PROVO, Utah (ABC4 Sports) – The #25 BYU football team kicks off the 2022 season Saturday on the road against South Florida, and the Cougars can’t wait to get things started.

“Game week is here,” said head coach Kalani Sitake. “Teally excited about it, looking forward to getting the team ready.”

The Cougars will have their work cut out for them. They beat South Florida last year in Provo, 35-27, but the Bulls have changed a bit since then. They have a new quarterback in Baylor transfer Gerry Bohannon, who was at the helm when the Bears beat the Cougars in Waco last season.

“There’s a lot of unknowns,” Sitake said. “We don’t know much about what they do on offense or what they do on defense with the new coordinators that they have. We’ll have to be ready for everything. That happens sometimes in a season opener.”

The Cougars have spent months thinking about the season opener, and now they will be able to put all that preparation to work.

“You’ve got all summer to prepare for your first opponent,” added BYU quarterback Jaren Hall. “All fall camp, putting in more time than you will on a normal game week, studying their schemes, studying their plays, watching film.”

“It’s just shaking off the rust,” said linebacker Payton Wilgar. “Really just getting out there in the first couple of plays and shaking off that rust and getting that live action and getting into it.”

Part of the preparation for the Cougars will be going out a day earlier than normal, which they hope will get them acclimated to the time change and the humidity.

“Very beneficial,” hall said. “Just the time change, get a couple of extra hours of rest and get an extra practice out there in the weather and you can kind of adapt to it a little bit.”

“I do think it helps,” said linebacker Payton Wilgar. “You get out there, relax a little bit and adjust to that time zone, so I think it’s super beneficial to get out there two days ahead.”

And by game time, they hope al that preparation will pay off with a win.

“We’ve just got to control what we can control,” said offensive lineman Clark Barrington. “Execute the way that we know we can and the way that we should, and that’s the big goal going in to this game.”

BYU and South Florida will kick off at 2:00 MT Saturday night.