BYU football finished the 2022 season with a solid 8-5 record. The Cougars only lost to Oregon, Notre Dame, Arkansas, Liberty, and East Carolina. Their highlight wins occurred against Baylor, Boise State and SMU in their final season as an independent. In this post, we’ll be making our 2023 BYU football predictions for win totals while looking at their schedule and other key information in this season preview.
DraftKings Sportsbook puts the BYU win total at 5.5 with the under juiced to -125. BYU also sits at +8000 to win the Big 12, which ranks just ahead of Iowa State, Cincinnati, West Virginia, and Houston. With that said, let’s dive into our 2023 BYU football season preview.
2023 BYU Football Predictions & Season Preview
2023 BYU Football Season Preview: Coaching Staff
In place since 2016, Kilani Sitake will return for another season as BYU’s head coach. Sitake has a 56-34 record with BYU and has lead the Cougars to a bowl game in six of his seven seasons. This includes five straight bowls.
On offense, he retains the services of Aaron Roderick, who took over offensive coordinator duties in 2021. He previously coordinated the game for BYU from 2018-2020, giving him plenty of experience with Sitake. On defense, Sitake brought in former Weber State head coach Jay Hill to man the defense. Overall, Hill is the winningest coach in Weber State football history and he comes from the Kyle Whittingham coaching tree, which should leave BYU fans excited.
2023 BYU Football Season Preview: Offense
Quarterback
At quarterback, BYU landed two-time transfer Kedon Slovis, who most recently played at Pittsburgh. Last year, Slovis completed 184 of his 315 attempts (58.4%) for 2,397 yards (7.6 yards per attempt), ten touchdowns, and nine interceptions. This proved a far cry from his 2019 freshman campaign with USC, where Slovis completed 71.9% of his es for 3,502 yards, 30 touchdowns, and nine interceptions.
Slovis has no mobility whatsoever with -218 career rush yards on 119 attempts. Last year, Slovis finished with -68 rushing yards despite only taking 14 sacks. Slovis certainly doesn’t have the mobility of former signal caller Jaren Hall, but he possesses the experience to run this offense. Overall, he finished as the ACC’s sixth highest graded er last year, per PFF.
Behind Slovis, it looks like Jake Retzlaff has moved ahead of former Boise State signal caller Cade Fennegan, who disappointed this spring. Retzlaff comes in as the top JUCO signal caller in this cycle. He was first team all-conference in the JUCO ranks last year some some impressive ing numbers. Retzlaff also has solid mobility with 515 rushing yards and six scores last year. BYU may have found a diamond in the rough with Retzlaff, if he can translate this production to the power five level. Overall, BYU’s quarterback room looks to be in pretty good shape ahead of 2023.
Running Back
BYU lost their top two running backs in Christopher Brooks and Lopini Katoa. The pair vacates over 1,000 rushing yards and 20 catches from last year. However, the Cougars hammered the transfer portal, bringing in Aidan Robbins (UNLV) and Deion Smith (Colorado).
Robbins experienced a breakout season in 2022. The 6-3, 230 pound back rushed 209 times for 1,009 yards and nine scores in 11 games last year. He also caught 23 balls for another 125 yards. The former Louisville back ed an efficient 3.37 yards after and forced a missed tackle on 22.5% of his attempts.
Smith comes in with 83 attempts for 393 yards and a pair of scores from 2022. The 6-0, 190 pound back also caught 11 balls for 84 yards and should work as a change of pace. He averaged 2.45 yards after and forced a missed tackle on 9.6% of his attempts. From there, BYU also retained a pair of rotational backs in Miles Davis and Hinckley Ropati. Ropati rushed 36 times for 189 yards last year and Davis notched 40 carries for 225 yards. Both should play a smaller role and help with depth here. With Robbins coming in, the BYU running back room may be better in 2023.
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