Cougs Daily

Predicting BYU vs Southern Illinois in the Season Opener

Casey Lundquist

Oct 14, 2023; Fort Worth, Texas, USA; Brigham Young Cougars running back LJ Martin (27) in action during the game between the TCU Horned Frogs and the Brigham Young Cougars at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
Oct 14, 2023; Fort Worth, Texas, USA; Brigham Young Cougars running back LJ Martin (27) in action during the game between the TCU Horned Frogs and the Brigham Young Cougars at Amon G. Carter Stadium. / Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
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BYU football is back. On Saturday night, the Cougars kickoff the 2024 season against the Southern Illinois Salukis. Questions surround this BYU football team, specifically at quarterback. The Cougars have not announced a starting quarterback and there were 20 "ORs" on the first depth chart. Today, we're sorting through the noise and predicting the score of BYU-SIU.

From a talent perspective, Southern Illinois is comparable to Sam Houston. BYU, in case you forgot, didn't look good against Sam Houston in the 2023 season opener. The outcome was never in doubt, but BYU's offense struggled throughout. After scoring a touchdown on the opening drive, BYU didn't score again until the second half in a 14-0 win.

BYU started 12 newcomers in that game and the new faces struggled to get on the same page. On the opposite sideline, Sam Houston returned a lot of experience.

The opposite is true in this game. BYU returns a lot of starters while Southern Illinois will be tasked with replacing a lot of key starters from a year ago.

Even though the Cougars haven't announced a starting quarterback, we're expecting Jake Retzlaff to start based on the way he finished camp. He looked really good in the media availability portion of practices during the last two weeks of practice.

If Retzlaff can avoid the critical mistakes that plagued him a year ago, that will be the first step to improvement in 2024. If he can make the throws he was making in camp, he will lead BYU to a convincing win.

BYU needs to dominant on the ground. The Cougars have spent the entire offseason focusing on the run game. Saturday is their first chance to show improvement on the field.

Continuity will help BYU in this game. As of this writing, BYU is only favored by 14 points. We expect BYU to cover the spread by a wide margin.

BYU 38 - Southern Illinois 10

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Casey Lundquist

CASEY LUNDQUIST

Casey Lundquist is the publisher and lead editor of Cougs Daily. He has covered BYU athletics for the last four years. During that time, he has published over 2,000 stories that have reached more than three million people.

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