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Why BYU's Sitake is looking forward to regular-season finale against Houston

BYU coach Kalani Sitake addressed the media Monday afternoon following a tough 28-23 loss on the road to Arizona State over the weekend.

The Cougars (9-2) dropped five spots to No. 19 in this week's AP poll.

"The game's done so I'm not sitting here complaining about anything. We've got to move on," Sitake said. "We're sitting at 9-2 and [we] have this last game to focus on the seniors' last go-around in Lavell Edwards Stadium."

Saturday's game will indeed be Senior Night for upwards of 15 players. It remains to be seen who all will be officially honored and recognized this early in the week.

Years of eligibility have become quite complicated over the last few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tentative list goes as follows:

Braden Allfrey of The Daily Universe has more on Senior Night in his story published this week.

This last game is against the 4-7 Houston Cougars, who currently have a 12.7% chance of winning according to ESPN Analytics. It's only the fourth matchup between the two teams and BYU leads the series 3-0.

"We're getting ready for a team like Houston who's dangerous, has beaten some teams, and surprised some teams along the way. ... They're gonna be really excited to come here and play this game." Sitake said.

One of those surprises was a 24-19 win over No. 17 Kansas State at the beginning of November in which quarterback Zeon Chriss was a perfect 11 of 11 in the passing game.

Photo by @ESPNCFB on Instagram

Believe it or not, Houston comes into this game the exact same way that BYU does. Each team is coming off back-to-back losses and two straight wins before that. See below:

Much to Cougar Nation's disdain, it's the fourth home game this year with an 8:15 p.m. kickoff.

Senior Connor Pay, who spoke after Sitake in Monday's media availability, joked "Wear a coat. It's not gonna be that bad. You can literally buy coats with batteries in them now."

Temperatures are expected to be sub-30 degrees on Saturday night, but hopefully fans are motivated to face the cold once they realize that this team still has a lot to play for.

Pay is one of the many seniors that will be honored on Saturday.

"The goal is to try to go 1-0 this week. That's got to be our primary goal. We'll deal with how that affects everything else from there on," Sitake said regarding the team's Big 12 championship hopes.

There's a few variables that determine BYU's fate, but Sitake is determined to only focus on what they can control. He echoed that sentiment more than three times in his 17-minute media session.

"We can't be concerned about what everybody else is doing," Sitake said.

Fortunately, BYU fans can and probably should be concerned (especially those that prematurely bought tickets to Arlington) with "everybody else." Here's what to look for via Greg Wrubell.

Both a BYU win and one of those two teams (Iowa State or Arizona State) must lose for BYU to clinch a berth in the Big 12 title game in Arlington, Texas, on Dec. 7.

Admittedly, things would be a whole lot easier if BYU had just taken care of business against Kansas at home and the Sun Devils last weekend, but it's hard to go undefeated in college football.

Photo by Minty Buckwalter @MintyBuck on Twitter/X

No. 1 Oregon is the only undefeated team left in college football right now and they Ducks have one of the best quarterbacks in the country.

The team will also try to balance game preparation as well as holiday celebrations this week.

"It's really cool that we get to end the season this week and to be home around family and loved ones. This is gonna be a lot of fun," Sitake said. "We'll try and move things up a little bit and try to give the young men a chance to go be with their families for Thanksgiving. A lot of them have family members coming into town. Everybody will have a place to go."

This is Houston's second visit to Provo all-time. The last visit was back in 2014 when the tandem of Taysom Hill and Jamaal Williams ran all over the Houston Cougars.

The duo combined for just shy of 300 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns.
Photo by Jeffrey D Allred Deseret News

"We've got to make sure we give our fans and our seniors what they want this weekend and that's ending the season on a positive note with a win. That's what our focus will be on," Sitake said.