BYU heads to UCF in Orlando, fighting to set aside emotions from the historic home win over Notre Dame. It will require focus, avoiding the “rat poison” of listening to praise, and laborious work at practice.
After climbing to No. 2 in the AP Top 25 rankings, can the Cougars climb aboard the execution train and make all this magic work on the longest road trip of the year? If they’re for real, yes.
Head coach Kalani Sitake is selling his mantra hard: Stay hungry and humble. He means it. This week is the culmination of what he’s been talking about all season.
After BYU climbed in the rankings, QB Bear Bachmeier earned National Player of the Week from AP. Linebacker Cade Uluave, BYU’s leading tackler in the game, was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week.
Rat poison? That’s what former Alabama coach Nick Saban said can set back a winning football team when they read about themselves on social media and let it go to their heads.
Here are some examples of statistical rat poison:
- BYU’s strength of record is now No. 1 in the country ahead of Kentucky, UCLA, Ohio State, Miami and Indiana, in that order.
- BYU is the only team in the nation to start the past three seasons with a perfect 6-0 record.
- BYU had 11 tackles that went backward against No. 2 Notre Dame.
- Of the remaining undefeated P4 teams, BYU has the best strength of schedule at 27, ahead of UCLA (51), Miami (58), Texas Tech (82) and Utah (102). This is a metric that the CFP committee counts.
- Bear Bachmeier is doing something no other BYU quarterback has done, playing at a higher level of competition. He just passed Robbie Bosco for the best win percentage in 16 games, going 18-2 in the Big 12 with a 90% winning percentage. The others played in the WAC and MWC — not the Big 12, a P4 league.
- In Notre Dame’s last 16 games, only BYU scored 28 points or more against the Fighting Irish defense, built on highly recruited superstars.
Meanwhile, Central Florida is licking its chops to get No. 2 in their stadium. The Knights will unload everything they have on the Cougars because they are fighting for respect in the highly recruited state of Florida, where they compete with bluebloods Miami, Florida State and Florida for media, booster money and recruits. UCF is 3-0 at home and did beat TCU.
The target on the back of BYU has only just begun.
Cougar Insiders predictions
Question of the week: We’ve seen half a season; BYU has climbed to No. 2 and is undefeated at 6-0. What do we now know about BYU’s corners after the Cougars beat Notre Dame and CJ Carr did not throw a touchdown? Predict the score of BYU at UCF.
Jay Drew: BYU’s entire defense shined against the Irish in last Saturday’s 28-24 victory, but I thought the secondary was particularly effective. Of course, that included two of the best cornerbacks BYU has ever had, Tre Alexander and Evan Johnson.
BYU has played a lot of nickel this season, especially before Cannon DeVries suffered an injury against TCU, and that has been made possible by the emergence of Mississippi State transfer Jayven Williams.
When Williams and Alexander got hurt last Saturday, Matthias Leach and Jordyn Criss stepped in and hardly skipped a beat. Alexander returned, but we didn’t see Williams from the middle of the third quarter to the remainder of the game.
Coach Kalani Sitake reminded reporters Monday that Leach and Criss were ready because they played in the blowouts of Utah Tech and Colorado State, somewhat defending his decision back then to not run up the score at the expense of developing guys deep on the bench.
Sure, Johnson could have been flagged for a pass interference penalty on that last play Notre Dame ran, but I have to think the veteran knew what he could do, and not do, in that particular game and pushed the envelope to the limit. BYU’s corners will have to have another good game this Saturday, because UCF has some really experienced, speedy receivers. It will be a good test for them.
Prediction: BYU 34, UCF 27
Dick Harmon: Jayven Williams was the BYU defender furthest away from the ball when Notre Dame’s CJ Carr tried to spike the ball and fumbled it. He ran to the line of scrimmage and hopped on the ball. It may have been the biggest play in BYU’s upset over No. 2 Notre Dame because instead of getting a touchdown after a long drive, the Fighting Irish got nada.
BYU’s corners have been outstanding this season. Tre Alexander and Evan Johnson are tall, and have great reach and speed. Their backups are equally built. It is by far the deepest and most talented cornerback room that I’ve seen in Provo. And speaking of that, I will finally concede that Alexander and Johnson have surpassed what I’ve long believed was the best corner tandem in BYU history, that 1996 Cotton Bowl duo Omarr Morgan and Tim McTyer. These guys are faster and taller and can both cover and hit.
Having corners like this allows BYU to play man coverage and disrupt the timing of opposing quarterbacks. Their run support is equally impressive. They have elite coverage skills. This is a skill level that triggers BYU’s front seven to apply pressure with blitzes, stunts and twists up front. In BYU’s ever-changing look-and-change pre-snap look schemes, it requires the corners to be able to man up with receivers, recover quickly and locate the ball in the air.
As for that last play, I saw a Notre Dame receiver and BYU corner doing some hand combat with each other. The Notre Dame receiver put his hands on Johnson’s shoulder pad first to push off. Johnson reacted a millisecond later by putting his hands on the Notre Dame receiver while shielding the receiver from getting to the ball without going through him. It was perfect technique. Could it be called interference, yes. But it was what was allowed the entire game by both sides and it was not called at the end.
BYU’s defense is becoming elite. CougarStats said this: “CJ Carr was fifth in the nation in pass efficiency before the BYU game.
“He’s 21st now. Against BYU, he had career lows in:
“Completion Percentage — 55.1%
“Yards per Attempt — 5.3
“Pass Efficiency — 99.85.”
Prediction: BYU 28, UCF 17
Cougar tales
Here is a collection of stories from the Deseret News on BYU’s historic upset of No. 2 Notre Dame:
- BYU, Utah make history (Ryan McDonald)
- Win was transformational for BYU (Jay Drew)
- How fans celebrated win and No. 2 rank (Brandon Judd)
- 3 big plays led to BYU’s victory (Dave McCann)
- BYU jumps to No. 2 in AP Poll (Jackson Payne)
- What Marcus Freeman said after Notre Dame loss (Jackson Payne)
- Big 12: Should have been 1 second left (Jay Drew)
- Disrespected Cougars rise up (Jay Drew)
- BYU uses magical karma in win (Dick Harmon)
- How social media reacted (Jackson Payne)
- Sights, sounds of ESPN’s ‘GameDay’ (Jackson Payne)
Here is a compilation of links to national reactions to BYU’s win over Notre Dame compiled by a poster on @Cougarboard.
From the archives
From X-verse
Urban Meyer says BYU QB Bear Bachmeier is his favorite player in college football right now pic.twitter.com/GMBqzj2veQ
— The Triple Option (@3xOptionShow) October 20, 2026
Pat McAfee just shared on his show the full story behind the viral moment of reading the Book of Mormon live on College GameDay.
— Peacemaking Saint (@PeacemakingSt) October 19, 2026
Turns out a BYU student tossed a Book of Mormon onto the stage, and Pat proceeded to pick it up and read it live on air. It was completely…
For the first time in AP Poll history (since 1936), multiple teams from the state of Utah are ranked in the top 10 at the same time!
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) October 20, 2026
BYU and Utah also both rank among the top 10 most likely to reach the CFP, according to the Allstate Playoff Predictor. pic.twitter.com/Anyud04fsY
Extra points
- BYU gains more respect than ever (Salt Lake Tribune)
- ‘Keep rat poison away,’ Sitake warns (Deseret News)
- ESPN’s Holly Rowe explains BYU connection (Deseret News)
Fanalysts
Comments from Deseret News readers:
The refs let them play all night, so many missed calls, no one even knew anything about a second when the game ended, both played their hearts out, but BYUs defense was the better BYU unit. 4 red zones 4 TDs, ND settled for FGs. That’s the story. Anything else is toddler tears. Period. — RR
If I were the coach, there would be two major talking points this week:
1) There is a long list of teams, just this year, who had major wins like this and faceplanted the very next week (Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, Florida, Oklahoma, etc.). Even though UCF should be overmatched, they have the advantage of the bye week, so don’t lose focus.
2) This game won’t matter nearly as much if you lose next week. Sure, it could be transformational for the program, but that’s entirely dependent on how you follow up the win. Keep winning, and that respect you craved remains in place. Lose, and those national pundits will quickly write this off as a fluke.— OHBU
Up next
- Oct. 22 | TBA | women’s tennis | at Fort Worth
- Oct. 22 | 5 p.m. | women’s soccer | @ Kansas
- Oct. 22 | 6:30 p.m. | women’s volleyball | Colorado
- Oct. 23 | 6 p.m. | softball | Snow College
- Oct. 23| 7 p.m. | lacrosse | Utah State
- Oct. 23 | 7 p.m. |men’s soccer | Utah Valley
- Oct. 24 |TBA| baseball | Air Force
- Oct. 24 | noon | rugby | Utah
- Oct. 24|1:30 p.m.| football| @ UCF
- Oct. 24 | 2 p.m. | men’s basketball | @ UNLV
- Oct. 24 | 4 p.m. | softball | Southern Utah
- Oct. 24 | 6:30 p.m.| women’s volleyball | Arizona State