The BYU football program kicked off the 2026 season with a blowout win over the Utah Tech Trailblazers. The only bad news that came out of the season opener was an injury suffered by veteran safety Raider Damuni.
Damuni suffered what appeared to be a leg injury and he had to be carried off the field. After the game, Kalani Sitake provided an update on Damuni’s staus. Sitake said they are waiting for an MRI to learn the official diagnosis.
“Not yet,” Sitake said when asked if he knew Damuni’s satus. “But,I don’t like that he couldn’t walk off on his own. We’re concerned, praying for him and his family…whatever it is, hope for a speedy recovery and just praying for a miracle and maybe, you know, we’ll see what happens…but they’re still assessing the injury and trying to make a decision on what they see, MRI and all those things.”
Without Damuni, BYU turned to Tommy Prassas and true freshman Kennan Pula. If Damuni can’t go next week against Arizona, it will be Prassas and Pula that step into larger roles.
One notable starter was held out against Utah Tech: star linebacker Isaiah Glasker. Glasker was suited up on the sideline without his helmet.
Kalani Sitake said he and Kelly Poppinga decided to hold Glasker out.
“Glasker was banged up from camp,” Sitake said. “I think he could have gone, but we made a decision to just take it out of his hands and just rest him for next week. He’ll be ready.”
Sitake said the coaching staff wanted to ensure he was healthy for Arizona next week. “[Glasker has] always done great for us against Arizona, and so, we felt as a coaching staff we didn’t need him, and, and I think he really, really wanted to play as a team captain…he was going to go, and then we just, me and K-Pop made a decision not to play him.
The BYU defense didn’t need Glasker on Saturday. The starters forced more turnovers (3) than Utah Tech first downs (1) in the first half. Utah Tech was 0/6 on third downs and the defense allowed only 11% of available yards on non-garbage drives. As far as defense goes, that’s about as dominant as it gets.
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