BYU Defense Shows Well Without DC Jay Hill

the following is a presentation of KSL Sports first and 12 a total Roundup of BYU and Utah football and the expanded Big 12 Conference brought to you by Macy's grocery stores your host are Mitch Harper and Alex Kiri on KSL News radio and the KSL Sports Zone hour number one continues to roll on here on First and 12 on KSL News radio in the KSL Sports Zone and podcast if you're listening on demand we appreciate you taking the time to download the show subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcast and leave that five star rating and review it helps us out mitcher Alex Keri with you and we talked about the BYU offense in the win the 41-13 victory over Southern Illinois let's get to the defense Alex and you know it it was a group that last year their flaws kind of got masked because of how bad the offense was last season but Bo's defense struggled a lot last year and then with the adversity off the field with Jay Hill you kind of go went into this game thinking what what can you reasonably expect from this group and how did you feel like BYU's defense showed in their first game of the season uh yeah really well I mean you know at some point and I don't want to be the guy who nitpicks the the refs in game one but there was a weird moment for the this big 12 crew where they didn't review at all a an obvious uh Miss call which was that drop on a four on pretty much the that must have been the biggest play no it was probably the the long touchdown run by Williams was was the big one I think that but in terms of yardage I mean BYU gave up just over 200 yards of of total offense that's an awesome night uh for BYU's defense and 48 of it should have come back because the referees did not see Kanani calling timeout uh I knew that they probably had a a play that was left on the table there or that they got a freebie and so they snapped that ball quickly down at the other end of the field and so maybe you don't even get a score on that drive if that 48 y uh doesn't get held up and so again nitpicking but but what what's interesting about all this and what we found out in the postgame too is that J was still planning this thing meticulously from his from his hospital bed right isn't that what we heard I mean said I mean he just go he's just going out there typing it all it's like hey go in get a hard procedure and then uh detail out how you want Kanani to call this call this game Who by the way I mean if you're going to have somebody do it that's what you know a guy who knows the defense very very well is Kanani sataki but again there's another Wrinkle in a week of of uh of preparation for this BYU team and so uh add that on top but the defense I think showed out well two sacks five tfls on top of that so seven tfls with the sacks included I thought it was really good pressure and Mitch they're already a fifth of the way there of their total of sacks from last season that's a good start it it is I will say if I'm going to be a little nit picky that against an FCS team that was not a good offense you like to see in a few more sacks but still there were Playmakers there and you know what's impressive is that the preseason all Big 12 pick Tyler baddy really didn't have many snaps have to monitor that I mean he had zero tackles only one quarterback hurry in the win uh a bunch of players got snaps in this game including a bunch of young guys for BYU in total there was about 24 players recorded at least one tackle or more led by Jack Kelly who looked as good as advertised five tackles uh half uh 0.5 tackles for loss in a quarterback hurry uh Kelly his combination of size and speed kind of seeing him go full speed for the first time really I mean we've seen him in spring in Fall camp but uh let unleashing him if you will I thought he was very impressive and he's going to be maybe the star of this defense he might be one of the best players on this team he is a a impact player for BYU and and this was a night too where BYU was short-handed in some spots they didn't have myy bomba at cornerback he was in a boot they had a backup defensive tackle and David lotu he's dealing with a knee uh his right knee so uh you know Bo is a little bit short-handed and still uh pretty good depth was on display and and BYU cruised to an easy win and I think what's noteworthy too is that this was never in doubt you know when you know Southern Illinois got it you know uh they it looked like it was going to be 14-6 be at the half uh you know BYU's defense in that moment you thought oh oh no Southern Illinois is going to make a comeback or make this interesting you know he just settled in and took care of business and I thought it was a very solid effort for a week one where there are so many unknowns in these season openers uh I want to say so John Nelson had a sack what was the other sack who was the other sack attributed to or they did they spread around a couple half sacks or how did this B Isaiah B he was the first one that's right and so but but again I thought you saw some good pressure across the board uh Tyler baddy I know everybody's waiting for that like three sack game for him to show up uh this year but I mean for sure he draws a lot of attention and I think it helps out the rest of the defense but but again we saw pressure that we didn't see from this boou defense very often I thought it was a really really good first showing from them they had a couple of long runs that were frankly just uh DJ WIlliams kind of freelancing because plays had been blown up and so on the overall you saw a clean game from BYU on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball I think three penalties total on the night for 15 yards and so it was a very disciplined uh outing as well for BYU on top of this one being not a lot of yards I mean and the other thing Mitch was I think that they double up SIU in the in the in the time of possession I know you look at that a lot of that that it comes down to the offense but the reality is is that your defense gives you the opportunity they took away so many opportunities from SIU they forc a lot of punts they sniffed out a a a fake punt as well uh was that Tanner wall who ended up getting that uh that that tackle on that one too so you know I mean a lot of guys showing up they have depth at that defensive back position and then you get like a a classic pick from uh from Jacob Robinson who started off his season well so this defense looks really really sharp I know it's the first game I know if it's an FCS opponent but a lot of things to be able to take away from there but also if you're a coach you're going oh yeah we can nitpick some stuff too and so there's stuff for this team to work on on the offensive and defensive side of the ball and so nice outing for this BYU defense uh in week one here it definitely was and we got to get to a break we'll get to the Big 12 sound Roundup a weekly fixture here on First and 12 where you get the best sound bites from the coaches and players around the Big 12 Conference Mitch Harper Alex kry with you here on KSL News radio and the KSL Sport Zone