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BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe is working to fill BYU’s football schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic. | Mark A. Philbrick, BYU
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said Friday that ‘we will probably see some more teams come up in the next little bit’ as Cougars build on their four-game schedule
PROVO — BYU football coach Kalani Sitake has seen it firsthand. He knows Cougars athletic director Tom Holmoe is working night and day to add more games to the team’s schedule.
As of Friday afternoon, BYU had four opponents lined up for the 2020 season, having aligned with Troy University on Thursday for a home-and-home agreement that will have the Trojans visiting Provo on Sept. 26 and the Cougars visiting Troy, Alabama, in 2026.
“Just to have that on the schedule is a little bit relieving, and I know that we will probably see some more teams come up in the next little bit as Tom keeps working through it,” Sitake said.
Who might those teams be? Sitake isn’t saying, and Holmoe has long since run out of prospects in close proximity to Provo, so that’s anybody’s guess.
“Just to have that (Troy game) on the schedule is a little bit relieving, and I know that we will probably see some more teams come up in the next little bit as Tom (Holmoe) keeps working through it.” — BYU coach Kalani Sitake
The idea that BYU might return to South Bend, Indiana, to face Notre Dame even though the Irish still haven’t returned a game they owe the Cougars in Provo has been bandied about. After all, these are desperate times.
“I know Tom has been working hard. He doesn’t put any limits on anything. He keeps working,” Sitake said. “He is the busiest man I have been around for a long time. Even when we have our meetings and stuff, his phone is always blowing up.”
In addition to searching high and low for opponents after 10 from BYU’s original schedule have gone away — only Houston and North Alabama remain — Holmoe has “done a great job communicating with all of us, so it has been really cool to see his leadership take place, and I am honored to have him as an athletic director,” Sitake said.
As of Friday, no BYU players had “opted out” of playing in 2020 due to concerns over COVID-19 and possible long-term health affects of the virus. Receiver Dax Milne, whose high school (Bingham) had to cancel its opener Friday because several players tested positive for the novel coronavirus, said he’s had some conversations with friends around the state at other programs whose seasons were postponed to the spring.
“I have a buddy down at SUU, and he has some mixed feelings about it being canceled,” Milne said, “and it is kinda cool, being the only team in the West that is ready and able to play, but no one is really giving me any heat for it.”
Senior defensive tackle Zac Dawe said he …read more
Source:: Deseret News – Sports News
