Analysis: No. 19 BYU defeats Houston, gets that elusive 10th win in a performance that wasn’t close to a 10

As performances go, BYU’s sloppy and error-filled 30-18 win over gritty Houston on Saturday night in front of 59,213 shivering fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium isn’t one that will be remembered much among many more entertaining affairs in this 100th season of Cougars football.
In fact, it was one of the more forgettable games of the Kalani Sitake era, except for the little skirmish that broke out at the end in the north end zone that the coach said was a result of too much chippiness from both teams throughout the game.
But it will go down in the record books as a victory, as ugly as it was, and more importantly the 10th win in a year when not even half that was expected of Sitake’s team.
It is the 19th season of 10 or more wins in BYU history. Three of those 10-win seasons have come in the past five years.
“The fact that we got 10 wins, the senior class, I think they had three seasons of 10 wins or more,” Sitake said. “That’s a huge accomplishment. That is their legacy. … They can be proud they got three of them in their career.”
So for that, the Cougars should be applauded. As they say, a win is a win. Ten wins is a significant milestone, considering that, as Sitake rightfully noted, not many outfits accomplish that on a regular basis, and even fewer were picked to win just four games, as BYU was.
“The problem is that we thought we were going to get two more. You know what I mean?” Sitake said, revealing that they really expected to go undefeated. “And because we didn’t take care of business that way, we had to rely on the tiebreaker system and so this is a great lesson for us to learn.”
Speaking of that tiebreaker system, it favored Arizona State and Iowa State over BYU and Colorado, although all four of those teams went through league play with 7-2 records; Of course, BYU went 2-7 in the Big 12 last year, creating minimal expectations in 2024.
“It is really good. There are teams that haven’t gotten this many wins that everybody thought they were going to get, and nobody thought we were going to get these wins,” Sitake reminded reporters for the umpteenth time.
As for Saturday night’s herky-jerky game that featured seven turnovers and a season’s worth of missed tackles, Sitake termed it “weird” and “tough to figure out” and attributed that to BYU losing its focus when it learned it would not be playing in the Big 12 championship game.
Those hopes were officially dashed at around 9:12 p.m. MST when Iowa State defeated Kansas State 29-21 in Ames to set up a showdown next Saturday with the hottest team in the conference, Arizona State.
“I found out at halftime, so I think probably a lot of them did, too. You just gotta keep playing,” Sitake said. “I didn’t think there was a lack of effort. There was just a lack of concentration, and maybe a little bit of focus, but the guys kept fighting.”
BYU trailed 10-7 early in the second quarter when the result from Ames came in, but nothing was announced at the time and the Cougars continued their 73-yard march to the end zone and a 14-10 lead.
They took a 21-10 lead with a six-play touchdown drive just before halftime, going 80 yards in less than a minute as quarterback Jake Retzlaff rediscovered the two-minute offense prowess that carried the Cougars to wins over Oklahoma State and Utah.
Then they had to play the second half, and the circus arrived in town.
It started well enough, as Jack Kelly became the 12th different Cougar this season to get an interception, setting BYU up at the Houston 42.
BYU drove to the 3, but Retzlaff bobbled a high snap and couldn’t fall on it, squandering a golden opportunity to take full control.
BYU’s defense held, but Parker Kingston muffed the punt and the red-wearing Cougars were back in business near midfield. The defense held again, and the Cougars marched 76 yards and into the red zone, but the same issues that plagued them in the 17-13 loss to Kansas — the loss that essentially kept them out of the Big 12 title game — reared their ugly heads again.
Three straight running plays were snuffed near the goal line, and Will Ferrin came on to boot a 22-yard field goal and give BYU a 24-10 lead.
“You have to give a lot of credit to Houston for making plays, but we made a ton of mistakes. You put the defense in a really tough situation when you fumble the ball and you don’t put up the points,” Sitake said.
Houston made things interesting with a 12-play, 69-yard drive for a touchdown, and then really interesting when it cut the BYU lead to 24-18 with a two-point conversion pass with 8:34 remaining.
After another BYU three-and-out, the crowd was getting restless and a few boos rained down amid the 20-degree temperatures at LES.
In the biggest play of the game, with Houston facing a 4th-and-7 at the BYU 44, Houston QB Zeon Chriss made a tremendous blunder, losing a fumble that Blake Mangelson eventually recovered some 38 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Kelly caused the fumble with a strip sack, and Isaiah Bagnah had a chance for a scoop-and-score but whiffed.
No matter, however.
BYU easily went 18 yards, and Retzlaff’s 7-yard touchdown run sealed the deal, Retzlaff’s second TD run of the contest. After the TD run, a skirmish broke out that included a few punches thrown and BYU’s Darius Lassiter and Houston’s A.J. Haulcy were ejected.
Lassiter could have to sit out the first half of the bowl game if Big 12 officials deem what happened to be a fight.
“I don’t want to keep being down on it, but we can play better. That’s my job as a head coach to make sure we are playing better,” Sitake said, referring to the melee at the end. “It was weird, too, even the lack of discipline, some of the penalties. Even the pushing. It was chippy all night. Didn’t have to be like that.”
Kelly said it “wasn’t super chippy all game,” so he was surprised to see tempers flare with 2:52 remaining.
“That was weird to see,” he said.
Speaking of weird, that’s how the game began. BYU was moving the ball well on its first possession, but a botched handoff on a reverse almost led to disaster.
LJ Martin and Keelan Marion collided, the ball popped in the air and Houston defensive lineman Carlos Allen caught it and returned it all the way to the BYU 14.
Two plays later, however, Tyler Batty intercepted a pass that came after a reverse, and the bullet was dodged. BYU has recorded at least one interception in every game this season.
After a punt, Houston’s offense didn’t resort to trickery, instead finding a weakness in the BYU run defense and driving 80 yards in 10 plays for a fairly easy touchdown.
Chriss’ 3-yard touchdown run gave the red-wearing Cougars a quick 7-0 lead.
Then the visitors made a costly mistake. They tried an onside squib kickoff — as Arizona State successfully employed last week in the 28-23 win over BYU — but this time the same player who messed up last week was ready.
Backup safety Talan Alfrey caught the kickoff and sprinted 58 yards for a touchdown to knot the score at 7-7 with 1:40 remaining in the first quarter.
“Obviously super awesome to score a touchdown in LaVell. Super memorable moment especially after last week. The ball didn’t bounce my way. This week it did,” Alfrey said. “So thankful for the opportunity to help the seniors win this tonight.”
Houston also moved the ball on its second possession, quieting the crowd after Alfrey’s electrifying touchdown. A nine-play, 60-yard drive stalled when Isaiah Glasker sacked Chriss, and the Cougars settled for a 26-yard field goal.
The Cougars drove 73 yards in seven plays and Sione I. Moa capped the drive with a 6-yard TD run. The key plays were Marion’s 15-yard catch and Kingston’s 21-yard jet sweep.
BYU’s defense finally arrived at the party and forced a couple of Houston punts in the second quarter. After the second punt, BYU took over at its 20 with 59 seconds remaining, and Retzlaff returned to the two-minute drill mastery he had displayed before the Kansas and Arizona State games.
He drove BYU 80 yards in six plays, and capped the drive with a 13-yard touchdown run to give BYU a 21-10 lead at the break. The key play was a beautiful 52-yard strike to Chase Roberts to get BYU down the field quickly.
Retzlaff won this game with his legs as much as his arm, running for 57 yards and the two touchdowns. He was just 8 of 19 through the air, for 167 yards.
Martin finished with 87 yards on 22 carries as BYU rushed for 189 yards against one of the better defenses in the Big 12.
“It was a little interesting, the game. Just really proud of the boys. I mean, it was interesting. It was not the way that I saw it happening, but we definitely did enough to get the win (although) we could have put it away probably earlier,” Sitake said.
“I just love the guys’ belief in each other, and we will just keep building off this. We know we got another game after this. It is something that we can aim for, and make sure that we show at our best when we play that bowl game.”
It’s not the conference championship game, but it will have to do.