Kalani Sitake calls BYU's victory over SMU "a complete team win"

The BYU football team gutted out a challenging win over SMU on Friday night, as the Cougars escaped Dallas with a 18-15 win over the SMU Mustangs.

In a game where Southern Methodist was heavily favored (the Mustangs were double-digit favorites at kickoff), BYU found a way to win and build on their perfect 5-0 all-time record in matchups against the Mustangs.

In the post-game press conference, BYU head coach, Kalani Sitake, opened with some comments in summary of his team's victory.

"There's a lot of talk about the offense on both sides, and it came down to an overall team win. We needed all three phases to win the game, and obviously [it was] not our best performance, but you had to give a lot of credit to SMU for what they did."

- Kalani Sitake, post game

The Cougars' offensive unit fell under fire for a rough performance that was more stress-enducing than it was promising.

Following an opening possession that took the Cougars all the way to the endzone, BYU's first and second RBs went down with injuries and the offense stalled. At one point in the game, questioning whether the Cougars had seen more first downs or 3-and-out possessions was a valid dilemma.

Quarterback Jake Retzlaff and offensive coordinator, Aaron Roderick have been on the receiving end of much criticism, with inaccuracy, poor decision making, and careless ball control plaguing BYU's QB1.

To make matters worse, the poor play-calling from last season's horrific offense seems to have largely gone unchanged. I don't think it's fair to assume Coach Roderick has yet to open up the playbook--this may just be the quality of play-calling Cougar fans ought to anticipate.

"We'll have to find a way to get more efficient in all three phases and there's room for us to improve [...] I don't want anybody to feel like they should be patting themselves on the back. This was an opportunity for us to play at our best, and obviously, we didn't do that tonight. "

- Kalani Sitake, post game

Jay Hill's defensive unit was lights-out incredible during this game, and he deserves heaps of praise for limiting an SMU offense that was expected to run up the score on rebuilding BYU.

The defense allowed zero touchdowns, despite countless SMU trips to the red zone, and that deserves serious praise.

Was this a complete team win? I'm inclined to disagree with coach's assessment. The defense carried the load, and the special teams unit showed up when needed, recovering a muffed punt and knocking the go-ahead field goal through the uprights to seal the win.

A 2-0 start is every Cougar fan's dream, but the cracks in the foundation are immediately apparent. Let's hope the coaches can address them by their conference opener against K-State.

More BYU Cougars News: