BYU's offense struggled in loss to Texas, but is it time for QB change?

PROVO — BYU was already down to No. 7 Texas 21-6 at halftime, but perhaps one drive sums up the Cougars' game more than any other.

Kedon Slovis had just hit Daris Lassiter for another circus catch, one of five grabs for 75 yards on the day. With the catch, the Eastern Michigan with a penchant for SportsCenter top plays brought his team down to Texas' 13-yard line in an otherwise scoreless third quarter.

Four plays later, BYU was ... watching Will Ferrin's 32-yard field goal sail through the uprights en route to a 35-6 loss for the Cougars (5-3, 2-3 Big 12).

BYU's defense held the Longhorns (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) to 2-of-5 conversions in the red zone. Crew Wakley had an interception, and his teammates harassed first-time starter Maalik Murphy into another fumble. Isaiah Bagnah and the defensive line piled up seven tackles for loss, halting three Texas drives, two more on turnovers, and two in the third quarter on fourth-down stops near the goal line en route to a 3-0 quarter.

The Cougars' inability on offense to produce more than 292 yards, including 197 yards through the arm of Slovis and 3.7 yards per carry on the ground, is the responsibility of a lot of individuals — from head coach Kalani Sitake and offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick to Slovis, his offensive line and more.

But ultimately, Slovis will be a prime target amid the struggles. The fifth-year coast-to-coast quarterback from USC to Pitt knows the drill.

In each of the past three games, Slovis has thrown for fewer than 200 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions, and ran for minus-19 yards on 12 rushes. His backup Jake Retzlaff — the former top-rated junior college quarterback by ESPN out of the California JUCO system — hasn't played a snap and can maintain his planned redshirt capability by playing against West Virginia, Iowa State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

Is it time for a quarterback change?

"When you're looking at that, I think everybody thinks that the easy answer is just to put another quarterback in," Sitake said. "How about let's just protect for him first, and give him chance? When he's getting hit, that's not his fault. We had issues and protection breakdowns. He was managing the game the way we wanted him to; we just weren't converting on plays.

"Again, Texas has a say in that. They're a really good defense and made things difficult for us," the eighth-year head coach added. "But I believe in our players, I believe in Kedon, and I believe in our guys. We just didn't make enough plays."

Being in the final four games of the regular season — and bowl games do not count toward the four-game redshirt cap due to recent NCAA rule changes — means the Cougars could potentially insert or sub Retzlaff more freely into game situations without burning his redshirt season (as BYU will likely due with freshman linebacker Siale Esera, who totaled eight tackles and a tackle for loss in the third game of his collegiate career).

It's an option the Cougars didn't have before Week 8, at least.

But don't expect Sitake or Roderick to spin the merry-go-round of signal callers down the stretch, either, simply out of a need to "find a spark" in an offense that ranks 122nd nationally in yards per game.

"When people are looking for sparks and stuff, I think you lose your players when you just start looking for sparks all over the place," Sitake said. "You start looking all over the place, and then if you find nothing, you've lost any momentum you've built on. I think just saying, let's go try to get a spark against a powerhouse like Texas as if we can impose our will is the wrong thing to do.

"I want to be aggressive … but I also want to be thoughtful and mindful of the mistakes we're making. If the offense isn't progressing down the field and we're not scoring points, it's an 11-man problem; it's not just one guy. It's also a problem with us coaches, not getting our guys in the right spot. Address the deficiencies and the issues, let's make it better, and not make something up when it's not even there."

Slovis made plenty of mistakes, and he's owned them every week — win or lose — when making himself available to the media. For an example Saturday, one of his interceptions glanced off the fingertips of Lassiter that also ended a drive.

Football is a game of inches, but also a game of plays.

"It's tough. I've got to give him a better chance," Slovis said. "But I've got to miss lower, if we are going to give it a chance, so that it doesn't pop up and be intercepted to put them in scoring position. That's the game of football; you always love it, but sometimes it's frustrating, especially after a game like this."

The Cougars also made plenty of mistakes across the offense, while the defense made enough plays to potentially beat a top-10 opponent on the road — or at least stay within striking distance until a minus-1 turnover margin on the game's penultimate offensive series.

Sitake shared the blame — including for special-teams miscues and two promising scoring drives that stalled in the red zone like a field goal for an illegal timeout after attempting to call consecutive stoppages in opposition to recent NCAA rule changes.

"Adversity is a great teacher for us," Sitake said. "Whether we win or lose, I want our guys to keep progressing and learning; that's my job, and I want the coaches and myself to keep learning, too. We'll learn from this; it's a tough lesson. But sometimes the school of hard knocks is a great teacher, so I'm OK with it."

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