BYU’s season opener ended with a lopsided win over Utah Tech, but the postgame conversation quickly turned to health. The biggest concern out of the night was veteran safety Raider Damuni, who left with what appeared to be a leg injury and had to be carried off the field.
After the game, Kalani Sitake said the team is still waiting on an MRI before knowing exactly what happened.
"Not yet," Sitake said when asked if he knew Damuni's satus. "But,I don't like that he couldn't walk off on his own. We're concerned, praying for him and his family...whatever it is, hope for a speedy recovery and just praying for a miracle and maybe, you know, we'll see what happens...but they're still assessing the injury and trying to make a decision on what they see, MRI and all those things."
With Damuni out, BYU leaned on Tommy Prassas and true freshman Kennan Pula. If Damuni is unable to go next week against Arizona, those two would be in line for bigger roles.
Another key defender who didn’t suit up was linebacker Isaiah Glasker. He was on the sideline in uniform but without his helmet, and Sitake said he and Kelly Poppinga made the call to keep him out.
"Glasker was banged up from camp," Sitake said. "I think he could have gone, but we made a decision to just take it out of his hands and just rest him for next week. He'll be ready."
Sitake added that the staff wanted Glasker available for Arizona and noted how well he has played in that matchup before. "[Glasker has] always done great for us against Arizona, and so, we felt as a coaching staff we didn't need him, and, and I think he really, really wanted to play as a team captain...he was going to go, and then we just, me and K-Pop made a decision not to play him.
Even without Glasker, the BYU defense barely gave Utah Tech room to breathe. The starters forced three turnovers in the first half, while Utah Tech managed just one first down. The Trailblazers also went 0-for-6 on third down, and BYU’s defense allowed only 11% of available yards on non-garbage drives.
For a first game under Kelly Poppinga, it was about as suffocating as it gets. Utah Tech had only one drive that lasted more than three plays.
In Other News...
BYU Is Back In The Playoff Debate For A Bigger Reason
Takeo Spikes has put BYU back into the Big 12 playoff conversation, and not just as a team trying to hang around the league race. In a discussion about where the conference is headed, Spikes said he expects the Big 12 to land two College Football Playoff teams in 2026 and singled out BYU and Texas Tech as the programs most likely to get there. It is the kind of endorsement that gets attention in Provo because it frames BYU not as an outsider hoping for a break, but as a legitimate piece of the conference's ceiling.
The wider debate around the Big 12 is only getting more interesting because other voices still see Utah as a serious contender, even with coaching changes in the picture, which underscores how crowded the league's upper tier could become. For BYU, the appeal of Spikes' prediction is less about the exact year and more about the larger message: the Cougars are being mentioned in the same breath as teams with playoff-level ambition. Whether that translates into a real path through the conference will be the question hanging over the next few seasons. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Is Suddenly Right In The Middle Of Big 12 Stakes
The Big 12 race already has the feel of a national conversation, and BYU is right in the middle of it before the season even settles in. On College GameDay, the preseason championship picks split across the board, with some members backing the Cougars and others favoring Texas Tech or West Virginia, a reflection of just how open the league looks at the top. With BYU and Texas Tech the only Big 12 teams starting the year ranked in the top 15, there is a real sense that the conferences playoff hopes could hinge on those two programs living up to the billing.
What makes the noise around BYU so interesting is that it is not coming from the usual conference insiders alone. Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit were among the notable voices weighing in on the contenders, adding even more national weight to the discussion about who can actually separate in a crowded league. For BYU, the stakes are bigger than one preseason nod or one early ranking, because the Cougars are suddenly part of the argument over whether the Big 12 can produce more than one legitimate playoff contender. [Read more 🡒]
College GameDay Just Gave BYU Fans A Big 12 Reason To Believe
ESPNs College GameDay season kickoff offered BYU fans a little extra juice before the Big 12 race even got rolling. The panel spent part of the conversation sizing up the conferences best path to the title, with teams like Texas Tech and West Virginia also getting attention in the discussion about prospects and matchups.
For BYU, the encouraging part was seeing the Cougars surface in a room full of national voices as a legitimate contender. Different analysts leaned in different directions on the champion pick, and the split alone says plenty about how open the Big 12 picture looks heading into the season. [Read more 🡒]