Can BYU football get over the hump and make noise in 2019? Let’s evaluate each game on their regular season schedule and predict the finish.
When BYU opted to leave the Mountain West to go independent after the 2010 college football season, it was a move designed to increase the team’s national profile and launch it to Notre Dame-like levels. The intention seemed laudable, but the Cougars failed to read the tea leaves that showed independence was a move best made several decades earlier.
As the program enters its fourth season under head coach Kalani Sitake, BYU has once again set up an ambitious early-season schedule complete with three Pac-12 opponents and a trip to SEC country. Before the end of September, we will know once again whether the Cougars are contenders or pretenders for one of the lucrative New Year’s Six berths.
After September, though, there are no further Power Five challenges on the schedule. They do have tough matchups against Group of Five rivals like Boise State and Utah State, and there are also contests against fellow independents Liberty and Massachusetts later in the season. But ultimately 2019 hopes and dreams will be made or broken by what happens in the first month of the new campaign.
Can BYU break through and make noise in the opening month to set themselves up for a strong finish to the regular season? Keep reading as we break down each game on the schedule and predict how each will play out.