The Cougars' dream season continues with victory over Oklahoma State

In a game where BYU made a thousand mistakes – or was it two thousand? – from dropped balls to sloppy assignments and erratic coverages to missed tackles and careless turnovers to giving up 269 rushing yards and silly play calls – it went ahead and got the win that wasn't meant to be won.

The Cougars won a game that, for all that is sacred, they could have or should have lost.

And that's why everyone should know that this is, in the best sense, a devilishly unholy season for BYU. The Cougars are dangerous. They come to terms with their bad selves; They spit right in the face of the football gods, and those same gods slap their caps and pads as they go home with “W” – seven in a row, with zero defeats.

Their unfair 38-35 win over Oklahoma State on Friday night was, by anyone's definition, a violation of the honor code. It was dishonest. It was theft. It was the college football version of stealing a car, drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels and smoking a pack of Camels.

However, the Cougars found their own forgiveness and called it good.

Why? Because they never lost faith.

Yes, strange, I know.

In the aftermath, some version of the word “faith” was mentioned again and again. And perhaps BYU's players were the only ones who had previously believed that what ultimately happened would actually happen. The rest of us had to see it to believe it.

Everyone saw what happened in the end: BYU, down 35-31, with a minute and change left, two timeouts and 75 yards of green to victory, sandwiched between desperation and desperation. The Cougars' best play all night was running the ball consistently, but there was no time for that nonsense. Their quarterback, Jake Retzlaff, a guy who had thrown the ball around the yard like a sack of cement one too many times, suffered two picks and had a sub-.500 completion percentage, somehow morphed into a combination of Tom Brady and Lamar Jackson. As the seconds ticked by, he led his offense down the field, including a long run by him, and ended up hitting Darius Lassiter with the game-winning 35-yard touchdown pass, punctuated by two absolutely dirty plays to the receiver who gave it to him allows you to dance into the end zone. Eleven seconds remained on the clock, but the game — and the innocence of every celebrating Cougar — was over.

It was downright evil.

Afterwards, Kalani Sitake looked into the camera and said: “We made too many mistakes, but the boys never stopped believing. … It’s just about having a good time.”

And despite the mistakes, the Cougars enjoyed so much debauchery.

There were times when BYU looked confused, particularly on defense, as if Oklahoma State was hitting the Cougars with a ruse they never expected. Sitake described the appearance as “out of character.” In reality, it was the Cowboys who blocked well, ran well and took advantage of BYU's ample disorganization. Ollie Gordon II managed 107 yards on the ground and quarterback Garret Rangel managed 77 yards before both players went down. Rangel left the game, Gordon was injured but fought to get back in.

The count went…7-zip, BYU; 7-7; 14-7, BYU; 14-14; 14-21, OK condition; 21-21; 28-21, BYU; 28-28; 31-28, BYU; 31-35, OK condition; and then…

And then Brady/Jackson came into play.

Even though the Cougars held the lead for most of the night, there was a sense of vulnerability about what they were doing. If a favored team can't stop the run on its home field and the offense makes the mistakes mentioned above, defeat is as much in the air as darkness.

But as Sitake later reiterated, his players kept charging and believing, even when they might have had a hard time, or should have had a hard time, finding a reason to do so, and a team that can do that can climb over walls and even their own barriers during that Building, and for all its faults in nothing short of a bad night, go ahead and win, something dangerous and diabolical, something extraordinary is afoot. It's a cliché, but when faith dies hard, life is easy to gain.

“We can improve,” Sitake said. “But I’m so proud of the way the boys played. Proud of the fight and the belief they have in each other.”

So here's the truth: Seven games into its pretty remarkable 2024 football season, BYU seems to understand: Being undefeated doesn't mean it's unbeatable.

That's definitely and specifically true for these Cougars and they know it. Here's how it works: They are talented, they are well coached, they have unrivaled players who have leadership qualities, they have a strong esprit de corps, they love football, they root for each other, which means they are good. But they're not that good.

You are not good enough to take anything for granted. But they're good enough, even if they lack the perfection to replay the melody of the famous Journey song “Don't Stop Believing” in their heads.

Maybe that's one of the advantages of coming off a season a year ago when they won just two conference games and lost seven, while losing five games in a row at the end of the season. They remember it. And they remember how they bridged the deep gap from then to a flawless record today.

I asked Sitake how this bridge was built and he gave the answer a coach would give: “They believe because they put in the work.”

Yes, another cliché.

Only in this case, perhaps it's a cliché because it's true.

In this way, in the here and now, on Friday nights and many Saturdays before, BYU football is every coach's dream, a confirmation of every cliché ever uttered by coaches, bosses or assistants. It is the mixed embodiment of “hard work pays off” and what Ronnie Lott said: “If you can believe it, you can achieve it.” We can go further here to find another apt example. It was Vince Lombardi who said, “The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.”

It's funny how athletes who are blessed with great natural talent like to emphasize the same thing. Tom Brady's recent quote has gotten a lot of attention: “The truth is, to be successful at anything, you don't have to be special.” You simply have to be what most people aren't: consistent, determined, and willing to work for it .”

“That’s when faith kicks in,” Sitake said.

We'll skip the argument about whether Tom's words, coming from one of the most talented quarterbacks of all time, are inspiring or insulting. Either way, it's safe to say the combination of belief and work is working for BYU. And the Cougars know we're getting back on track here. So, despite the adversity, they stuck with it on Friday night.

Their personnel isn't all that different from last season. It's not like they got a bunch of five-star additions or transfers that reshaped the team. “We learned from what happened in our first year in the Big 12,” Sitake said, “and we worked hard to get better.”

Even more clichés.

But even after Retzlaff threw a careless interception near OK State's goal line, costing BYU a touchdown and setting up an OSU score, he shook it off and kept going. As if it had disappeared from mind, from consciousness, from the way.

BYU's game against Oklahoma State looked like something out of an old Looney Tunes cartoon, with the Cougars slipping on invisible banana peels and falling through trapdoors, but they just kept coming until they warmly embraced victory.

On the basics of his remarkable winning TD pass to Lassiter, Retzlaff said: “I saw him open up and threw him the ball.”

Easy as pie.

But given the overwhelming overall feeling that came over him as he and his teammates celebrated the end, he called it “a spiritual experience.” He also called it “magical.” After everything went down, Retzlaff simply enjoyed the moment.

Regarding his teammates and what is happening in and around the team as a whole, Retlaff said after seven games: “They know what they are doing. They make plays and believe in each other. … All the boys believed in me incredibly much. Our belief in everyone on the field is unmatched.”

One final thing Sitake said he believes: “We are so close to being unstoppable.”

There is no need for forgiveness at this point if he believes that.

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