Sitting at No. 11 behind multiple two-loss programs, Kalani Sitake’s Cougars’ path suddenly looks tighter than their record suggests. That drop has sparked plenty of frustration around Provo, but how does the head coach feel about it?

“When I say I don’t pay attention to it, I exist, guys. I’m not dumb, you know; I know all the stuff that’s out there. I know what people are saying and the metrics and analytics and the style points and all that stuff. My focus isn’t on that. So I understand everything that’s out there. I got to be focused on what we can control, which is playing football and the preparation today,” BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said.

BYU’s bad loss to Texas Tech is the reason behind its fall. Even though they are 9-1 with a strong resume, CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek said, “It’s really the way they looked in that game against Texas Tech. They were dominated on both sides of the ball in that game against Texas Tech.” And what makes matters worse is that Texas Tech didn’t even play their best game, as after the first quarter, they had three field goals under 40 yards for the next two quarters. Despite that, BYU lost by a 7-29 score. Which looked bad on their resume.

But Kalani Sitake’s team did play them well on defense. They held the Red Raiders to just 368 yards, their second-lowest total of the season, and even sacked Behren Morton four times in the first half. Their dominant red zone defense forced them to settle for a program-high five field goals and stopped a TD right before halftime. Texas Tech could only score 2 touchdowns in seven red zone drives, which is the lowest red zone touchdown drive rate in any game.

That’s exactly what BYU insider Greg Wrubell said while talking about the unfair rankings. “It is perhaps a matter of semantics, but I’d argue that BYU was not dominated on both sides of the ball. BYU’s defense played Texas Tech notably better than any other opponent the Red Raiders have defeated.” So, the CFP committee’s claims of BYU getting dominated on both sides don’t make much sense.

Pushing Alabama and Notre Dame further is not just making fans question the decision, but even the former Ohio State coach is scratching his head over it, advising Kalani Sitake.

Urban Meyer’s advice to Kalani Sitake

The twenty-two-point difference between BYU and Texas Tech’s loss didn’t look good on BYU’s resume. And even if the defense was not that bad, Kalani Sitake’s offense had its worst performance of the season, finishing with just 255 yards. Something that a win against TCU couldn’t erase. That’s why Sitake wants to focus on wins, and even Urban Meyer is advising them to focus on big margin wins. “I’m BYU; I’m probably going to lose. You know, they got to beat Cincinnati, but if I’m the head coach, in my mind, I not only got to win, I got to win big,” he said on the Triple Option podcast.

He further explains the reason behind it: “There are people sitting in that room watching these scores that really can’t watch the game because they really don’t know what they’re watching. I’m not being disrespectful, but they’re going to look at a score and say, ‘Okay, not only win but win with style points.'” That makes sense; as a 26-0 deficit didn’t look good on their resume.

The only way BYU can make its way to the playoffs is if it beats Cincinnati next week. With that, even ASU and Houston’s losses will help them. But it has to be a win; otherwise, it might mean nothing to them.