BYU is staring down nine straight weeks of football after having played just three games in 2026, thanks to another early bye week hitting the Cougars right now. You’d think that’s a tough break, but head coach Kalani Sitake isn’t flinching. He’s spinning it, big time, saying on Monday that they are absolutely going to make this “a competitive advantage for us.”
Sitake’s Game Plan: Attacking the Horned Frogs Early
So, what does that “competitive advantage” actually mean? It means the No. 9 Cougars, sitting pretty at 1-0 in conference and 3-0 overall, are getting a jump on their next opponent, TCU. While the Horned Frogs are out there battling UCF this Saturday, BYU is already in full prep mode. The BYU-TCU game is locked in for October 3rd in Fort Worth, kicking off at 5 p.m. MDT, and you can catch it on either ESPN or ESPN2. Get this: it’ll be the first time in 21 years BYU plays on the Saturday of the semiannual general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with the game starting just an hour after the conference’s second session wraps up. Remember two years ago when TCU clobbered BYU 44-11 in Fort Worth? Sitake surely does, but he’s all about “first things first.” He’s treating this bye week like any other work week, just without the Saturday game. Expect meetings, practice, lifting, and a full team effort to get better and get that early jump on TCU.
No Middle-Season Bye? No Problem, Sitake Says
Look, Sitake totally gets that most coaches would love a bye week right in the middle of the season. But he’s not the schedule maker, right? So he’s making the most of it, no complaints. He even pointed to last year: BYU beat Portland State and Stanford, had their Week 3 bye, then went on the road and crushed East Carolina 34-13. “The fact that (the bye) comes after three games is not a bad thing,” he said. The team’s been prepping for a 13-week grind from the start, so they’ve just adjusted their schedule and workload to where the bye landed. It’s “not really that big of a deal” because these guys are trained. They put in the work all offseason to be ready for 13 or 14 straight weeks, even with a championship game at the end. Plus, this bye gives the coaches a chance to develop younger players, do some recruiting, and figure out the 74-player travel squad for TCU. The team’s already shown they can handle the road, so that’s a positive vibe going into Fort Worth.
Next year, college football is moving to a 14-week regular season starting earlier in late August, bringing two bye weeks per team. But for now, BYU has to manage this early one and that long, long stretch that follows. It all kicks off against TCU on October 3rd. Better be ready!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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