Best case scenario:

Saturday Aug. 30
Portland State Vikings @ LaVell Edwards Stadium,

Easy W. PSU went 3-8 this season. This is a perfect "tune up" game. BYU should win this by 4 TDs or more. If we don't, clearly we were not opening up the playbook according to half of CB after the game.

Saturday Sep. 6
Stanford Cardinal @ LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT

Stanford is 6-18 the last two years. Dead last in the ACC this year. I don't expect this to be a difficult game either. Maybe A-Rod will still keep the playbook closed.

Sept 13:

Very early bye week unless the Big 12 slots a conference game into this spot. I don't like it.

Saturday Sep. 20
East Carolina Pirates @ Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, Greenville, NC

BYU has not played ECU well. We lost in 2022 and in 2017. We'll be on the east coast. This is one game BYU should have circled because we need to be ready for a fight.

Arizona Wildcats @ Arizona Stadium, Tucson, AZ

We should win this won.

Utah Utes @ LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT

Utes will want revenge. Whittingham will want revenge. I expect a dogfight. BYU hopefully wins a close one again.

TCU Horned Frogs @ LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT

If BYU is 5-0 at this point, TCU will absolutely want to play the spoiler. These guys hate us. Fortunately, we're hosting them. They won 9 games. They lost a couple of close ones. They had a pretty solid offense and put up a lot of points. Defensively they were not great this year.

West Virginia Mountaineers @ LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT

I don't expect BYU to struggle much against WVU like we did in 2023. They won 7 games this year. Lost to almost every good team they played. They are very middle of the road.

UCF Knights @ LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT

4-8 season with head coach bouncing and the great Scott Frost returning. Not sure what to expect from UCF next year, but I think a win at LES for BYU is reasonable.

Cincinnati Bearcats @ Nippert Stadium, Cincinnati, OH

5-7 Bearcats are not the team they were the year they snuck into the playoffs in 2021. Their best win this year was over ASU. They also lost to pretty much every other decent team they played. BYU should be able to win this one if they aren't reading their own press too much like the did during the prep for Kansas.

Colorado Buffaloes @ Folsom Field, Boulder, CO

Tough road test. Colorado will be rebuilding, yes. Best playmakers are gone. Defense is not great. O Line is terrible. Can they attract a good QB with that? Hard to say. We just embarrassed them on national TV. I think they'll have our game circled if they are playing well up to this point. I give us 40/60 odds on this game.

Iowa State Cyclones @ Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, IA

Good team coming off its best season ever. Only 6 seniors on the team? Yikes. ISU will be good and probably the early pick to win the conference if they don't lose a lot to the portal, which I don't think they tend to do. I think this is our most likely loss on the season unless BYU's offense takes a big step forward next year.

Texas Tech Red Raiders @ Jones AT&T Stadium, Lubbock, TX

Tough place to play against a team that went 8-5 and beat some of the best teams in the conference. This will be a tough win to pull out.

I think BYU likely wins one of these last three road games mentioned, two wins would mean we are likely going to the conference championship game, and three means we probably went undefeated and will be in the playoff. Defense will likely be as good or better next year. Special teams almost every player is coming back. Offense is the biggest question mark. Can we improve our red zone offense after scoring only 56% TDs in our trips to the red zone (only 53% at home)? Can we cut down on TOs? If so, best case scenario is probably going 11-1 and a trip to the CCG where if we win, we punch a ticket.



Worst case scenario:

Major injuries, lack of improvement on offense, or a combination of the two, and BYU loses to Utah and most of its tougher games and finishes with a disappointing 6-6 record, going to a lame playoff where an uninspired team loses to Boston College or Rutgers.