Football up to No. 13 in Coaches Poll

PROVO, Utah — BYU football moved up two spots to No. 13 in the Amway Coaches Poll and one place to No. 14 in The Associated Press Top 25 released Sunday. The Cougars improved to 4-0 on the season on Saturday after a 27-20 victory over UTSA.

No. 13 is the highest BYU has been ranked under head coach Kalani Sitake and the program's best ranking since 2009 when the Cougars achieved a No. 7 ranking by AP and No. 9 coaches' rating.

Off to a 4-0 start for the first time since 2014, BYU has been ranked in each of the five regular-season polls released this year. The last time the Cougars were ranked in five consecutive weeks was in 2009 when BYU held a spot in the Top 25 the first eight weeks of the season and was ranked all but one week throughout the year while finishing No. 12 in both polls. 

Prior to 2020, the last time BYU was ranked in the top 25 was during the 2018 season when the Cougars were ranked as high as No. 20 after starting the season 3-1 with a victories over Arizona on the road and No. 6 Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium. 

This year the Cougars also rank among the nation's top teams in the NCAA statistics, including ranking No. 4 in total defense (250.5 yards allowed per game) and scoring defense (11.0 points per game allowed) and No. 5 in total offense (556.8 yards per game). 

BYU will travel to face the Houston Cougars (1-0) of the American Athletic Conference on Friday night in a nationally featured matchup on ESPN kicking at 8:30 p.m. CDT at TDECU Stadium in Houston. The Cougars received votes in both the polls this week after opening their season with a 49-31 victory over Tulane on Thursday.