Are The BYU Cougars Still A Dirty Team?

The BYU football team has been criticized for being a dirty team with their aggressive style of football. Are they changing, or is it the same as it ever was?

This weekend, the UCLA football team will travel to Provo, Utah to take on the BYU Cougars in the second of a home-and-home series. Aside from how difficult it will be to come out with a win, the Bruins might need to be on watch for possible shenanigans on the part of the Cougar players.

Last season, Go Joe Bruin documented several overly aggressive plays by BYU, more or less proving that the Cougars use some extracurricular tactics in their style of football that go beyond the realm of being just aggressive.

Related Story: BYU: The Dirtiest Team In College Football

Naturally, this article did not sit well with BYU fans, but was also praised by fan bases of teams that have been the target of such “dirty” plays. But Go Joe Bruin was not alone in this assessment.

The Salt Lake City Tribune had an article entitled, BYU growing a reputation as the ‘dirtiest team in college sports’ where they not only give examples of the football team having several unsportsmanlike incidents, but the basketball team as well (although, for this article, we will stick to football).

Now whether you call it dirty or aggressive, as former BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall used to, certain tactics by BYU players have just been downright unacceptable. But that could change.

With Mendenhall moving on and new coach Kalani Sitake taking over, the Cougars have a chance to change their mentality. Unfortunately, with Sitake having Mendenhall players on his team, those players still have a Mendenhall mindset.

In BYU’s first two games of this season, there have been a few plays that are keeping the stigma of BYU being a dirty team.

A Bit Too Aggressive

The Cougars play an aggressive style of football, which works to their advantage. But a team can play aggressive without being dirty.

Unfortunately, BYU is playing overly aggressive which has led to a large amount of penalties. Now you cannot label a team dirty based on penalties alone. Look at UCLA for example. They have been one of the most penalized teams in the Jim Mora era, but they are not known as a dirty team.

UCLA Bruins

In BYU’s first game of the season against Arizona, they had eight penalties for 65 yards. Though the Cougars had false starts and delay of game penalties, which in no way can be labeled as dirty, other penalties in that game raised concerns about what type of team they are.

Against the Wildcats, BYU was flagged for an illegal block and a face mask penalty. BYU should not be labeled as dirty team based on two overly aggressive calls as these, but when added to the penalties in there second game, it does not help their cause.

During their battle with in-state rival Utah, eyebrows were raised by some of the Cougar’s tactics.

The “Holy War” is no doubt and emotional game, but even against rivals, players and coaches need to keep their heads on straight, especially if they want to come out victorious.

Against Utah, BYU committed 10 penalties which set them back 112 yards. The Cougars once again had a few penalties that should be labeled as “mental mistakes”, but they also had a few called against them that could be considered dirty.

Twice BYU was called for an illegal block, they had two unsportsmanlike conduct calls against them (one by their coach) and  two targeting penalties which led to ejections and suspensions to two of their safeties.

Targeting A Problem

With 3:52 left in the 3rd quarter, Utah was marching down field, trying to extend their 17-13 lead.  Utah receiver Demari Sempkins was attempting to catch a ball when Cougar safety Kai Nacua laid him out with a big hit.

One cannot dispute that it was a vicious hit, but it is questionable if targeting should’ve been called on this play. Still, Nacua makes no attempt to actually tackle or play the ball against Sempkins who is defenseless against the hit. He was ejected after this play.

Sitake had questioned the call, a little too aggressively, which did not help his cause. Charging onto the field to make his point known, he was hit with an unsportsmanlike penalty which added to the original targeting call.

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The targeting call was questionable, but there was no excuse for what happened on the very next play.

Another BYU safety, Austin McChesney, put a nasty hit on Utah receiver Troy McCormick. As you see in the video below, McChesney makes contact with McCormick’s head when trying to block him.

McChesney was charged with targeting and also ejected from the game. These two incidents really do not help BYU’s image. On top of that, because of the calls, both Nacua and McChesney will miss the first half of the game with UCLA.

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Either way, if BYU wants to move away from the epithet of being a dirty team, then they have to make a concerted effort to be a program that will not stand for this type of behavior. Until then, unfortunately, that is what they will be known as.