BYU football: Realistic post-spring expectations for 2023

I’ll be the first to admit, I thought BYU was going to be a potential New Year’s Six team last year. The Cougars were returning one of the most underrated quarterbacks in the nation in Jaren Hall and they had one final crack at the New Year’s Six as an Independent before joining the Big 12.

Unfortunately, that didn’t quite happen.

Kalani Sitake’s team finished 8-5 after a 4-1 start thanks to a four-game losing skid against Notre Dame, Arkansas, Liberty, and East Carolina. They did end the year on a four-game winning streak, but losing Hall to the NFL this offseason hurts.

Kedon Slovis comes in to take over as QB1 after pitstops at USC and Pitt. He’ll be an experienced passer and he’ll have some talented pass-catchers like Keanu Hill ad Kody Epps.

The defense was horrid last year, finishing 97th in points allowed and 94th in total yards allowed per game. Fortunately, Sitake fired a lot of staffers on that side of the ball which means he’s serious about getting better. And they should.

Realistic post-spring BYU football expectations

What should we expect from this team in its first year in the Big 12? Well, fortunately for the Cougars, they’re no strangers to playing Power Five competition. Their schedules over the years have been loaded, so they’re prepared for this.

However, facing teams like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor, TCU, and Texas every year won’t exactly be a walk in the park.

Looking at the schedule, the only “sure” wins I see are Sam Houston, Southern Utah, and Iowa State. The games that are toss-ups are Cincinnati, TCU, Texas Tech, and West Virginia. And the likely losses would have to be Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State.

I see this team sneaking into a bowl game at 6-6 this year, winning two of the toss-up games and stealing one of those in the “likely loss” category.