BYU coach Kalani Sitake wanted adversity — and he got it against Colorado.
Brigham Young quarterback Bear Bachmeier, front, passes the ball as Colorado defensive tackle Tavian Coleman pursues in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, in Boulder, Colo.
As the postgame celebration commenced for BYU after the Cougars beat Colorado, 24-21, on the road late Saturday night, Kalani Sitake said the strangest of things. He stared into a camera and said: “We needed some adversity.” He said it twice, adding emphasis to the point. Maybe it wasn’t so strange, after all, seeing that the Cougars previously had played and punk’ed a smattering of bad-to-marginal teams heretofore. It’s not as though the 2-3 Buffaloes are all that great, but BYU made them look every bit of that over the initial half of the initial half. If adversity comes dressed out as a 14-point deficit during that early span, that’s exactly what the Cougars faced.The Buffaloes did more than slap BYU around, they made the strength of its team — the defense — appear to be sloppy and soft and slow-footed, unprepared and uninspired and unable to tackle. Colorado scored on two long touchdown drives on its first two possessions, moving down the field with comfort and ease. Inside of a few minutes, resistance that had yielded only one TD thus far this season was panicked and in shambles, looking like it might give up a hundred on this night. CU quarterback Kaidon Salter seemed too fleet afoot to be effectively gathered in by Cougar defenders. Then, something remarkable happened. BYU scored 17 unanswered points, its defense adjusted, stoning the Buffs’ attack, again and again, allowing just one more touchdown the rest of the night, adding one more of its own to its total on a 32-yard Cody Hagen counter thingamabob, punching Sitake’s aforementioned adversity straight in the mug. What BYU needed was precisely what it got. Here’s what Sitake meant with his postgame comment: Starting a game as horribly as the Cougars did against Colorado in Boulder and then finding the inner wherewithal to reverse that mojo midstream and go on to win is extremely difficult. It might be more impressive than gaining victory, from beginning to end, in a wipeout. Transforming the entire operation, on defense and offense, from A to Z, from clownish Keystone Cops to a pack of cool-and-clutch professionals, demonstrated that there might be something a little extra not just on this occasion, but to BYU’s season. Confidence builds when a team believes destiny is its friend, come what may, even when ugly play, ineptitude, penetrates the picture. That was especially useful for BYU after it had fiddled-and-faddled around through those first three non-conference games, all of them easy victories, and now, it could finally dial in on what matters most to the Cougars — wins, easy or otherwise, in the Big 12. Colorado was hardly the same hyped-up-Heisman test BYU faced the last time these two teams played — in that ballyhooed bowl game in San Antonio — but this go-round, the Cougars had to play in Deion Sanders’ backyard, a place that might wrack the nerves of a freshman quarterback.Instead, Bear Bachmeier, in just his second college road start, performed as though he knew not only that sure-and-steady offense would eventually win the prize, but also that his struggling defense would rise from the dead to do what it typically does. He played like he could count on himself and his mates on both sides of the ball to come around. That’s exactly what happened, as the quarterback threw for 179 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 98 yards. He averaged 6.6 yards per pass and 6.5 yards per carry. There were times when he struggled to find open receivers downfield, but it could be said that BYU would have lost this game without his unique ability to pick up important yards in key situations. All told, the Cougars gained 208 rushing yards and they needed all of them. BYU’s defense had some nice moments late in the game, including a 22-yard sack of Salter and a play that sealed the win — an Isaiah Glasker interception with 50 seconds left. Interesting it was that in the closing minutes, with BYU ahead by three, and the Cougars driving for a potential touchdown that would have put the game on ice, a move that included a big Bachmeier pass to Chase Roberts for a first down at midfield and a subsequent 15-yard run by LJ Martin, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick slammed on the brakes, going conservative, calling for a couple of Martin runs up the gut, including on a third-and-12 situation that led to a punt, pretty much assuring that it would be left to BYU’s defense to preserve the win, not the offense.Colorado took over at its own 4-yard line with two minutes remaining. Salter completed a pass and ran a couple of times before throwing the wayward pass that Glasker intercepted, ending the threat and clinching the victory. Adversity needed and duly squelched, Sitake said, “I’m proud of the way our guys responded.” And he was happy to see that destiny, at least for one week and — who knows? — maybe more, just might be the Cougars’ friend.Sponsored: Hear how one man’s commitment to annual checkups and PSA screenings helps him to be there for his wife and three daughters.
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