BYU Eyes Big 12 Title Shot, Hopes for Chase Roberts’ Return Against No. 5 Texas Tech
It all comes down to this for BYU: one game, one shot at the Big 12 crown, and a potential ticket to the College Football Playoff. The Cougars are set to face No.
5 Texas Tech in Arlington this week, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. But as BYU gears up for its biggest game of the season, one question looms large-will their top receiver, Chase Roberts, be ready to go?
Head coach Kalani Sitake seems confident.
“Chase will be back,” Sitake said this week. “I think we made the right decision, hold him out and be smart with his injury.”
Roberts missed BYU’s regular-season finale against UCF-a game the Cougars won 41-21-due to a lingering hamstring issue that first flared up in the Cincinnati game. He played the first half of that one before exiting with discomfort, and the staff opted to keep him sidelined against UCF to prioritize his long-term health.
It was a calculated move, and now BYU hopes it pays off.
Roberts has been a cornerstone of BYU’s passing attack this season, racking up 713 receiving yards and five touchdowns. His ability to stretch the field and make contested catches has been a consistent spark for the Cougars’ offense.
But his impact goes beyond just this season. With 2,497 career receiving yards and 17 touchdowns, Roberts ranks eighth all-time in program history.
He’s just 51 yards away from moving into seventh place, inching closer to the legendary Cody Hoffman, who still sits atop BYU’s all-time receiving list.
Still, Sitake wasn’t just thinking about stats when he made the call to rest Roberts last week. It was about trust in the depth of his roster.
“We felt good about the other guys picking up the slack,” Sitake said. “I just like the way the guys are bought into it, whether we ask them to run block or run routes.
They’ve done everything we ask them to. They don’t complain about it.”
That kind of buy-in has been a hallmark of this BYU team all year. And they’ll need every bit of it against a Texas Tech squad that already handed them a 29-7 loss earlier this season in Lubbock. That game left a mark, and Roberts didn’t mince words afterward-he said if BYU got another shot at the Red Raiders, they’d win.
Now they’ve got that chance.
A win on Saturday would punch BYU’s ticket to the College Football Playoff, a historic achievement in their first year in the Big 12. A loss, on the other hand, puts them on the outside looking in. The Cougars would likely fall out of the playoff picture and settle for a bowl game instead.
So yes, BYU needs its full arsenal. And that means getting Chase Roberts back on the field, healthy and ready to deliver when it matters most.