BYU Cougars head coach Kalani Sitake and Iowa State Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell talk after the Cyclines beat the Cougars 45-13 at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
Three mid-level Big 12 teams with a combined record of 16-14 have embarrassed the BYU Cougars in the last month, the latest being the 6-4 Iowa State Cyclones, a team that was rocked by a sports betting scandal before the season began and lost 10-7 to Ohio in Week 3.
Iowa State’s 45-13 pummeling of BYU was more humiliating for the 5-5 Cougars than the 44-11 loss at now 4-6 TCU and the 37-7 loss at now 6-4 West Virginia because it came at home in front of 60,754 fans, a despondent Isaac Rex said after the latest beatdown.
“Yeah, it is tough, but this team is tougher. We did it at Arkansas, and we came out with a win. And so I don’t think there (was) any lack of belief on our sidelines that we (could) do that again today. Obviously we didn’t. But we had that belief on the sideline.” — BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff
“It sucks worse at home because we have a lot of great fans that care about us and came out to support us, and to get blown out like that is embarrassing,” Rex said.
It appears that the beatings will continue the rest of the season, whether morale improves or not, as No. 14 Oklahoma (8-2) rolls into LaVell Edwards Stadium for the first time ever, fresh off its 59-20 drubbing of that same West Virginia team that crushed the Cougars a week ago in Morgantown.
With two presumably better teams than the Horned Frogs, Cyclones and Mountaineers standing between BYU and bowl eligibility, the Cougars need a wakeup call, in more ways than one.
Kickoff for the Sooners’ visit is at 10 a.m. MST — which isn’t good news for a BYU team that struggles mightily in day games and after…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cougars-still-believe-coaches-another-000000128.html
Author : Deseret News
Publish date : 2023-11-13 00:00:00
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