2022 Fall Camp: Final Scrimmage and Running Backs Preview

PROVO, Utah — No. 25 BYU football concluded fall camp with a third and final scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Tuesday.

During the scrimmage, current corporate partner Built Brands, LLC announced it’s re-upping the NIL deal that made national headlines last year while also producing a new CougarTail bar, with a percent of all sales going to BYU football players and the BYU Athletics program.

Following Tuesday’s scrimmage, head coach Kalani Sitake, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick, defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki and running back Lopini Katoa addressed the media. Read their quotes below and view images from practice by selecting the following link: Fall Camp Exposure Gallery.

The team now turns to preparation for its 2022 season-opener against USF at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on Sept. 3. Fans can watch BYU battle the Bulls on ESPNU or listen to live radio play-by-play by the voice of the Cougars, Greg Wrubell on BYU Radio SiriusXM 143, BYURadio.org/BYU Radio App and KSL 102.7 FM/1160 AM.

Running Backs Preview

BYU looks to reload at running back in 2022 after the departure of the program’s all-time single-season leading rusher in current Atlanta Falcon Tyler Allgeier.

Christopher Brooks joined the Cougars as a graduate transfer from Cal during the offseason and accompanies fifth-year senior Lopini Katoa in the backfield. Jackson McChesney and Miles Davis also return with game experience under their belts to further bolster BYU’s ball-carrier depth.

“I’m not worried about any of the guys in the room now,” said running backs coach Harvey Unga at BYU Football Media Day on June 22. “I feel like each and every one of them are capable of being our go-to guy. I don’t have to worry about a ton of drop-off from the number one gut to the next or the next.”

At 6-foot-1, 230-pounds, Brooks brings extensive experience to the running backs room from his time at Cal. The Oceanside, California, native totaled 1,734 yards and 14 touchdowns to go along with 50 receptions for 345 yards and seven touchdowns as a Golden Bear. Brooks ran for 607 yards and four touchdowns in 2021 and led Cal in rushing yards in two of the last three seasons. In Cal’s 41-11 romp over rival Stanford last season, Brooks churned out a career-high 131 rushing yards.

“Chris is the calmest, kindest, most humble dude,” said BYU quarterback Jaren Hall at Media Day. “He’s also a workhorse. There are very few people that work as hard as he does on a daily basis.”

Despite having yet to play a down for the Cougars, Brooks was named to the 2022 Phil Steele Preseason All-Independent Second Team.

Katoa, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound back from American Fork, Utah, is a weapon both toting the ball between the tackles and as a pass-catcher out of the backfield.

With 2,477 yards and 25 touchdowns since 2018, Katoa is BYU’s career active all-purpose yards leader. In 2021, Katoa rushed for 242 yards and two touchdowns while hauling in 20 receptions for 114 yards and a touchdown. Katoa also leads active BYU running backs with 306 career carries and 1,467 career rushing yards. As a sophomore in 2019, Katoa led the team in all-purpose yards with 853.

Katoa looks to make the most of his final season at BYU in 2022.

“I just want to leave knowing I left it all out on the field,” Katoa said a Media Day. “It’s my last year so I’m soaking it all in. I want to leave with no regrets.”

McChesney, a 6-foot, 225-pound sophomore from Highland, Utah has flashed his potential in limited opportunities on the field. McChesney set BYU’s single-game freshman rushing record with 228 yards in the Cougars' 56-24 win over UMass in 2019. After missing much of the 2020 season with an injury, McChesney came off the bench in 2021 to grind through the USC defense for the game-winning touchdown in the Cougars’ 35-31 win at the Coliseum.

Davis, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound redshirt freshman played in two games in 2021. The speedster from Las Vegas, Nevada, made his BYU debut with four carries for 54 yards and a touchdown in a 66-14 win over North Alabama in 2020.

Hinckley Ropati, Mason Fakahua, Beau Robinson and Enoch Nawahine round out the rest of the BYU ball-carriers.

Ropati, a transfer from Cerritos (California) College, saw limited action in five games during 2021. Fakahua, a converted quarterback, appeared in nine games last season on special teams while Robinson spent 2021 on the scout team. Nawahine arrived at BYU as a transfer from Utah State following his two-year, full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lusaka, Zambia.

Post-Practice Interviews

Head coach Kalani Sitake (Video)

“Practice went well. We did probably 100 plays in the stadium, more plays than we probably planned on, but we feel good about the end of camp. The last week has been hard on our guys having done a bunch of plays Saturday and then coming back and doing a bunch of plays Tuesday. I think their legs are probably a little sore, but we’ll get them back with some good lifts and start to recover in preparation for game week. Everybody is playing at a high pace right now. We ended the day with some situational football to put our guys in tough spots and I like the way our guys responded. We tried to create some chaos for the team since they didn’t know what to expect and I thought they handled everything the right way.”

On the effect depth will have on this first game in Florida due to the humidity and heat

“Depth will always be big for us. When you look at last year and the amount of unfortunate injuries we had, we were put in some tough spots and had to throw some young guys into games before we felt like they were ready to play. Now, those young guys have some game time experience and had a good offseason, so they’re a different group. If we need to, those guys can be called on and some of them will play a lot more because of the improvement we have seen from them. For the game specifically, we aren’t worried about the elements, but want to make sure we have the right guys on the field and that we’re communicating well. We had some long drives today to prepare our guys for when fatigue sets in, so I think we will be in a good spot going into the environment in September.”

On players who have solidified their spot on the travel roster throughout camp

“We’ll have a depth chart out soon. The ones you think have solidified their spots are probably the right ones. Keenan Pili and Payton Wilgar are back, Ben Bywater has looked good, and we have a good number of safeties and backers that can play. Offense is the same way, it’s all the same guys you know.”

On where he is most comfortable with the team with just over a week until game day

“I feel comfortable with our players football IQ and team chemistry. I see that these guys really love and care for each other and love being on the field together. We probably made things harder on the players today than what I think even some coaches were expecting, and there were no complaints. I wanted to test them and see how they would respond to multiple drives when it was getting hot, and they all responded the right way, and guys actually wanted to keep playing which is the sign of a great group. I’m comfortable with our conditioning as well. We’ll see how we perform next Saturday, but I feel good about where we are at”

On the importance of the Built Bar NIL deal for the team

“We have so much appreciation to Nick Greer and the Built Bar company for loving our boys and doing things the right way. I like that they re-upped the deal, but they also added some things that are new to it. It’s not just about making money, they are using our players to help promote service and do good for others, specifically children and feeding the needy. So, this is going to be a cool program for our players to be involved with. It’s right in line with what we want to get done as a program and with our school. It’s one thing to profit off Name, Image, and Likeness, but it’s another to use it to help others and not just yourself.”

On the reason for scrimmaging so much this camp

“If you want to get good at football, then you practice football. We have done some things differently this camp compared to other camps and have put our guys in harm’s way because we are playing eleven on eleven. But we are doing it because we need to get better at it, and I don’t know how else to do it. We have been pushing our guys to the edge and have had to get a little uncomfortable to get better. But so far, all of fall camp went exactly how we wanted.”

Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick (Video)

On where the offense is coming out of fall camp

"We still have a lot of work to do. We're nowhere near ready for a game yet, but we'll be ready a week from Saturday. There are still a lot of things to work on, but it will be nice to start focusing on an opponent. Overall, we need to work on all areas of our offense."

On how the offense performed in the last scrimmage of fall camp

"We did some good things, but it was back and forth. Our scrimmages throughout fall camp have been very even. We held out some good players so it's not always an accurate representation of where we are. I thought we did some good things today, but we also did other things not so well. There are always things to work on, we're making progress and we're going to be good on offense."

On Chris Brooks and his contribution to the team

"Chris has been a great addition to our team since the day he got here. He is very professional, he came here with a purpose in mind, learned our offense very quickly, as fast I've ever seen anyone learn it. The guy is all business every day, he practices the right way, he's a great teammate, gives credit to other people and he’s a good player. I expect him to expect him to do a lot of good things for us this year."

On ongoing position battles

"There are a lot of battles, and they are ongoing. The O-line thing might be a season-long battle. There are some talented players that, no matter what we do, are going to be standing on the sideline. We’re still trying to figure out how or if we are going to rotate guys or just play the same five. That battle is ongoing and will be week to week."

On Jaren Hall

"Just his overall control of our offense. He can do a lot of things pre snap for us and he gets into the right play often. He did that a lot more last year than we had ever done before. Last year during the Utah game, he was checking a lot of plays, changing plays to get us into the right run plays and he does a lot of things at the line of scrimmage that give us a chance for success. So, we don't always have to call the perfect play because Jaren can get us in it and I would say that's the area he's improved the most. But he's improved in all areas and still has work to do."

Defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki (Video)

On the defense coming out of fall camp

“I've been pleased with a lot of things, I felt like the boys played hard. We've stayed healthy throughout camp which is huge for us. I feel like we've got some good depth. We're going to need all the help that we can get with our depth going into a season with 10 games and no byes.”

On the team’s goals coming out of fall camp

“After two weeks of beating up on each other, we're excited as a team to focus our energy somewhere else and start preparing for the task at hand and be ready to win some games starting with this first one. We're excited. As far as any accolades we just want to play good ball. We want to make fans happy and win some games. That's been the focus for us and we know that it's going to take a lot of humility from a lot of our players that are capable of starting for us but instead they're playing backup roles and contributing in other ways. That's been more of a focus for us is just trying to be selfless and go out there and play ball and win games as a team.”

On defensive lineman Lorenzo Fauatea

“It's been fun to have Lorenzo back. He's always been a leader, ever since he was a freshman. He's got a lot of influence in the defensive line room. He's performing at a really high level in fall camp, and so I have really been pleased with him. He's going to be one that we definitely need for this year.”

On defensive back Ammon Hannemann

“Ammon has just been consistent. He’s consistently gotten better and better and better. He's been playing at a high level, understanding well, anticipating things to happen on offense and he's given us a lot of good reps. Anyone that's playing consistently and doing their job the right way is the one that wins the starting job. He's certainly been a guy that's shown through last year and in this fall camp that he's capable of doing that.”

Running back Lopini Katoa (Video)

On how the offense is doing in situation drills

“I think we're getting better each time we do them, and it's hard to simulate game like scenarios. So doing those is helping us a ton. Obviously, our goal is to score every time or get the first down. Whatever we're shooting for, our goal is to win, and we haven't won every single one, so we're just cleaning it up to get there.”

On what he worked on throughout the offseason and during training camp to improve

“It's been everything for me. I have a lot of tape and things I was able to review and just see, you know how I can take the game to the next level. I watched backs who have gone before me. I watch Tyler's film. I've been watching more film than I ever had. Just to see those little details to turn a five-yard gain into a first down, just little details to clean up and take my game to the next level.”

On what he learned most from Tyler Allgeier

“Tyler has a unique ability to be very patient and feel the flow of the defense when he's running the zone run. So, I've watched a lot of his tape on just being patient, getting in the seams and then getting back in in line with the O line after his first cut, he was a genius at it. So, I just watched that a lot.”

On shifting from fall camp to game prep

“It's exciting. This is when it starts to get really fun. You're grinding out the first few weeks of fall camp and just working hard to get on the same page as everybody and look like a good team. Now it's time to settle in and get ready to play in the game.”

On the depth of the team

“I'm more confident than ever in our depth. It's just nice knowing we have multiple guys who could start and do well in a position. So, I think we'll be able to keep fresh bodies out on the field.”