The Brigham Young University football team that Hawaii will play Saturday isn’t your father’s Cougars.

Or even your older brother or sister’s BYU.

The place they used to call QB-YU as a factory for pumping out prolific passers for decades, going so far as to pose quarterbacks coming out of a machine in promotional material, has become, well, nobody is too sure what it is these days.

But it is unlikely the sainted LaVell Edwards, whose namesake stadium they play in, would recognize them. Ranking 104th in passing offense (189.5 yards per game) among 129 Football Bowl Subdivision members, 117th in scoring offense (21.2 points) and 124th (306 yards) in total offense, this is no longer the institution that Edwards had put in the forefront of offensive football.

The fact is BYU has been just a middlin’ team, 3-3 this year and 16-16 overall since 2016.

Their meeting in Provo, Utah, on Saturday on ESPN2 will mark the first time since 1992 that the Rainbow Warriors (6-1) have come into the contest with a better record than the Cougars.

This isn’t to say that BYU is likely to be some kind of a pushover. Hardly. The Cougars, who have played a more demanding schedule, are still a 12½-point favorite on Las Vegas betting lines and playing in a place where UH (0-9) has yet to win.

But these Cougars have their problems in several areas, and the letters B-Y-U no longer are being employed to stand for Beat You Unmercifully.

Once the scourge of the old Western Athletic Conference and a dominating force in the breakaway Mountain West, lately BYU isn’t even the second best team in the Beehive State. The top two positions there are occupied by schools up north — Utah, with seven in a row over BYU, and Utah State, the latter having handed the Cougars their second loss in as many years last week, 45-20.

Getting dominated by then-No. 11 Washington 35-7 was one thing, but being pushed around by the Aggies in Provo on national TV was quite another. It stands as the low point of a season that has quickly turned south after a 24-21 upset of then-sixth-ranked Wisconsin four games ago. And the performance at the quarterback position has drawn much of the flack.

The incumbent, Tanner Mangum, ranks 109th in passing efficiency. By comparison, Hawaii’s Cole McDonald ranks 14th.

Mangum was replaced by freshman Zach Wilson late in the Utah State loss and, amid growing calls for a longer term change at quarterback, coach Kalani Sitake said at Monday’s press conference that the search for answers will extend to all positions. “Everyone will compete (at practice) and we will see who plays Saturday at every position,” Sitake said.

Sitake said he is “open to anything” and acknowledged, “You just can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results.”

Linebacker Sione Takitaki said, “This is just another tough time for BYU, but we have six more games. “We can make this a successful season — or it can be a down season. We have six more games, so we have to give it our all.”

Facing a BYU team at the precipice is something UH has rarely encountered. But, as the results of late suggest, these Cougars are a different breed of cat, too.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.