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BYU Football: Projecting every game in 2021

By Adam Gibby

BOCA RATON, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 22: Zach Wilson #1 and the Brigham Young Cougars wait to take the field prior to the game against the Central Florida Knights at FAU Stadium on December 22, 2020 in Boca Raton, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 22: Zach Wilson #1 and the Brigham Young Cougars wait to take the field prior to the game against the Central Florida Knights at FAU Stadium on December 22, 2020 in Boca Raton, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /
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Dec 26, 2019; Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; A overall view of the field before the game between the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and the Miami Hurricanes at Independence Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 26, 2019; Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; A overall view of the field before the game between the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and the Miami Hurricanes at Independence Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports /

Bowl Game

With a 10-2 record, the Cougars will be squarely on the bubble for making a New Year Six Bowl. For the sake of this article, I will cover both because the paths are sadly probably pretty set in stone already.

Path 1 – Independence Bowl

The Cougars contractually are set to play in the Independence Bowl against a team from Conference USA. The good news is that BYU will probably win their 11th game. The bad news is they are playing a CUSA team in a bowl game when talent wise they would be playing in a much bigger bowl game like the Outback Bowl or Liberty Bowl if they were to play in a P5 Conference.

Instead, the Cougars will probably end up playing what appears to be the third best CUSA team, who historically would be a team who goes 1-3 in the non conference and then 6-2 in conference.

There is a chance that the Cougars may play in the Cheez-It Bowl, as they have the ability to play in that game once between either 2021, 2023 or 2025, but a lot of other factors would have to fall into place first. But let’s be honest, ESPN calls the shots and they can have BYU in a bigger bowl game they will try to pull some strings.

Projection: BYU 56 Opponent 14

Path 2 – New Year Six Bowl vs Cincinnati

We’ve seen it over and over and over. The major conferences and bowl games try to prevent any major upsets from happening. The G5 representative always gets the short end of the stick by either playing a very lucky P5 Conference Champion  or each other (Western Michigan, Boise State, and TCU I’m looking at you).

There is no reason to think that if BYU were able to sneak into the NY6 that they would end up playing anyone other than the G5 automatic qualifier. In fact, most bowl projections in 2020 before BYU’s loss to Coastal Carolina had the Cougars and Bearcats facing each other. After all, why would the CFP/NY6 bowl games want to risk having two G5 teams as bowl champions? Suddenly people may start respecting them…

Projection: 🙂

What do you think? Can BYU Football make it to a 10-2 in the regular season? If they do will it be good enough to make the NY6? Let us know in the comments!

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