BYU's Hidden TCU Question: Who Handles Kickoffs Without Brody Laga?

BYU’s Hidden Special-Teams Advantage Is Suddenly in Question Against TCU Brody Laga has turned almost every BYU kickoff into a touchback. With the freshman specialist out against TCU, Matthias Dunn has the leg to replace him — but a much smaller sample of evidence. Through three games, BYU has looked like one of the most complete teams in the country. The Cougars are averaging 44.0 points and 262.7 rushing yards per game while allowing only 76.0 rushing yards. They have outscored opponents 132-47 and are giving up just 271.0 total yards per game. Those numbers help explain why BYU enters its first Big 12 road game at TCU ranked No. 10 in the AP poll. Cougar Football Archive Buried beneath those headline numbers, however, is one special-teams statistic that has quietly made BYU’s life considerably easier. Freshman kickoff specialist Brody Laga has produced 22 touchbacks on 23 kickoffs this season. That is a 95.7 percent touchback rate, meaning BYU’s kickoff coverage unit has essentially been removed from the game on all but one of his kicks. Now Laga is listed out for Saturday’s game at TCU, and suddenly one of BYU’s most automatic advantages has a question attached to it. KSL Sports The best way to understand how unusual Laga has been is to compare him with what BYU had before. In 2024, Will Ferrin recorded 41 touchbacks on 80 kickoffs, a 51.3 percent rate. Last season Ferrin improved slightly to 45 touchbacks on 85 kickoffs, or 52.9 percent. Laga has taken that number to 95.7 percent through his first three games. Different kickers and seasons can come with different strategies, so it is not a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, but the effect is hard to miss: BYU has gone from roughly half its kickoffs becoming touchbacks to almost every one. CFB Stats That matters because a touchback is more than a nice statistic for the kicker. It eliminates the return entirely. There is no missed tackle, no block that springs a returner into space and no possibility of a coverage breakdown changing field position in one play. BYU opponents have recorded just one kickoff return through three games, and that return went for 34 yards. Laga has effectively turned one of football’s more unpredictable plays into a routine change of possession. Fourth Down Data So who replaces him?

BYU has not publicly announced who will handle kickoffs against TCU, and it is important not to confuse the two kicking jobs. Laga has been BYU’s kickoff specialist. Senior Matthias Dunn is the Cougars’ placekicker, handling extra points and field goals. Dunn is also the clearest candidate to take over kickoffs because BYU specifically noted during fall camp that he had received kickoff work last season. BYU Athletics And this is where the numbers get interesting. Dunn has only five recorded kickoffs over the past two seasons, so there is nowhere near enough data to establish his true college touchback rate. But there is enough to know he has the leg for the assignment. In 2024, Dunn kicked off twice for 129 total yards, an average of 64.5 yards per kick, with no touchbacks and no kicks out of bounds. Last season he got three kickoffs against Portland State and sent all three 65 yards for touchbacks. Combine the two seasons and Dunn has five kickoffs for 324 yards, a 64.8-yard average, three touchbacks and zero out-of-bounds kicks. His career college touchback rate is therefore 60 percent, but treating that number as predictive would be misleading because it comes from only five attempts. CFB Stats The more encouraging part is what happened the last time BYU actually asked Dunn to do the job. Three kickoffs. Three touchbacks. An average of exactly 65 yards. There is older evidence that Dunn’s kickoff leg is not a new development, either. As a senior at Wasatch High School in 2018, he produced 52 touchbacks on 56 kickoffs, a 92.9 percent rate. High-school kicking statistics cannot be directly transferred to Big 12 football, but combined with his three-for-three performance against Portland State, they reinforce the idea that Dunn is capable of driving the ball through the end zone. BYU Athletics Dunn has also shown the leg in his primary role this season. At Colorado State, he hit a 44-yard field goal, the first made field goal of his college career. BYU is 2-of-3 on field goals and perfect on its extra-point attempts through three games. Again, placekicking and kickoffs are different skills, but there is little evidence that raw leg strength would prevent Dunn from handling the assignment. BYU Athletics The bigger question is whether he can reproduce Laga’s consistency. That distinction matters. Dunn does not have to prove he can kick a touchback — he already has. The challenge is doing it over and over again. Laga has gone 22-for-23. Dunn’s three-touchback game last season shows his ceiling might be perfectly adequate for Saturday, but five career kickoffs do not tell us what happens if BYU scores four, five or six times and repeatedly sends him onto the field. TCU has not shown a particularly dangerous kickoff-return game through four contests. The Horned Frogs have returned only four kickoffs for 80 yards, an average of 20.0 yards, with no touchdowns. Their longest listed return is 24 yards. That should keep the concern in perspective: Laga being unavailable does not automatically mean TCU suddenly owns a major special-teams advantage. CFB Stats But TCU’s offense is good enough that extra field position matters. The Horned Frogs are averaging 442.0 yards per game, including 303.3 through the air, and quarterback Jaden Craig has thrown for 1,213 yards through four games. Giving that offense a few possessions beginning five or 10 yards farther upfield is different from routinely making it travel the length of the field against a BYU defense allowing only 15.7 points per game. Fourth Down Data That makes the opening kickoffs one of the smaller but more revealing things to watch Saturday night. If Dunn gets the assignment and his first two kicks disappear into the end zone, the concern surrounding Laga’s absence could fade quickly. If TCU suddenly gets two or three return opportunities, BYU will be asking its coverage unit to make plays it has almost never had to make this season. Laga’s value is ultimately contained in that 22-of-23 number. He has not simply been kicking the ball a long way. He has been removing an entire phase of uncertainty from BYU games. The Cougars have bigger names on their availability report and bigger questions at other positions. But special teams are often noticed only when something changes. With Laga out, Saturday could show just how valuable it has been to have a freshman who has made 95.7 percent of BYU’s kickoffs disappear into the end zone — and whether Dunn can keep that hidden advantage intact.