No. 15 BYU didn’t exactly race out of the gate Saturday, and that’s becoming a familiar script. But once the Cougars settled in, they hit Arizona with the kind of second-half force that has defined so many of their biggest wins.
The turning point came late, when Tommy Prassas delivered the play that slammed the door. He wasn’t even supposed to be in that spot. Raider Damuni had that job before getting hurt against Utah Tech, but Prassas stepped in and ended up making the biggest hit of the afternoon.
Arizona tried to attack him, and for a while it worked. Then came the fourth-and-four stop late in the fourth quarter, a bone-rattling tackle that initially wasn’t ruled short of the line to gain.
After review, officials overturned it. Game over.
That was the moment that emptied the air out of Brent Brennan’s team and let Kalani Sitake collect his sixth straight win over Arizona in 11 seasons. It also pushed BYU forward in the Big 12 standings.
What unfolded at LaVell Edwards Stadium had the feel of a heavyweight fight that started messy and ended with BYU landing the cleaner shots. Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita was sharp early, and the Wildcats controlled the first half with a 17-0 edge and 240 yards of offense. They also owned the clock, holding the ball for 21:29 to BYU’s 8:31 and running 42 plays to the Cougars’ 23.
Then the second half happened.
Arizona was shut out after intermission and managed just 87 total yards. Kelly Poppinga’s defense started throwing different looks at Fifita, and the pressure finally got home. The blitzes forced hurried throws, knocked the quarterback down and took away the Wildcats’ big-play rhythm.
Credit Poppinga for the defensive adjustments. Credit Aaron Roderick too, even if his offense had barely been on the field early enough to find any kind of rhythm. BYU’s attack didn’t get much chance to breathe in the first half, and that meant LJ Martin, Legend Glasker and the transfer tight ends were all underused until later.
Once the Cougars finally got going, though, the game changed fast. Glasker’s 61-yard catch set up the final touchdown after BYU had grabbed a fragile 24-17 lead. That play, like the late defensive stop, showed what this team can do when it adjusts and starts creating explosives.
That has been the story of BYU’s season.
The Cougars went 12-2 overall and 8-1 in the Big 12, and they kept finding themselves in uncomfortable spots early. They led the nation with five wins after trailing by 10 or more points.
At Colorado, they fell behind 14-0 before coming back to win 24-21. Against Arizona earlier in the year, they erased a 24-14 fourth-quarter deficit and won 33-27 in double overtime.
Iowa State had a 24-10 lead before BYU stormed back in a 41-27 win. UCF jumped out 14-0 before the Cougars ripped off 31 straight points in a 41-21 victory.
In the Pop-Tarts Bowl, Georgia Tech had a 21-10 halftime lead before BYU rallied to win 25-21.
Even Utah got pushed into a late fight, with BYU trailing 14-10 early in the fourth before winning 24-21 at home.
There were also the two Texas Tech losses, 29-7 in the regular season and 34-7 in the Big 12 championship, where the Cougars never really found their footing. Sitake said after the bowl win that the team kept putting itself in bad early positions and wanted more urgency from the start in 2026. BYU still outscored opponents 131-68 in the fourth quarter, a big reason the “Cardiac Cougars” label stuck all season.
Sitake told reporters after the Arizona win that he was waiting for his team’s personality and identity to show itself in the first half. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe this is what the Cougars are.
They head next to Fort Collins for a road game against Colorado State, a place that used to produce old WAC and Mountain West battles. And if BYU wants to make life easier on itself, it would help to look more like a dragster off the line than a team digging itself out of another hole.
The talent is there. Saturday proved that again.
It just mostly showed up after halftime.
And in the end, Prassas - after taking his early lumps against Fifita’s arm - made the play that mattered most. Late in the game. Symbolic.
In Other News...
BYU Showed Something Different In The Second Half At Arizona
Down at halftime in Tucson, No. 15 BYU came out of the break looking like a different team and finished with a 28-17 win over Arizona. The Cougars leaned on a strong rushing drive to open the second half, got meaningful production from players such as Kyler Kasper and Tausili Akana, and began to tilt the game with a steadier, more physical approach after the intermission.
Arizona still had a chance to flip the pressure back onto BYU before the Cougars defense shut the door with a key fourth-down stop. From there, BYUs pass rush started to squeeze the Wildcats late, and the Cougars spent the final stretch controlling the flow instead of chasing it, a meaningful shift for a team that had to answer a few questions after the break. [Read more 🡒]
BYUs Arizona Win Put A Promising New Core On Display
BYUs win over Arizona offered a useful snapshot of how the Cougars are starting to piece together a new-look core on both sides of the ball. The second-half surge was powered by a defense that kept tightening the screws, with Tausili Akana making his presence felt, Uluave and Cannon DeVries adding key support, and the offense finding enough balance to pull away. It was the kind of performance that suggests the roster is settling into a clearer identity early in the season.
The more interesting part for BYU is how many different names are starting to matter in meaningful spots. Isaiah Glasker emerged as a steady target in the passing game, and Kyler Kaspers scoring impact showed how quickly the receiving group can tilt a game when it gets rolling. Akanas production up front only adds to the sense that this team may have more emerging pieces than expected, which makes the next stretch of games worth watching closely. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Just Made The Big 12 Race A Lot More Interesting
BYUs first Big 12 test came with plenty of the usual early-season nerves, but the Cougars handled it well enough to leave with a 28-17 win over Arizona and a 2-0 start overall. The result mattered beyond one Saturday night, because it gave BYU an early foothold in conference play and showed this team can survive a game that tightened up before it was over.
The offense had a couple of momentum-swinging plays to lean on, from freshman Legend Glaskers 61-yard reception to Kyler Kasper finding the end zone for the first time in his college career. Even with those flashes, the bigger takeaway was how much the opener seemed to hang on a single sequence late, the kind of moment that can tilt an entire Big 12 race before it really gets going. [Read more 🡒]