Football is as much a game about depth as it is about the starters.
Injuries are a part of the sport and something coaches need to plan for when building rosters. There are some teams that get lucky and avoid the catastrophic injury while others seem to can’t keep their stars healthy.
Then there are squads like BYU last season, who didn’t lose any key players to significant injury, but had its depth tested over the course of the season. Chances are both BYU and UMass will be dealing with injuries when the two meet on Nov. 23 in Amherst for the Minutemen’s regular season finale.
“We added some graduate transfers to hopefully combat that,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “We have some younger players, but we’re just not sure, they’re unproven. … We have to plan for the fact that some of these guys will get banged up and will get hurt. At each position, we have to be able to run three deep because we saw a lot of that last year.”
OFFENSE: The biggest injury question mark entering the fall is quarterback Zach Wilson, who had offseason surgery to repair a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder. The sophomore started the final seven games of last season for BYU and is expected to be available when the Cougars start training camp later this week.
However, Wilson was unable to practice in the spring after an efficient freshman campaign in which he completed 65.9 percent of his passes for 1,578 yards, 12 touchdowns and just three interceptions. While Jaren Hall was establishing himself as the backup this spring, Sitake said Wilson was sharpening the mental side of his game to be a more effective quarterback this season.
“The one thing I liked about (Wilson) in spring was (him) being able to be a coach and be able to have another view of the game,” Sitake said. “I’ve just been really pleased with his progress, but more than anything just happy with how he’s starting to understand the game and he’s now really familiar with the scheme. I think he can be a little more of a leader and demand more out of his teammates.”
Much of BYU’s receiving and rushing production came by committee last season with a variety of different players bunched together in terms of touches and yards. Lopini Kotoa led the Cougars with 423 rushing yards last year, and he exited the spring as the starter. Yet, he’ll be challenged for time in the backfield by graduate transfers Emmanuel Esukpa (Rice) and Ty’Son Williams (South Carolina), who both had some success at their previous stops.
The jumble at wide receiver will be more difficult to separate. Seven players had between 18 and 29 catches last season and five of them return for BYU this year. Tight end Matt Bush led the team with 29 receptions and 511 yards last season and Aleva Hifo is the leading returning wide receiver with 28 catches and 258 yards.
Sitake said he isn’t sure which players will step up and become targets for Wilson this year, but he said it’ll come down to the players who are able to make defenders miss in space and take advantage of the early touches they receive.
“The most important thing is to put our guys in positions to have success and make plays,” Sitake said. “If we’re able to do that, the guys will start emerge themselves. Hopefully we have guys that step forward and be big-time playmakers. We really have to be able to spread the ball around a lot, do it by committee and see which ones can make an impact in a game.”
DEFENSE: Last year, BYU ranked in the top-25 in both scoring and total defense, allowing opponents to score just 21.4 points and gain 324.1 yards per game. But the Cougars are trying to replace their top two tacklers from a season ago and find more proven playmakers.
The most likely candidate to make a jump statistically is linebacker Isaiah Kaufusi, who finished third on the team with 50 tackles, including six for a loss. The redshirt junior is part of a position group that is largely inexperienced with just one other player — Zayne Anderson — who has played in more than seven games on defense in their careers.
The defensive line has more experienced players than the linebackers, but few that made a mark last season. Trajan Pili started 11 games and picked up two sacks and Khyiris Tonga started eight and made 30 stops, but most of the others averaged roughly one tackle per game.
In the secondary, there is far more experience coming back with a combined 84 starts. Dayan Ghanwoloku made 39 tackles and recovered four fumbles in 10 starts last season as a safety, and Austin Lee picked off two passes and recorded 41 stops as a cornerback.
Yet, the rest of the secondary did not register many impact plays a year ago. Excluding Ghanwoloku and Lee, the other defensive backs had just one interception and broke up six passes in 2018.
“I feel like we have the right guys on the field, it’s just that some of them are inexperienced and need more time, and others are experienced and be able to get on the field,” Sitake said. “It’s important we have them compete and make sure we have our best 11 on the field at a time. I’m pleased with the talent that’s there, although there may be a few inexperienced guys, I believe we have the talent to make it work and replicate the same team we had in 2018.”
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.