Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes
PROVO — He was one of the first to stand up and address the team, though the contents of his message remain a mystery.
But through multiple confirmations of players and coaches who were there, we know that Puka Nacua was one of the first players to address his team following BYU’s ugly 41-14 loss at Liberty, one of the worst of Kalani Sitake’s seven-year tenure in Provo .
The confines of a college football locker room are sacred, one where bonds of brotherhood are forged through the ups and downs of a season and a career. So Nacua didn’t divulge exactly what he told his teammates after the Cougars hit a new low with their third-straight loss, the fourth loss of the year that matches the total losses in each of the previous two seasons combined.
But when given the chance to explain that meeting, or what he wanted to share of it, on the postgame radio show on BYU Radio, Nacua found something to say. His message? Don’t give up hope just yet.
“Stick with us,” Nacua said into the headset from just outside the visiting locker room at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia. “We’ve got a game on Friday, we’re coming back home, and we’re still a football team where all the guys in the locker room are proud to wear BYU. We’re going to figure it out.
“We’re preparing to do better. We’ve just got to keep doing better; we’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror, and try to figure out how to execute better.”
BYU was off Sunday in accordance with university policy and faces a short week before Friday night’s home tilt with East Carolina (6 pm MDT, ESPN2), which moved within a game of bowl eligibility with a 34-13 win over UCF on Saturday. The 5-3 Pirates have won three of the past four games and will certainly look to play in a bowl game for the first time since the 2014 Birmingham Bowl (ECU’s 2021 Military Bowl with Boston College was canceled due to COVID-19 protocols within the Eagles’ program).
BYU wide receiver Puka Nacua catches a pass from quarterback Jaren Hall during the Cougars’ 41-14 loss to Liberty, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022 in Lynchburg, Va. (Photo: BYU Photo)
There will be plenty of motivation Friday for the team from Greenville, North Carolina. Much like there was for Liberty in what coaches called the “biggest home football game in program history” for the 51-year-old evangelical university founded by the late televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr.
The Cougars are 4-4, and the heights once reached after a 2-0 start and a 4-1 mark that had them ranked as high as No. 12 in the Associated Press Top 25 felt like a distant memory as the team prepared to board a flight home from the east coast.
As fans gnashed their teeth following a third-straight loss and arguably the worst of the Sitake era since a 16-10 home setback to woeful UMass in 2017 (everyone remembers what happened after that 4-9 season, so we’ll spare the recap ), no one felt worse for wear than the players themselves.
No one was hurt more, not even the coaching staff that has worked to stop the bleeding for three-straight weeks. But that hurt has to lead to change, Nacua continued. Feeling sorry for a missed season only goes so far if it doesn’t lead to improvement.
“We’ve hit the halfway point, and I always think that the eye in the sky does not lie,” Nacua said. “We’ve got to go back and watch the tape. It’s self-reflection; we have the right guys on the field, I believe.
“But when we watch the film, we’ve got to be open to criticism. If you’re out there on Saturday, you’ve got to get your job done.”
Much of the blame for the Cougars’ three-game losing skid has been laid at the feet of the defense. BYU has ranked among the worst teams in the country in every major defensive statistical category during the past month, including No. 103 (out of 131 teams) in total defense. The Cougars are 127th in first-downs defense (just ahead of Kansas, North Texas, Ohio and Charlotte, which fired coach Will Healy on Sunday after a 1-7 start), 128th in third-down conversion defense at 48.7%, and 83rd in fourth-down conversion defense at 52.9%, and 109th in scoring defense at 31.62 points per game.
Sensing the frustration and lack of results, Sitake confirmed that he took over defensive play calling duties Saturday, defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki moved from the box to the field to work with the defensive tackles between plays, and tried to reanimate a defense to make something happen .
For a moment it worked, as Talan Alfrey pulled down an interception and the Cougars took a 14-3 lead after the first quarter. But the moment was as fleeting as a BYU defender’s attempt at a tackle for the past three weeks.
Liberty ran for 300 yards, totaled 547 yards of offense, and converted on 7-of-12 third downs (with two fourth-down conversions) during a 37-0 run the rest of the way. The Flames didn’t force a single turnover (although an interception was taken off the board in the second half upon official review), but did need to as they scored on 7-of-11 offensive possessions and punted just once.
“To be up 14-3 then have 38 unanswered points was shocking for us, but we just must fight through this,” Sitake said. “This is some adversity that we are going through. This is a fight or flight moment, and I only know one way. We need to work hard, fight through this and make sure we have the right guys with us to go all the way .”
Keenan Pili and Micah Harper led the defense with eight tackles, including a tackle for loss from Harper, one of five on the day. Tyler Batty had another, in addition to seven tackles and a quarterback hurry.
But as has been the case for much of the season, BYU didn’t present much disruption. Alfrey’s interception was the first pick by a BYU defensive back in the year, and seven of eight defensive players with a sack have just one behind John Nelson’s two.
“It’s tough,” Batty told the assembled media after the game. “I think we have an amazing team. We still have amazing potential for the games down the stretch. To not achieve expectations, that sucks. That sucks. So yeah, very frustrating.”
The defensive woes aren’t just a matter of coaching.
“It’s about execution from our players,” Batty said. “I firmly believe that we have the best coach in the nation. For me, there’s no doubt about that. We have an amazing coaching staff. I think just us, as players, have to be better at. making plays. None of coaches are on the field, and can’t make tackles, catch or run the ball. For us, we have to be better as players.”
BYU defensive end Tyler Batty makes a tackle against Liberty, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022 in Lynchburg, Va. (Photo: BYU Photo)
But the problems weren’t only on offense against Hugh Freeze’s Flames. After the two-touchdown first quarter, BYU ended each drive in four punts and three turnovers on downs. Only one offensive series finished with more than 30 yards, which is the same number of drives that totaled exactly one yard.
No, the defense wasn’t great. But unlike in a 52-35 shootout loss at home to Arkansas, the offense didn’t perform much better. Jaren Hall completed a career-low 47% of his passes, a 16-of-34 clip that went. for 187 yards and two touchdowns. The Cougars had 116 yards of offense in the first quarter, and just 142 total yards for the remaining three quarters.
Christopher Brooks, who had a precautionary wrap around his hamstring through the second half, led BYU’s rushing attack with 26 yards on three carries. Hall ran for 33 yards and Nacua 20 in a game that brought back Lopini Katoa and Miles Davis from injuries suffered before the home tilt with Arkansas.
“I didn’t do enough, didn’t do my job. A lot of things were uncharacteristic,” Hall said. “That’s on me. I’ve got to have a big reality check, and find ways to be better on Friday.”
Speaking of Nacua, the former four-star recruited for 128 of 258 yards of offense for the Cougars, who converted just 3-of-11 third downs.
“That’s something we’ve prided ourselves on is executing on third down,” Nacua said during his postgame radio appearance. “We didn’t get that done today.”
BYU has plenty of leadership in the locker room from players like Batty, Nacua and Hall, who emerged from the visiting area even before Sitake to speak with the media after the loss. But it’s going to need more to pull out of the hole in which the Cougars find themselves.
“I love our boys, our team and our program,” Sitake said. “It is going to be a true test now for all of us where we are right now. We have played really great ball earlier this season, and we have to find a way to get back to it. I am looking forward to working hard and getting there.”
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A proud graduate of Syracuse University, Sean Walker has covered BYU for KSL.com since 2015, while also mixing in prep sports, education, and anything else his editors assign him to do.
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