evolution. In spring, we saw Sitake make practices more physical with more contact. Other tweaks will be made. But the biggest step in transitioning is devoting more resources toward recruiting, staff and facilities.
Here are Jay Drew's five top storylines to watch in coming camp practices.
Question of the week: History shows that BYU's backup QB will get playing time. What's your early, early prediction on who earns the QB2 spot?
Jay Drew:BYU fans only have to look back to last year's loss to Notre Dame in Las Vegas to realize the value of a capable backup quarterback. Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick didn't trust any of the QBs behind Jaren Hall after Hall got hurt in the Utah State game, and decided to play a clearly injured Hall against the Irish rather than go with Jacob Conover or Cade Fennegan. Hall clearly wasn't himself in that matchup in Sin City, and the Cougars' downward spiral began.
Kedon Slovis is clearly the man this year , but what happens if he goes down? Rarely does a BYU QB make it through a season unscathed. My prediction is that junior college transfer Jake Retzlaff will emerge as QB2 . I say that based on some conversations with other offensive teammates and reading between the lines of what Roderick had to say when spring camp concluded last April.
Retzlaff had some ground to make up after having issues with his tonsils when camp began, and he did just that. I believe that momentum will carry into fall camp and that Retzlaff will find his name on the two-deep chart before the Cougars host Sam Houston in early September.
Dick Harmon: We can all remember backups. Taysom Hill , Jake Heaps, John Beck, Steve Young, Robbie Bosco, Jim McMahon, Marc Wilson, Jaren Hall, Blaine Fowler and many others. Many later became starters and some became stars.
The guy who backs up Slovis is likely a recruited candidate who was told he would have a chance to back up and become a starter. I like Cade Fennegan because he did start at Boise State, but I think Jake Retzlaff, the No. 1 junior college QB a year ago, was recruited for that purpose and will be given every chance to make good on that opportunity. From what I've seen of Retzlaff, he has the arm, intelligence, anticipation and delivery to be a starter. His JC numbers were nearly 8,000 yards and 67 touchdowns passing and 15 rushing touchdowns. That's better than what we saw out of Steve Sarkisian when he came in as a JC guy.
Zach Wilson will play in the NFL Hall of Fame game this week. Both Kedon Slovis and Aidan Robbins were named to the Maxwell Watch List for the upcoming season. BYU's Tyson Shelley won the prestigious Pacific Coast Amateur this past weekend.
Related
Football gets new team room ( @BroberDave )
Roster numbers to digest ( @jaromjordan )
Big 12 vs Pac-12 data ( @TotalBlueSports )
Why Slovis and Rex need each other ( Yahoo/Deseret News )
Five newer newcomers to watch ( Daily Herald )
BYU adds JC transfer, Ute to roster ( KSL Sports )
Comments from Deseret News readers:
Dear naysayers, scoff all you want at this preseason watchlist or the preseason polls. It IS an honor to be thought of as worthy to be watched and evaluated as the season progresses. With nothing more to go on, experts in the sport consider these individuals as having the potential to shake things up and rise to the top. To those of you who poke fun and say it's meaningless, I say, "You're the meaningless fans that haven't a clue." You probably have miserable lives and the only way you can feel accomplished is by tearing down others.
— OnlyInUtah
This is really just the reality of college football as it now stands.
Alabama has had over 20 players enter the portal with 12 of them being scholarship players. They, likely, are moving on for a different reason than players for BYU or Utah (they have more options as higher recruits) but losing some players is not really a bad thing.
As coach Whit said, many transfer portal entries are mutual decisions where the player can go somewhere that they have a shot of making the three-deep
I am a Utes fan but BYU is not in a bad position as far as the portal. That said, excitement about being in the top-25 portal rankings is also being overblown. If you look at the quality of players acquired through the portal, it mirrors what we see in high school recruiting rankings. The blue-chip programs get the blue-chip transfers while everyone else picks up what is left.
It remains to be seen if it will be a net gain or net loss for BYU but that is true for pretty much everyone.
— PhineasGuage
Aug. 5 | 7 p.m. | Soccer | Blue vs White | @Provo
Aug. 10 | 5 p.m. | Soccer | Rutgers | @New Brunswick, New JerseyAug. 12 | 7 p.m. | Soccer | Idaho State | @Provo
Aug. 17 | 7 p.m. | Soccer | St. Louis | @Provo
BYU Cougars quarterback Cade Fennegan (11) throws the ball during the annual BYU Blue vs. White scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Friday, March 31, 2023. Fennegan is battling to be QB2 for the Cougars. | Ryan Sun, Deseret News
