BYU’s season isn’t over after loss to Kansas, but it should be on high alert

PROVO (KSL.com) — Kalani Sitake was red-eyed and bleary by the time he made it to the postgame media room as Saturday night turned into Sunday morning following BYU’s 17-13 loss to Kansas that upended the Cougars’ undefeated season.

The clearly emotionally spent Sitake had just gotten out of the locker room, where he stood in front of the No. 6-ranked team in the most College Football Playoff rankings after a loss for the first time.

But give Sitake credit; his message was consistent after a loss that dropped the Cougars’ seven spots in the latest Associated Press Top 25 to No. 14.

“There’s a lot of room for improvement in all three phases, and we’ll get to work on that,” he said, “but we have a good team. We’re still in a good spot. I believe we control our own destiny still, but we’ve got to be ready to roll because it’s a tough opponent coming up next week against ASU.”

Make no mistake, the Jayhawks (4-6, 3-4 Big 12) earned their third win all-time over the Cougars in every way, and not just on Jalon Daniels’ pooch punt that caromed off Evan Johnson’s helmet, squirted out of Jakob Robinson’s grasp, and landed on the 3-yard line to set up Devin Neal’s second rushing touchdown of the day.

Kansas earned the win on defense, where it kept BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff to 18-of-28 passing for 192 yards, a touchdown and an interception with two sacks taken. It earned the win by keeping the Cougars to 3-of-10 on third downs and just 2-of-4 in the red zone, including limiting the damage of a 17-play, 66-yard driver over 10 minutes, 26 seconds to open the second half to Will Ferrin’s 35-yard field goal.

And of course, it earned the win when Retzlaff’s pass over the middle of the field to Chase Roberts on fourth-and-11 went for just eight yards for the final turnover on downs in the final minute.

“You can’t have it come down to the wire on fourth down,” Sitake said. “Then we had a false start. I thought we had a really good play on that one, and then it become fourth-and-11. Now we were too far … Just get it in the end zone. I don’t really care how much time is left on the clock.”

Roberts, who caught a team-high five catches for 71 yards that was only eclipsed by Kansas’ Luke Grimm with 77, was optimistic when Retzlaff took over a two-minute drive with a chance to win, down four in the fourth quarter.

But the ever-optimistic wide out from American Fork who has already said he plans to enter the NFL Draft after graduating in December — barring a dramatic, unforeseen turn of events — muttered his frustration with those late finishes, that it shouldn’t come down to one final drive, that the offense led by Retzlaff, running back LJ Martin (who had 76 yards on 15 carries) and coordinator Aaron Roderick “needs to stop that,” and beat teams by 20 or 30 points.

But he also kept his eye on the big picture.

“We still got our goals to win a Big 12 championship, so that’s not over,” Roberts said. “We’re not independent anymore. We’re in a conference, and we’re beating good teams, and we’re going to come back and beat Arizona State, which is a great team. That’s what was the talk in the locker room, and that’s what we’re going to do, and that’s what I trust our team will do.

“We bounce back from adversity and we win games,” he added. “That’s what we do. We couldn’t do it tonight, but we’ll move on.”

Beating the Sun Devils, newly ranked at No. 21 by AP voters after improving to 8-2 following a 24-14 road win over Kansas State, will help ease the sting of Saturday’s loss to Kansas.

An at-large CFP berth is likely off the table, but upsetting ASU — which opened a 3-point favorite over BYU — will go a long way towards securing a spot in the Big 12 championship game Dec. 7 in Arlington, Texas.

It’s a one-game season for BYU. It always was, but Saturday’s loss drove him the point even further.

Roberts and Retzlaff, who was not made available to the print media after Saturday’s loss but did a seven-minute interview with BYUtv, said the loss started last week in practice. Lack of focus, lack of concentration, and a lack of red-zone productivity on the practice field played out Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 62,704 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

Expect that to change this week, both said.

“I know that we’re going to have a new sense of urgency,” Retzlaff said. “This kick in the butt is going to be good for us. We still control our own destiny, and we’re looking forward to it.”