BYU fans reveling in No. 9 Cougars' 8-0 start. But how far can it go?

ORLANDO — The chant spread across the stadium, as distinct as it was familiar for any BYU fan who has traveled to a road game.

But this one felt different.

Midway through the second half of the Cougars' 37-24 win over UCF, BYU fans started chanting "B-Y-U" in the round they usually do, the one that jumps from section to section and passes each corner of the stadium. But this time, the chant grew louder until swelled in volume.

With close to two-thirds of the UCF fans that filled the 44,206-seat FBC Mortgage Stadium having filed out after a SpaceX Falcon launch in the third quarter, it was the blue-clad BYU fans who represented a bit over 30% of the total masses that remained.

And they were loud.

BYU won its eighth straight game to start the 2024 campaign Saturday, and it did so on the road in a state where the Cougars have historically struggled. In this visit, though, Jake Retzlaff and BYU piled up a sixth consecutive game with 34 points or more, out-gaining the Knights 480 yards to 379, and held UCF to their second lowest output of the season.

The whole time, BYU fans were eating it up.

"We've been saying we've got the best fan base in the country," Retzlaff said. "And they showed up today. It was fun."

Retzlaff had his second straight game with a passing and a rushing touchdown among his 251 total yards, his third in the last four outings. But he also managed the Cougars' offense as well as he has all year.

The junior quarterback from Corona, California, distributed 16 passes to nine different receivers, led by Darius Lassiter's four catches for 54 yards and another 75 yards and a touchdown from Chase Roberts.

BYU balanced that with eight ball carriers running the ball 51 times for 284 yards, paced by LJ Martin's 101 yards and a touchdown that also included kicker Will Ferrin's fourth-down saving run on a fake field goal.

"Those guys made plays. We've got some really good receivers, man. And it's any guy on any given day," Retzlaff said. "Coach Fesi (Sitake) was dialing them up, and our guys were making plays.

"We've got some of the best receivers in the country. Nobody knew that going into the season, and they're starting to realize that week after week."

Making those plays on the road helps when more than a third of the stadium opens wearing the road team's colors, a sea of blue that was only magnified as home fans started to trickle out well ahead of the final score on UCF's fifth consecutive loss.

"It definitely helps out a lot, whenever we go to an away game and we have as many fans as probably the home team," Martin said. "It helps out a lot … with communication and things like that."

BYU fans can feel the idea of a special season, the type of which few — if any, outside the most die-hard of blue-goggled supporters and the Cougars' own locker room — might have guessed in the summer.

That's when BYU was picked to finish 13th in the Big 12. If optimism remained at Big 12 media days in July or going into fall camp, it was swallowed up by the reminder of a team that had lost its final five games en route to a 5-7 finish in 2023.

Perhaps that's why a small army of BYU students and fans swarmed the Provo Airport at 1:30 a.m. MDT Sunday morning to welcome the team home, 8-0 record intact and a 5-0 start to conference play led by a core leadership group.

The Cougars are on the cusp of a special season, being favored to win the four remaining games on the schedule by ESPN's Football Percentage Index. That includes a 60% chance after a bye week in the Nov. 9 rivalry tilt at Rice-Eccles Stadium, where Utah (4-4, 1-4 Big 12) returns with a four-game losing streak after Saturday in Houston.

No game is ever truly easy, and that is especially the case in a rivalry series the Utes lead 59-32-4 that BYU says dates back to 1922 (the Utes claim six more games back to 1896 against Brigham Young Academy).

But with the way Cougar fans have been reveling in their team's success, every game has the potential to be a home game for BYU.

"Being able to look up in the stands and see all blue, it gives us motivation," said linebacker Isaiah Glasker, who tied for the team-high with five tackles to go along with a tackle for loss and an interception in Orlando, "especially when we run out there and you're getting chants from the UCF fans. But then you can hear the BYU fans, and they're loud. I'm super grateful for our fans."

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