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PROVO — The final score read Royal 31, Navy 0, but a vanilla spring scrimmage turned into a defensive showcase with seven punts and two turnovers for a BYU football team working out of limited formations on Friday afternoon at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
After storm clouds and snow flurries threatened Utah County for most of the afternoon, the Cougars finished off a public exhibition near the end of spring camp with an uneventful scrimmage that included "boring" play-calling and even more boring weather in the team's first appearance at the stadium due to stormy weather through March.
Jakob Robinson's interception off Kedon Slovis was the biggest play of the first nine series, which gave up just 3 total points and were scripted to not broadcast much over BYUtv or the simultaneous livestream on ESPN+.
If one side "won" the scrimmage, both sides agreed it was probably the defense. But that's probably simply because the defense was allowed to do more, especially among the first-team reps that included a green jersey-clad quarterback Slovis and no tackling to avoid injuries.
The defense also had something to prove, as well.
"We took it to them today. We got after it," BYU defensive end Tyler Batty said. "It was a lot of fun, playing against a good offense. We have a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball, and for our defense to take care of stuff — even in our base defense — was a lot of fun."
But Robinson's pick, where he dropped into single coverage before jumping an out route at the last minute, put a foot in the ground off wide receiver Keanu Hill, and hauled in Slovis' pass with intent, stood out — a perfect "10-out-of-10" play, Batty mused.
"J-Rob's a stud," he added. "We have some awesome dudes in the secondary that are really going to ball out this year. I'm excited for them."
MOVIN' 💨 pic.twitter.com/emEFvRExu1
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) March 31, 2023
It was the kind of move Robinson — who projects to be a leader in a rebuilding secondary at cornerback that lost Kaleb Hayes and D'Angelo Mandell to graduation and Gabe Jeudy-Lally to the transfer portal — has been making all spring, Hill noted.
"He had one just like that the other day in practice, but on a slant," the former Weber State coach said. "He's made a lot of plays this spring ball."
It was the kind of scrimmage that focused on fundamentals, head coach Kalani Sitake said, including a base defense under Hill with a nearly reworked defensive staff that also includes linebackers coach Justin Ena, defensive ends coach Kelly Poppinga and defensive tackles coach Sione Pouha.
"Obviously, we kept it simple," Sitake said. "It wasn't my choice to put it on TV, but we wanted to keep our strategy in place for the fall.
"We'll have three more practices after this, and we'll take advantage of them before the season."
Hill said the Cougars have installed "a lot" of the defense he wants to run this fall — a player-friendly scheme that coaches have described as aggressive and frenzied — with exceptions for team-specific adjustments and the like. None of those were part of the playbook Friday, because the game was broadcast on television.
Same with the offense.
"Yeah, that was pretty boring. Sorry for that," offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said, a bit cheekily. "We just didn't want to show anything on offense, especially the first group and didn't want to get anyone hurt. And then we weren't tackling, either.
"I thought some of the young guys came in with the second and third groups, and we got to see some guys who might have a chance to help us."
Cade Fennegan and JUCO transfer Jake Retzlaff saw the majority of the second-team reps at quarterback for BYU, though those reps were also limited by a short playbook, as well. The duo, along with Slovis, completed a combined 14-of-25 passes for 123 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Other young players will wide receiver Hobbs Nyberg, who continued his spring ascent with a 7-yard touchdown catch from Retzlaff; another backup quarterback in Nick Billoups, who flashed some speed on a 15-yard scoring run; Ryder Burton, the Springville High product who overcame a fumbled handoff awarded to Bodie Schoonover on the defense with a short-yardage touchdown; and fellow freshman Cole Hagen, the Corner Canyon product who finished off the scrimmage with an 11-yard touchdown run in front of around 5,000 fans and 300 football alumni that braved the cold to welcome the team under clear skies.
"This was a game day for some of those guys who have never played a snap here," Roderick said. "It's nice to play in front of the fans, to play on this field; we've been inside a lot with bad weather this year, and it's nice to just get out here."
Other highlights included a 52-yard field goal (with no rush) by freshman walk-on Matthias Dunn, the former Wasatch High kicker who is competing with Boise State transfer Will Ferrin and incumbent Justen Smith to assume kicking duties vacated by the graduation of all-time leading scorer Jake Oldroyd.
But even the first-team offense, in all its vanilla, wasn't bad. Just boring, Roderick added.
"The guy made a good play," Roderick said with a shrug. "I thought (Kedon) did a good job, with mostly checkdowns and a couple of nice completions. The first play of the game was a nice completion for a good gain.
"It's hard to run the ball, and we didn't want to show much. But I thought he did a nice job."
