BYU, as you’ve probably already heard, is an unusual team. It’s old. The average player’s age is 21.4. That’s right around the age of a person in his or her fourth year on campus, and while that may not seem so crazy as it relates to football, consider the entire spectrum. You’re dealing with a lot of 18- and 19-year-olds, but also a lot of 24- and 25-year-olds. Taysom Hill is 26!

There is, of course, an explanation.

Travis Tuiloma is a monster on the BYU defensive line. He hasn’t played this season because of a foot injury he acquired in the bowl game in December, and he will not play Saturday, but he enrolled in 2010. Do you know who enrolled at WVU in 2010? Ivan McCartney, Doug Rigg, Jewone Snow, Ickey Banks, Quinton Spain and also Avery Williams.

But Tuiloma spent two years on a church mission, because BYU is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Eighty-four players on the roster have served a church mission — 24 months if you’re single, 18 if you’re married — and 27 others are serving today. Hill is one of the 84. He was actually committed to Stanford and served his mission before college, and he’s only around this season because of a Lisfranc injury (same as Tuiloma … what’s happening with their strength and conditioning?!?!) that ended his season last year in time to get a medical redshirt.

Go up and down the roster and you’ll find players who are older — and other useful things — because of their missions. WVU knows about many of them and is getting to know others. The Cougars will use fullbacks. One is Algernon Brown, another 2010 enrollee. One is Brayden El-Bakri, who scored a touchdown against Arizona, which was the first game of his career three years after enrolling.

Linebacker Butch Pau’u redshirted in 2012, played in 2013 and went on a mission in 2014-15. He had 19 tackles last week, and that arched Dana Holgorsen’s brow.

It doesn’t look like the mission has slowed him down at all. If anything it sped him up. That guy is all over the place. Hard to block. When you get on him he gets off blocks. He gets there. He’s a sure tackler. He’s pretty good. They have a couple of seniors, older guys that you could have watched last year a little bit, but this guy has changed them a little bit. He’s a good player.

There’s guessing games early in the year when you really don’t know what those teams are going to be whether there’s coaching changes, whether there’s not coaching changes, whether guys go on missions or whether they don’t. Obviously I think BYU has a pretty good feel for how and when those guys go on missions, and if they feel like they’re ready to go once they get back. They probably have that under control based on that’s just what they do.

But what does this all mean come Saturday?

WVU’s coaches understand mature players are stronger, more composed and familiar with good preparation habits. The Mountaineers actually have a lot of players like that, but BYU has more.

Ka’Raun White said the BYU cornerbacks are older, and we presume that’s one of the reasons he thinks they can’t run with the Mountaineers despite the fact — and this is the best part — White is 23.

Offensive lineman Colton McKivitz admitted he won’t be as strong as the person across from him and that that player will know more about how to win battles in the trenches.

But Jarrod Harper was watching the Carolina Panthers the other day and saw Daryl Worley covering pro receivers. Harper is a fifth-year senior. Worley left WVU following hit third year on campus.

Everyone’s got a helmet and 20 pounds of pads. Things tend to even out at least a little bit when the game begins, and it’s been 32 years since BYU was undefeated.

That said, the Cougars could be 3-0 this season. They beat Arizona with a field goal with 4 seconds to go. They lost to Utah when they tried a two-point conversion with 18 seconds left and missed. They were down by three and couldn’t recover an onside kick with 37 seconds remaining against UCLA.

There’s a trend there, one that’s easy to notice and impossible for the Mountaineers to ignore.

“In my opinion,” said offensive line coach Ron Crook, “it means they’re stronger than most of our guys. If you’ve got a sophomore who’s the age of a fifth-year senior, he’s a lot stronger than most sophomores. He’s a lot more confident than most of the guys his age, as far as class goes. It makes it harder to go out and execute against those guys, because they’re just older and stronger and more mature players.”

That speaks to the hallmark of the BYU program, which cannot fall back on the framework of a conference schedule to produce eight or nine of the 12 games. The Cougars are instead admirably ambitious. This season alone, they’ve already played three Pac-12 schools and follow WVU with a Friday game against Toledo and then a surreal stretch of games at No. 8 Michigan State, against Mississippi State, at Boise State and at Cincinnati.

But every player is wired to welcome and to meet the challenge.

“You can see on video what they are and who they are,” WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said. “What they are is they’re big, they’re physical, they’re passionate and they get in there and fight and struggle and get the job done. It’s a different type of challenge.”