Big 12 cellar dweller? Some BYU coaches, players seething over low expectations; others are not

BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff (12) a touchdown against Oklahoma State Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023, in Stillwater, Okla. The second-year Cougar welcomes the low expectations for the Cougars in 2024, and is ready to prove the doubters wrong. | Mitch Alcala, Associated Press

Back when he was a linebacker for BYU, and then as an assistant coach under Bronco Mendenhall, current Cougars special teams coordinator and rush ends coach Kelly Poppinga used to hate one aspect about Provo.

“I am excited, and 100% motivated by it. I have conversations with (Aaron Roderick) about this once a week. We are just ready to go, man. We are ready to shut everybody up and show them what is up around here in Provo.”

BYU QB Jake Retzlaff on the low expectations for the Cougars

“In the summer, people were always like, ‘national championship year, national championship team, man, this is a national champion caliber program,’” Poppinga told the Deseret News at Monday’s golf gathering and media availability in northern Utah County. “I would be like, ‘You guys are clueless.’ Nobody knows anything before the season starts.”

Poppinga isn’t the first coach or former player to suggest the BYU fanbase is a bit delusional. But then, that’s why they are called fans. They tend to be fanatical. Expectations are always over the moon. Every fanbase has them.

But for BYU football this year, at least among media members and other preseason prognosticators, expectations are as low as they’ve been in quite some time. Almost everybody is picking the 2024 Cougars to finish in the lower third of the new 16-team Big 12 and miss out on a bowl game for the second-straight year.

Voting has concluded for the 2024 Big 12 media preseason poll, and the Cougars quite likely will be picked to finish 14th or 15th, if a straw poll of a couple reporters who…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/big-12-cellar-dweller-byu-190000272.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2024-06-28 19:00:00

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