There's been some pretty serious stuff going on in college football. The SEC and Big 10 being too hot to trot, the Brendan Sorsby situation, the Parker Kingston situation, the Big 12's controversial deal with Monster Energy... the list just goes on and on. Talking about it all kind of takes an emotional toll.
So let's take a break from all that and do something light-hearted. Let's create the ultimate BYU football season based on the ten seasons of the Kalani Sitake Era. Here are the rules for this challenge.
Deciding the ultimate BYU football season
1. For each week of the season, we will be picking one game from any of the seasons of the Kalani Sitake Era, which started in 2016. We will basically pretend that bye weeks aren't a thing, so it will be a 12-week regular season plus a bowl game.
2. The decisions will be based on which games gave BYU fans the most happiness. How impressive the win was, how exciting the game was, and how badly we wanted to win the game will all be contributing factors.
3. We're only allowed to use each team once. (Otherwise, I would totally include all three wins against Utah.)
4. Since there were only 11 games in the 2020 regular season, there just won't be a week 12 option for that season. We'll ignore conference championship week for obvious reasons, and we won't even address the fact that BYU played 13 games in 2017 because there's no way we're taking any games from that season anyway.
Alright, let's do this.
Week 1: Unfortunately, the range of seasons from which we are allowed to pick starts one year too late for us to take the 2015 Nebraska game. Of our four main options, three of them are Arizona: in 2016, 2018, and 2021. If I had to pick one of them, I'd have to go with the 18-16 win in 2016 with Jake Oldroyd's first career field goal being a game-winner. But I'm actually going to go with the other option: the 55-3 win over Navy in 2020. I'm a little hesitant to take a G5 win over three P5 wins, but I mean, come on. BYU was an underdog in that game, and they won by 52 points. That might just be the all-time record for the biggest margin of victory by an underdog.
Week 2: This is by far the most stacked week of the 12. There was the double-overtime thriller against Tennessee in 2019. There was yet another double-overtime thriller against Baylor in 2022. There was the win over SMU in 2024 that ended up aging amazingly well. Best of all was the win over Utah in 2021 to end the streak. However, I can only take one of the three Utah games, and the other two occurred in weeks where we don't have a top 10 win, so for this week, I'll go with the 26-20 double-overtime win over ninth-ranked Baylor in 2022. Need I explain any further how exciting that win was?
Week 3: A few notable options for week 3 include USC in 2019, Arizona St in 2021, and Arkansas in 2023, but none of those hold a candle to the 24-21 win over sixth-ranked Wisconsin in 2018. The Badgers had just beaten BYU 40-6 in Provo the season before on their way to an Orange Bowl win, and more of the same was expected in this game. Even the After Further Review crew on BYUtv didn't think BYU was going to win, and if you ever watched that show, you know that is saying something. In terms of expected point spread, this may be the biggest upset in BYU football history.
Week 4: Up until now, we've had multiple solid options each week. This week, there is only one option worth considering, but it is a really good one: the 38-9 win over 13th-ranked Kansas St in 2024. This was the game where BYU went from just being lucky to go to a bowl game to being a college football playoff contender. I don't think there was a single person who watched this game whose jaw didn't drop at some point during the middle 8. (The last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half.)
Week 5: This week doesn't have any home runs, but it does have several solid options. There was the Houston game in 2020 where BYU went from leading by 11 to trailing by 12 to winning by 17. There was also BYU's first-ever Big 12 win against Cincinnati in 2023, and there was the win over Baylor in 2024. That Baylor team was probably the best team BYU beat in week 5, but for one thing, we already used Baylor, and for another thing, almost blowing a 21-point lead isn't quite my cup of Sprite (it wouldn't make sense for me to say 'cup-of-tea' because I'm too much of a Peter Priesthood).
You know what is my cup of Sprite? Winning a game with 100+ total points, four ties, and eight lead changes on the final play of the game. That's what happened in 2016 when BYU beat Toledo 55-53. Yes, it was Toledo, and it wasn't a particularly impressive win, and that final play was a field goal that was basically an extra point, but still. There are some games that are just so fun that none of that stuff matters.
Week 6: There are two main options for this week. Coming back from down 10 to beat Arizona in double overtime on my birthday was awesome, especially since Arizona ended up being ranked, but the other option is even better. In 2016, just one season after Michigan St went to the college football playoff, BYU went into East Lansing and just ran over the Spartans, 31-14. BYU nearly doubled Michigan St in total yardage and more than tripled them on the ground. This was a much better trip to the state of Michigan than the one the year before.
Week 7: While Week 2 is the most stacked in terms of absolutely amazing options, Week 7 is the most stacked in terms of solid options. There was the double-overtime classic against Mississippi St in 2016, the win over Boise St in 2019 that ended both a three-game overall losing streak and a 3-game losing streak against the Broncos, the win over Texas Tech in 2023 that ended up aging very well, and the absolutely miraculous win against Oklahoma St in 2024.
But this is where we're going to take our Holy War win. The 24-21 win over 23rd-ranked Utah in 2025 may not have ended the streak like the one in 2021, and it may not have had the same late game drama or the same Mark Harlan temper tantrum as the one in 2024, but of the three games, this was the one with the best Utah team, it was the one with the largest attendance, and it was the one with the most Spencer Higinbothams (it's the one I got to go to). Plus, it gave us two incredibly iconic plays: the "Air Bear" and "There's a Bear on the loose in Provo!"
Week 8: I have to mention the 42-14 shellacking of Jordan Love and Utah St in 2019 because not only did it end a two-game losing streak against the Aggies, but it was against one of the best current quarterbacks in the NFL, and BYU did it playing their second-string quarterback in the first half and their third-string quarterback in the second half. I also have to mention the 41-27 win over Iowa St in 2025 because BYU went from trailing by 14 to winning by 14 against a team that had destroyed them in Provo two years before and stolen their spot in the Big 12 title game the year before.
But I can't take either of those because I have to take the 51-17 win at Boise St in 2020. Prior to this game, BYU was 0-5 on the blue field against the Broncos. (Except technically, they were 1-5 on the blue field against the Broncos because they did beat the Western Michigan Broncos on the blue field in the 2018 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.) BYU ended that streak in resounding fashion, putting themselves in the New Years Six conversation. If anything, BYU won by too much because it made people think Boise St wasn't a quality opponent.
Week 9: Since we can't take the 2024 Utah game, our only other real option is the 66-49 win over Bronco Mendenhall and Virginia in 2021. This game featured six lead changes, and unlike the Toledo game, this was against a solid Power 5 opponent. The Cavaliers may have won the ACC that year if their star quarterback, Brendan Armstrong, hadn't gotten hurt late in the fourth quarter of this game. BYU scored more points on Virginia than a lot of basketball teams have. What a way to welcome defensive-minded Bronco Mendenhall back to Provo.
Week 10: Up until last season, the 31-28 win over Boise St in 2022 would've been hands-down the best option. It ended the incredible 11-game series against the Broncos on a very exciting note, and it made me very proud to be an Orem Tiger because Puka Nacua, who made the sensational game-winning touchdown catch, and Jakob Robinson, who made the game-sealing interception, are both Orem Tigers.
But that game was dethroned this last season by BYU's jaw-dropping 44-13 win over TCU. The Horned Frogs had won five in a row against BYU with four of those wins being total blowouts, so to end that streak with a blowout of our own was incredibly satisfying. And it's not like they did it against a bad TCU team. This was a 9-4 P4 team that beat a ranked USC team in one of the biggest non-CFP bowl games. You could argue it was BYU's most impressive performance since joining the Big 12.
Week 11: This week probably has the weakest options out of all the weeks. The only option even worth mentioning is the 26-14 win over Cincinnati in 2025. A lot of people saw this game as the one that would decide whether or not BYU would make the college football playoff. Unfortunately, they ended up being wrong. But still, there's nothing wrong with beating a quarterback who had pulled his previous team out of the cellar and into the playoff, regardless of the current controversy with said quarterback.
Week 12: This is another week with not a lot of great options. We're going to have to go with the 35-31 win over USC in 2021. At the time, it wasn't very satisfying because USC was having a down year and was playing with their backup quarterback, and after how little help BYU had gotten that day in their quest to get to a New Years Six Bowl, I think we all knew BYU needed style points to have a chance, and despite leading 28-10 at one point, that didn't end up happening.
However, little did we know that USC was about to become a CFP contender in future seasons and that that backup quarterback, Jaxson Dart, would end up leading Ole Miss to the college football playoff and becoming the starting quarterback for the New York Giants. Also, who would've guessed that a different Jackson, Jackson McChesney, who has one of my favorite names in BYU football history, would climb up from the bottom of BYU's depth chart and score the game-winning touchdown? Great stuff.
Bowl Game: By far, the two biggest bowl games that BYU has played in the Kalani Sitake era have been the two they've played in since joining the Big 12: the 2024 Alamo Bowl, where they beat Colorado 36-14, and the 2025 Pop-Tarts Bowl, where they beat Georgia Tech 25-21. It was fun coming back from down double digits to win a game for the fifth time in 2025, and it was also fun watching giant Pop-Tarts volunteer as tribute, but honestly, considering we were playing a team with an inferior record from an inferior conference, I was hoping we'd win by more.
Meanwhile, in 2024, Colorado had not one but two Heisman candidates, and they were favored to win despite BYU being the higher ranked team. Plus, Colorado had beaten Utah by 25 points. So beating Colorado by 22 and getting a bigger bowl win in our second season as a P4 team than Utah's had in 15 seasons as a P4 team was incredibly satisfying. The cherry on top is the fact that we beat a coach that shows up in a lot of the same commercials as Nick Saban.
And so, here is BYU's dream season:
at Navy (2020): W 55-3
vs. Baylor (2022): W 26-20 (2OT)
at Wisconsin (2018): W 24-21
vs. Kansas St (2024): W 38-9
vs. Toledo (2016): W 55-3
at Michigan St (2016): W 31-14
vs. Utah (2025): W 24-21
at Boise St (2020): W 51-17
vs. Virginia (2021): W 66-49
vs. TCU (2025): W 44-13
at Cincinnati (2025): W 26-14
at USC (2021): W 35-31
Alamo Bowl vs. Colorado (2024): W 36-14
(I mean, hopefully, if BYU went undefeated, they would be in the CFP and not the Alamo Bowl, but we're working with what we have.)
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