The No. 12 BYU Cougars needed a statement performance after their humbling 29-7 loss to Texas Tech. And they delivered one emphatically on Saturday night. Dismantling TCU 44-13 at LaVell Edwards Stadium, Kalani Sitake’s Cougars dominated in every facet of the game. The 31-point victory snapped a frustrating five-game losing streak against the Horned Frogs and marked yet another new record in program history.​

Safety Tanner Wall, who capped the night with a spectacular 68-yard pick-six, made his feelings crystal clear about playing in Provo. “We love playing here,” Wall said after nearly a month away from LaVell Edwards Stadium. “Give us the 8:15 game at home; it’s going to be hard to come in here and beat us. I think that gives us a lot of confidence.” 

His confidence stemmed from his performance. The former walk-on turned star safety made the most important defensive play of the night when he snagged a deflected pass from Hoover in the fourth quarter and raced untouched into the end zone. Wall’s bold proclamation about the difficulty of winning at LaVell Edwards Stadium isn’t empty bravado. It’s backed by hard evidence from this season. The Cougars are a perfect 5-0 at home in 2025, and they’ve been dominant.

It started with a 69-0 shellacking of Portland State in the season opener. And was then followed by a defensive masterclass in a 27-3 victory over Stanford. The Cougars then handled West Virginia 38-24 in a Friday night showcase. They had to survive a thrilling 24-21 battle against rival Utah, but now added this 31-point demolition of TCU to the resume. 

Provo has proven to be a genuine home-field advantage for the Cougars. And that advantage could prove crucial if BYU earns a first-round CFP home game, just like Wall intends. Courtesy to that home-field advantage, Kalani Sitake achieved yet another historic milestone. The 44-13 victory marked the first time in Kalani Sitake’s 10-year tenure as BYU’s head coach that the Cougars had beaten a power conference opponent by more than 30 points. 

In nearly a decade of coaching, including memorable wins over ranked teams, Sitake had never achieved a margin of victory quite like this against a Power conference opponent. The achievement speaks volumes about both the dominance of this particular performance and the competitive nature of BYU’s schedule throughout the Kalani Sitake era. 

As BYU moves to 9-1 overall and 6-1 in Big 12 play, the implications are massive. They are currently ranked No. 12 in the College Football Playoff rankings. But the Cougars still have their work cut out for them. 

They have a road game at Cincinnati and a home finale against UCF remaining. But if they win out and potentially earn a rematch with Texas Tech in the Big 12 Championship Game, a first-round playoff home game in Provo becomes a realistic possibility. 

The joy formula

What’s the magic behind Sitake’s success? It’s not some complicated scheme or iron-fisted discipline. It’s actually pretty simple: joy. That’s the pillar Sitake points to when anyone asks what sustains this incredible run. “I don’t have to do this myself,” he says about the team’s success, deflecting credit to everyone around him.

Sitake doesn’t seek psychological edges over opponents or stir up hatred during rivalry week. He actually says stuff like “I want to be friends with them” when talking about opposing coaches, and “wishing bad things on good people is not good for the soul” when facing his old boss, Kyle Whittingham at Utah. 

It sounds soft until you realize this approach has produced 19 wins in the last 21 games. His mantra of “love and learn”  is the actual operating system.​

The players get it, and more importantly, they buy into it completely. “Kalani is the greatest example of just being Christ-like, just caring for people and loving people,” senior receiver Chase Roberts said. Safety Tanner Wall put it even more bluntly: “We just love knowing that our coach isn’t trying to act too cool or too tough.”

Roberts explained the whole philosophy perfectly when he told reporters, “After we knock the opponent down, we’re going to help them up. That’s the love and learn mentality that coach Sitake talks about. It’s not soft, it’s more physical.” Five-star 2026 quarterback commit Ryder Lyons noticed something during his visit that sealed the deal.

BYU’s players were having more fun than anywhere else he’d seen, even at powerhouse programs where everything was perfect. That’s the secret sauce. Joy isn’t weakness. It’s fuel.​