BYU has struggled offensively

MADISON – When BYU broke preseason camp last month, head coach Kalani Sitake and his assistants were optimistic that the Cougars would field an offense good enough to challenge most defenses.

That optimism took a hit because of a lackluster performance in a 20-6 victory over Portland State the opener.

The optimism all but disappeared after a 27-0 loss to LSU in Week 2. The Cougars were held to six first downs, minus-5 rushing yards and 97 total yards. The offense never moved the ball into LSU territory.

“I know I’m coming down hard on the offense, but let’s be honest, that was the issue,” Sitake told reporters as the Cougars prepared to face rival Utah last week. “More of a disappointment was we’re way better than what we’ve shown the last two weeks.

“We’ve been talking about that for a while now and no one’s seen it. Until it shows up, it’ll just be all of us that knows it.”

The offense failed to show for most of Saturday night in a 19-13 loss to the visiting Utes. As a result, the Cougars bring a 1-2 record into their game Saturday against visiting Wisconsin (2-0).

Utah built a 16-0 lead 2 minutes 11 seconds into the second half and then rode its defense to the victory.

BYU got a 1-yard touchdown run from Ula Tolutau, who initially committed to UW, and a 7-yard touchdown pass from Tanner Mangum to Trey Dye.

Mangum threw three interceptions, which led to 10 points for the Utes, and completed just 21 of 39 attempts (53.8%) for 170 yards. He was also sacked three times.

BYU finished with just 63 rushing yards on 24 attempts (2.6-yard average) and 233 total yards.

The offense in three games has generated an average of 11.0 points and 231.7 yards per game.

“It was not good enough and obviously I’m not happy about it and I’m going to fix it,” Sitake said after the loss to Utah. “That’s what I have to do.

“We owe it to our players on our team and our and to fix the issues that we’re having on offense.”

The issue this week involves the quarterback position.

Mangum suffered a left-ankle injury late in the loss to Utah and appears unlikely to play Saturday against UW. He was seen this week wearing a protective boot on his left foot.

Sitake declined to comment this week on Mangum’s status.

“Nothing confirmed yet on any of the injuries,” he told reporters during his weekly briefing.

Mangum was impressive as a freshman in 2015 when he passed for 3,377 yards and 23 touchdowns, with 10 interceptions.

That was in a different scheme, however, and before Ty Detmer took over as coordinator. Mangum played in only five games last season as Taysom Hill flourished under Detmer.

Working with a new corps of receivers, Mangum through three games has completed 54.4% of his passes and has more interceptions (four) than touchdown passes (two).

If Mangum is out, redshirt sophomore Beau Hoge is expected to start. Hodge, who is a more effective runner than Mangum, redshirted last season.

He played in three games in 2015 and completed 10 of 17 passes for 137 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.

He also rushed 16 times for 49 yards and two touchdowns.

Detmer told reporters this week that Hoge and Koy Detmer Jr. were getting a handful of reps in practice.

“Beau gets a few here or there,” he said, “but they are not getting a ton of work in order to be ready to go play at the same level the starter is.”