BYU-Houston could be high-scoring contest

HOUSTON — BYU Coach Kalani Sitake is urging his 14th-ranked team to remain focused after its 4-0 start.

BYU got a scare from Texas-San Antonio last week before holding on for a 27-20 win. Now the schedule gets tougher as the team heads to Houston (1-0) tonight looking to keep its record perfect.

“We saw it with the UTSA game,” Sitake said. “They had a mission in mind and wanted to see how they matched up.

We’ve been in that position as well when we’ve faced teams that were ranked and we’ve been the underdog. For this position, it’s a matter of that we can’t stop hunting. We still have a lot of things to prove and things we can do better.”

BYU has turned heads already this season, scoring at least 45 points in each of its first three contests and winning those by at least 31 points before last week’s close call against UTSA.

“I don’t care anything about hype,” Sitake said. “I just want us to play our best. It doesn’t really matter about the rankings and neither the criticism or the praise, it doesn’t matter. Those are all distractions.”

Houston can score a lot of points like BYU, defeating Tulane 49-31 in its first game of the season. However, the high-powered offenses aren’t the only thing the teams have in common as their defenses are among the best in the nation.

Houston’s defense allowed 211 yards to Tulane, while BYU’s defense is allowing 250.5 yards per game, fourth nationally.

“I think Houston presents such a great opportunity for us to show everybody that we are capable of accomplishing great things this year,” BYU defensive back Troy Warner said. “Even though we had a little hiccup this past game, we are able to clean those things up and execute those things at a high level.”