For 2nd year in a row, 7th-ranked BYU has everything to play for in November

BYU is 7th in the College Football playoff rankings and faces Texas Tech this week in crucial Big 12 game. | KSL.com. PROVO (KSL.com) — BYU’s Big 12 weekend tilt against Texas Tech, already the highest combined ranking matchup in program history, got even bigger after Tuesday night’s initial ranking reveal by the College Football Playoff selection committee. The Cougars came in at No. 7 by the committee, the highest of three Big 12 teams, and just ahead of the eighth-ranked Red Raiders (8-1, 5-1 Big 12) and No. 13 Utah (7-2, 4-2 Big 12). A ranked Cincinnati team in the Associated Press poll remains on the outside. All four programs remain alive in the chase for a Big 12 championship game berth after the Utes handed the Bearcats their first conference loss of the year a week after Texas Tech fell for the first time in conference play. But a win Saturday would give the Cougars a 91% chance to make the CFP for the first time ever, according to ESPN Analytics. Lose — or more accurately, a win by Texas Tech — and BYU’s CFP chances drop to 63%. It’s a familiar position for the Cougars, who started the season 9-0 a year ago before finishing the regular season 1-2, including a chilling 17-13 home loss to Kansas that essentially iced out its playoff odds. So how do the Cougars, who still have everything for which to play in the first week of November for a second straight year, handle the pressure of a playoff chase? “Just not getting complacent,” BYU receiver Parker Kingston said after Tuesday’s practice. “When we got to that 9-0 or 8-0 spot, we thought, ‘Oh, we’ve made it; all we’ve got to do is win a couple more games and go to the Big 12 championship.’ “We’ve got the hardest four-game stretch coming up, no matter who we play. It’s November football, and how you handle it is going to be how your record reflects it. We’ve just got to keep being humble, hungry and keep attacking every week.” A microscope will be on the visitors Saturday when they head to the west Texas oil fields to face a one-loss Texas Tech squad potentially playing for its playoff life. Take a second loss, and the Red Raiders’ CFP hopes plummet to just 19%, according to those same ESPN statistical odds. With ESPN’s “College GameDay” in Lubbock for the first time in 17 years, all eyes will be on the Big 12. BYU coach Kalani Sitake’s job is to get his players’ eyes to be cast inward — focused on nothing but the next weekend. “I know that it’s out there and everyone talks about it,” Sitake said Monday during his weekly media briefing. “But I don’t pay attention to any of that stuff.” He later elaborated, though briefly, on his weekly coaches’ show on BYUtv — praising the Red Raiders as well for the first-ever top-10 game in BYU football history. “I’m just proud of the way the guys worked, that we’re in this position right now,” Sitake said. “But we’ve got a lot of things to accomplish by the time we get to Saturday’s game. I just want to thank all the fans who kept believing and helped us get through these games.” Yes, BYU has experience being in CFP discussions in early November; and the Cougars know all focus needs to reside on each week, but this one in particular, where the visitors are coming off a much-needed bye and the hosts are following up a 43-20 win over Kansas State. “There’s a lot of noise at this stage, and at this level of football there’s always going to be a lot of noise,” said BYU kicker Will Ferrin, who is part of the team’s leadership council. “I think our team is really good at focusing on what we need to focus on. “I think this team is really good at staying in the present, blocking out the outside noise, and focusing on what’s going on in the building,” he added. Offensive tackle Andrew Gentry experienced the kind of season that BYU — and most teams in college football, at least near the top of the sport — is chasing every year. The 6-foot-8, 310-pound redshirt junior was a rotational lineman who also played on special teams across 26 games at Michigan, including the Wolverines’ national championship-winning campaign in 2023. And for him, the winning formula is simple. “The main focus always has to be just being 1-0 this week,” said Gentry, who apologized for the cliches. “Don’t focus on what happens after November; right now, we have Texas Tech. They’re a really good team — and what do we have to do to be 1-0.”The post For 2nd year in a row, 7th-ranked BYU has everything to play for in November appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com