BYU Football: Are the Cougars distracted going into the season?

BYU Football officially will begin Fall Camp today.

The 2021 BYU Football season is officially starting today with the start of Fall Camp! While BYU Football fans feel like 2020 was very close to being a real season because of the success of the Cougars (let’s be honest if BYU went 8-4 last year it would not have felt real) it still wasn’t the same. But with the threat of Covid affecting the season hopefully being minimal, it appears that we have real college football again for the first time since 2019.

Somehow many of the headlines are still surrounded by Big 12 expansion, NIL deals, uniform combinations, and just about every other storyline that has to do with football without actually being football. But as we officially are 30 days away from the season beginning, those headlines will begin to focus on…shocker… the actual game.

One has to wonder though, if we as fans are focused on everything outside of football while somehow covering football, where is the focus of the players? After all, it is the players, not the fans that are going to wearing the ‘Royal Rush’ uniforms, making thousands of dollars off of their name and image, and the ones who may be playing in the Big 12 (or Pac 12?) in two years.

Unfortunately, the answer may not be great. The good news is that every other school in the country is also dealing with this as well in at least some form. However, BYU has a lot more than other teams because it seems like the Cougars are in the middle of everything.

For the next few weeks the players need to stay off their phones and the coaches need to really focus on the game plan and getting the players ready for the season. While uniform combinations, NIL deals and social media fame are now part of the game, the reality is the teams that are the most focused are the ones who will be successful.

My prediction is that there are going to be four or five head scratching teams that come into the season with really high expectations but end up falling apart in part to being distracted. On the flip side, there will likely be a few surprise teams that shock the country.

In BYU Football’s case it is odd that the more the team focuses, the more distractions there will be. If the team wins, NIL deals, national media coverage and even conference expansion talks will pick up. It’s an odd paradox. If the Cougars get distracted, all of that will come tumbling down and there won’t be any distractions left.

I believe in Kalani Sitake and his coaching with keeping players focused, but let’s be honest, the distractions have never been so high, so only time will tell how well the team handles it. When asked about conference expansion Sitake said “I don’t even care about that. That isn’t our focus on the team.”

Let’s hope he is right.