After 5-0 start, Kalani Sitake's 17th-ranked Cougars have earned the benefit of the doubt

PROVO — Don't be afraid to dream, Cougar fans.

After a closer-than-many-expected 34-28 road win over Baylor that was as offensive for its lack of offense as defensive of its high-caliber defense, the 17th-ranked BYU football team is 5-0, with a 2-0 start to Big 12 play.

No other team can make that claim, which is why you'll probably see a lot of screenshots of that stretch-Y logo on top of the conference and projections about Big 12 championship game contention and College Football Playoff berths on your social media feed, at least for the next week.

But five games into the season, BYU has earned it.

A team that was picked by the media to finish 13th in the conference and projected to win 4.5 games has surpassed that number before all of the leaves change colors in Provo Canyon. Expectations will change, but that's the nature of a fluid, evolving sport like college football.

For now, that means reveling in the highest possible potential of a program few — if any, outside of the locker room — saw coming.

A few months ago at Big 12 football media day, Sitake stood in front of a handful of microphones, cameras and reporter's notebooks and tried to explain his team's pick as the No. 13 team in the Big 12.

Truthfully, he couldn't explain it. To Sitake's credit, he didn't try, either.

"When you're in our position, what have we done to earn the benefit of the doubt?" Sitake rhetorically asked a group of media that was significantly smaller than the ones following Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy or "Coach Prime" Deion Sanders at Colorado. "It would be hard for me to get mad at all you guys because you didn't vote for us when you don't know a lot of things we can do.

"But myself and my players, we know what we've done, and we know what to expect now that we've been through it. We're looking forward to this year. It's not about proving you guys wrong; you don't know. Once we get on the field, you're going to know and you're going to feel it. Hopefully, we can change some minds."

After a 5-0 start — only the eighth in program history, and the third under Sitake — BYU will have a few more believers. They'll also have plenty of doubters and nay-sayers who believe the Cougars haven't proven anything.

As Alabama super fan and modern-day philosopher Phillis likes to say: They ain't played nobody, Pawl.

That may be true. BYU's opponents are a combined 13-12, and only Kansas State and SMU hold a record above .500. The toughest tests will come, beginning after this week's bye week when BYU hosts Arizona at 2 p.m. MDT in the first over-the-air FOX broadcast from LaVell Edwards Stadium.

Tougher days with Oklahoma State, UCF and Utah will test the Cougars even further. Sitake's job, then, is to prevent BYU's players from nibbling on legendary Alabama-coach-turned-ESPN-analyst Nick Saban's "rat poison," to keep them "hungry and humble."

"That's our job. We've got to keep them that way, and remember that not a lot of people believed in them from the beginning," Sitake said. "I'm not really worried about proving doubters wrong. We knew what we had in the offseason.

"But these guys are finding ways to get better, and I like coaching them. It's not about proving everybody else wrong, but proving ourselves right."

Sure, the top-25 defense has carried an offense that has shown promise in spurts but mightily struggled in moments. The same defense that produced Crew Wakley's late-game interception and a pick in every game in 2024 to tie for 18th nationally in interceptions forced also saw Baylor end the game on a 14-3 second-half run.

Jake Retzlaff has shown similar potential on offense, such as when he guided four consecutive touchdown drives on the road against Baylor (2-3, 0-2 Big 12). But he also showed plenty of concern, perhaps substantiating his doubters with the two interceptions that allowed Sawyer Robertson and the Bears to surge back into the game.

You're never as good as your best moments, or as bad as your worst. That is true for Retzlaff, as well as BYU, as a whole.

But for now? The first five games of the 2024 season have shown that BYU deserves to be considered a contender for something more than a bowl game after missing the postseason a year ago for only the second time in 19 years.

Big 12 championships? College Football Playoff bids? National awards and recognitions?

Those will all work themselves out over the remaining seven games of the season. That's the nature of a sport that has boasted as much parity as ever before, due to the transfer portal, NIL and a funny shaped ball controlled by 18-22 year-old young men.

But for a moment, BYU fans can dream — while its players stay awake in the present.

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