Needless to say it was a rough weekend for fans of BYU and Utah this week, as both came up just a bit short. Both teams went into the weekend still looking to answer a bunch of questions. One team started to provide some questions, while the other team still has it's fans scratching their heads.
To recover from this past weekends heartaches, the two teams play their first Non-Conference Rivalry game in 113 years. It's also the first time since 1968 these two teams play outside the month of November. This means we'll review a little bit of what last week meant to both teams, before doing the annual breakdown of the Holy War.
Hooked By The Horns
After looking terrible for 2/3rds of the game against Ole Miss in week one, the BYU offense showed up and did just enough to not lose that game. At the start of the Texas game, it looked like the offense had almost woken up. BYU still seemed unable to finish drives, but managed to jump out to a 13-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter.
After that point, they decided game was over, because the team decided to not play the rest of the game. The offense went into a shell that made the Utah offense against Montana State look like the run and shoot.
More troubling than the offensive clamp down by coordinator Brandon Doman, is Jake Heaps struggles. Despite all the pre-season hype Heaps received, I had some serious questions based off of his play in 2010. A couple of those concerns specifically are that when he received any pass rush, Heaps looked very nervous and erratic in 2010. Heaps also had a tendency to lock onto his receiver, thereby telegraphing to the defense where he was going. A third troubling issue for Heaps in 2010 was a hesitancy to throw the ball downfield.
All three issues were very prevalent after the 12 minute mark of the 2nd quarter. Doman, sensing his QB was struggling further clamped down on the offense to help his QB. Unfortunately for Doman, the running game couldn't get anything going against the speedy Texas defense, and Heaps continued to be put into rough situations. The offense had zero first downs in the 4th quarter.
Defensively, once the Texas ended the Garret Gilbert experiment and started putting in the Ash, and Case McCoy in at QB, the Texas offense started going. What hurt BYU's defense was mainly two plays. The first was a read option play where either the RB or Ash would keep the ball. Either way, they would gash the BYU defense. When Case McCoy was in the game, Texas mainly used short crossing routes that put the ball in Jaxon Shipley's hands, who would use his speed and athleticism to make plays.
The inability to put together full games is troublesome for the Cougars.
A Tough Block
Meanwhile, while BYU was falling apart against Texas, the Utes were trying to prove they belonged against USC. It didn't start out so well for Utah, as USC jumped out to a 10-0 lead, while the Utah offense, and Jordan Wynn struggled. USC RB Marc Tyler was able to gash the Utah defense for nearly 5 yards a carry. To make matters worse, for some unknown, although stupid, reason, Utah decided to abandon their man coverage and instead played a very soft zone defense. This meant frequently when Utah would get USC into a 3rd and 5 or 6, the Defensive backs would start the play giving a 7 yard cushion to the USC Wr's.
In 2010 the Utes seemed to have a distinct lack of heart. Whenever they struggled or faced adversity, more often than not in 2010 the team wilted. This was never more evident, than when the TCU loss caused a hangover that cost the Utes the game the next week against Notre Dame. In fact it wasn't until halftime of the San Diego State game, that Utah finally shook off the TCU loss.
Fortunately, 2011 seems different. Utah rather than wilting, responded with heart and fire. The defense started forcing turnovers and getting stops.
This mean that it was now up to Wynn and the offense to turn things around. Unfortunately for Wynn late in the first half, the running game had 7 rushes for 0 yards, meaning all pressure on Wynn's surgically rebuilt shoulder.
Here's the thing about Wynn's shoulder. It may or may not be healthy, but what is obvious, is that Wynn hasn't adjusted. He has had to change his throwing motion, which has led to more of a sideline delivery. Not only that, but even if his shoulder is healthy, he just hasn't had the time to completely rebuild the strength in it.
Where Wynn is really having a problem is with the mental aspect of the game. Wynn still needs to regain confidence in not only his ability, but his shoulder. A lot of the ducks he has thrown through the two games, is because he is throwing off of his back foot.
One bonus of Wynn's struggles is that he has become a much smarter QB than he ever was the past two years. He's making reads a lot better than in either 2010, or 2011. As the game went on this Wynn started getting a bit more confidence and started playing better. At the end of the half, he led the team on a 86 yard TD drive.
Unfortunately for Wynn the Offensive Line apparently failed to show up. This mean the running game was more or less neutralized, leaving Wynn in a lot of 2nd and long, and 3rd and long situations. However with a minute left, the Utes had the ball down by 3 with a chance to tie the game.
Wynn drove the team down the field. For a moment, it looked like the Utes were going to get screwed out of a chance to attempt to tie or win the game, when on 4th down, Wynn completed a pass to DeVonte Christopher that was obviously a yard or two past the first down marker. The officials marked it short. With no timeouts the Utes were left to pray that the officials called a review. It was an obvious blunder, so it should take long for the review call to come.
It didn't immediately come. Then the USC offense came on the field, and lined up to snap the ball, The official set the ball and got ready to start the play, when finally the call came to review the play. The play was eventually ruled correctly, and Utah lived.
A pass interference play later, the Utes had the ball at the USC 25 yard line with 11 seconds to go, and the clock stopped. Utah decided to go for the field goal. This was not a bad decision. Where the decision becomes questionable, is that Utah tried to rush the FG unit on the field, and hurry the kick.
This rushing, combined with the fact that the Offensive Line was just horrendous all day, allowed the USC Trojans to blow up the offensive line, block the kick and return it for what two hours later was correctly ruled a TD.
Utah lost in heart breaking fashion, but in losing answered a lot of questions, including the question that they do belong with the Pac-12 and they can compete. There were some concerns of course. The OL is a major question mark going forwards. The Defensive Line struggled against the large USC OL. Keith McGill at safety play horrendously, and doesn't believe he has to wrap up, merely hit players. But overall Utah began answering some questions.
The best sign to me though, was how they dealt with adversity. As I said earlier, in 2010 it wasn't a stretch to question the Utes' heart. They showed in this game they have the heart that has been a trademark of the Whittingham era. Now we need to see how they rebound from a loss, because their next game is the Holy War.
A Different Feel
Here we are, rivalry week. It feels different saying that in September. There's no doubt things have changed in this rivalry with the two schools going a different way. It remains to be seen how it will affect the intensity between the two teams, and their fan bases. This year, though, the rivalry is still the rivalry. BYU would love to stick it to the AQ Utes in the first season in the Pac-12. The Utes want to ruin the home opener for 2011.
It's time for the annual positional breakdown of these two team.
Statistics
With both teams having only played two teams, there's not a lot of statistics to go off of. Both teams are sitting at 1-1. Their overall point plus/minus total is 0, as they beat the Ole Miss Rebels by a point, followed by last weekends tough loss to the Longhorns by a single point. BYU has averaged 275.5 yards per game, with 218 of those coming through the air per game, and the ground game churning out 67 yards per game. The Cougars are scoring and giving up 15 points per game. Defensively the Cougars are giving up 133.5 passing yards per game and 115 rushing yards per game.
Utah has gotten 305.5 yards per game offensively with passing to running ratio of 169.5 to 136 on the ground. They've scored 20.5 points per game, and have given up 18.5. Defensively they've allowed 223.5 yards passing and 113.5 yards on the ground.
Neither team is in the top 90 of offensive rankings in Div 1-A.
As I like to caution, stats may not lie, but statiticians do. With such a small sample there's not a whole lot to take from the stats. Especially when you add in that Utah played one game against Div 1-AA foe Montana State, and BYU has spent a couple weeks playing against passing deficient offense.
Advantage:
BYU
Non Conference Schedule
BYU Doesn't have a conference, however since Utah has only played 1-AA foe out of conference while BYU played road games against an SEC and Big XII foe, BYU wins this category, even if those two foes were down from previous years.
Advantage:
BYU
Quarterback
The position with all the focus, also has all the questions. For BYU entered the season with a lot of hype focused on Sophomore Jake Heaps. Through two games he's not lived up to those expectations. He's been erratic, and has seemed very nervous through the first two games. On the season he's 46 of 76 for 417 yards, 2 TD's and 3 INT's.
For Utah Junior Jordan Wynn is coming off of Shoulder surgery and has face a lot of questions regarding the health of the shoulder. Through two games it seems the answer is that his shoulder is not all the way back. It's affected his confidence and his mechanics. Wynn has adjusted by playing smarter than he had in previous season and has done a great job of making the right decisions this year. Wynn will not be the kind of QB who wins games this year, but he has adjusted by turning into the type of QB who won't kill you either. You can see this in his stats of 38/69 339 yards, 2 TD's and 0 INT's
Neither team has a very good backup situation. So the question is, do you want the shaky, erratic QB who doesn't seem to have the full confidence of his Offensive Coordinator, or do you want the injured QB, who doesn't have the full confidence of his Offensive Coordinator. This is a close decision.
Advantage:
BYU
Runningbacks
BYU is led by J.J. DiLuigi who is a running back that nobody can figure out why he's as productive as he is. He's not the fastest RB on the Cougars, he's not anywhere near the best RB on the team. He's the type of running back that seems like he should be easy to stop. Yet, he always manages to be very productive. His backup is sophomore Josh Quezada. Quezada is another one of last year's talented crop of freshmen who really hasn't been able to live up to his hype.
Utah however doesn't really know what they have for a runningback. John White IV came out like a gang buster in week run racking up 150 yards and a TD. However last week against USC he struggled. At one point late in the first half he had 7 rushes for 0 yards. He eventually started to turn it on later in the game. The Utes backups consist of true freshman Harvey Langi, and Tauni Vakapuna.
The question is how much of White's struggle were related to the OL struggles. The way he was able to adjust his running style and get yards later makes me think it's more the OL than the RB.
Utah has the higher ceiling at this position, even if it's a bit unknown right now. Both teams, though, would love to have not only Robert Turbin, but the rest of the Utah State Aggies running game, whose 440 rushing yards against Weber State was more than both Utah and BYU have combined for all season.
Advantage:
Push
Wide Receivers
BYU is no longer the one headed monster of years past With Cody Hoffman, Ross Apo and McKay Jacobsen they have the receivers to stretch any team. However, a major concern for the Cougars, is that through two weeks, the WR's have shown a distinct lack of ability to separate themselves from the defensive backs.
Before the season the WR's were one of the question marks for Utah. The position has turned out to be one of its best strengths. The Ute WR are all fast, and speedy. DeVonte Christopher and Dres Anderson are both athletic freaks who have the ability to take a short pass and make it a huge play. Add in speed threat Reggie Dunn who can return kicks and run end arounds, like the 51 yarder against USC. Luke Matthews has the ability to go through the middle.
Both WR units struggle with the person delivering them the ball, but going based off just the talent at the position this one is a landslide.
Advantage:
Utah
Tight Ends
BYU suffered a blow the week before the season started when it was discovered that projected #1 TE Devin Mahina had suffered a fracture in his neck. In his absence Austin Holt looks to be taking over as the top TE. Behind Holt there's a lot of unknown, although Marcus Matthews did have a good game against Texas.
Utah has two really good TE in Kendrick Moeai, and Dallin Rogers. Moeai has the ability to add to Utah's ability to stretch the field, while both aren't afraid of the middle. There are games this year when one or both of these TE will flirt with the 100 yard mark.
Advantage:
Utah
Offensive Line
BYU's line is anchored by All American candidate Matt Reynolds. Reynolds has the ability to flip flop between Right and Left Tackle depending upon the play call. Reynolds comes from a long line of BYU Cougars. A line that will continue when Matt goes to the NFL next season, because he is also joined on the line by his younger brother Houston. The center position is manned by 4 year starter Terrence Brown. The offensive line has done a decent job protecting Heaps, as they've only allowed 2 sacks all year, however they're really struggled so far in helping to open holes for the running game.
Utah's offensive line is also anchored by a tackle who will be playing football on Sundays next season in RT Tony Bergstrom. Unfortunately for the Utes, that's about as far as the similarities go. Depth, and injuries have wreaked havoc on an offensive line that has struggled throughout the season. Most evident on the game tying field goal attempt when USC just blew them up. Something USC had been doing all game. The line is also giving up 2 sacks per game.
Advantage:
BYU
Defensive Line
BYU's defensive line is powered in the middle by USC transfer Hebron Fangupo as well as Romney Fuga who is coming off of a brutal knee injury that ended is 2010 season. They rotate in Eathyn Manumaleuna. The rest of the line however, especially on the ends, leads a bit to be desired as the Cougars are still looking for someone to step up and help get pressure on the opposing QB.
Utah's line is deep. Deep enough to be able to rotate at least two deep at every position on the line. The line did a good job of getting pressure against Montana State. It just didn't show in the stat line due to the athletic abilities of their QB. Against USC, the line struggled a bit. The line of Derick Shelby, Joe and Dave Kruger, and Star Lotuleilei may be the starters, but the Utes also get quality minutes from players like James Aiono, Tevita Finau, Trevor Reilly, and Nate Fakahafua
Advantage:
Utah
Linebackers
The strength of the Cougars is by far their Linebacking Corp. A Corp led by super sophomore Kyle Van Oy. Van Oy's athletic ability was on display when he sacked Ole Miss' QB in week 1, causing a forced fumble, which he later picked up and scored the winning TD. Van Oy is joined by Brandon Ogletree and Senior Jordan Pendleton. Pendleton is a linebacker who loves to lay the wood to some guys. Pendleton's big issue though, is that his big hits have also had a negative effect on his own body, as he tends to wear down due to injuries. So BYU fans couldn't have felt good hearing that while he will play this week, Pendleton is being sat out of practice due to minor injury issues.
Utah however wants to welcome opposing players to the Kongo. That being the name that the linebackers have adopted for their group. Even fellow Utah players don't want to cross into Kongo territory in the locker room, because they know they won't make it out without some sort of hassling. The linebackers are Chaz Walker, Matt Martinez, and Brian Blechen. Walker was the leading tackler in 2010, and Blechen is the converted safety. This gives him not only the ability to stop the run, but the Utes can drop him back into coverage, as evident by his two interceptions this year.
Advantage:
Utah
Secondary
Both teams have had to rebuild their secondaries this season, and both have had relatively good results through the first two weeks.
BYU's rebuilt secondary is led by Travis Uale, and Daniel Sorenson. Stats-wise one could say the Cougars secondary looks great, giving up only 133 yards in the air, and they have yet to give up a touchdown through the air, and snagged two interceptions against Texas in week two. The other side of the coin, is that they've also played against two offenses that haven't had the ability to test the defensive secondary.
Utah's rebuilt secondary has Conroy Black and Ryan Lacy at the corners, with Keith McGill and true freshman Eric Rowe at safeties. They managed to limit the damage of Matt Barkley and Robert Woods. However Keith McGill was an absolute disaster in that game, as he seems to think you only need to hit players, and not try to actually wrap up for tackles. The corners have yet to really get burned throughout the season.
Both secondaries have held up through the first two weeks, but it's really too early to tell how good they are.
Advantage:
Push
Special Teams
BYU's place kicker Justin Sorenson missed a chip shot figgie against Ole Miss, but was able to rebound with a 3 for 3 performance against Texas. Punter Riley Stephenson was the Independent special teams player of the week last week.
Utah's kicking situation was worrisome coming into the game, but has held up pretty well so far. Former walk-on Coleman Peterson went 2/2 in week one, and had his only attempt blocked, due to the OL getting destroyed, against USC. Punter Sean Sellwood has a big leg, and the ability to change field position with a single kick.
Advantage:
Push
Coaching
They definitely don't like each other the way LaVell and McBride did, but Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham, and BYU Coach
Roscoe Bronco Mendenhall will forever be linked due to how each came to be at their respective positions. It's hard to believe it's been seven years since Whittingham turned his back on his alma mater, and declared himself a Ute.
Bronco has a 54-22 record. Kyle's is 59-21.
They've each one 3 rivalry games. Many of them in dramatic fashion. Bronco has Harline still open, Magic Happening, and Hateful Max Hall hooking up with Andrew George in OT. Kyle on the other hand has Bret Ratliff out of nowhere, Another BCS Clinching Blowout, and Burton's block.
Bronco is 4-2 in Bowl Games, while Kyle lost his first one last year to see his record go to 6-1 (Kyle is recognized as co-Head Coach for the 2005 Fiesta Bowl.)
Next season I'll have to rethink the Big Games criteria, but for now It's any game against TCU, Notre Dame, AQ Schools, or ranked teams. As well as Bowl Games and the Rivalry Games. Bronco is 14-17, while Kyle is 18-12.
High Point for Bronco is 2006-2007 2 consecutive years undefeated in conference, 11 wins both seasons, wins versus Oregon and UCLA in the Vegas Bowl. For Kyle it's the Sugar Bowl season. No explanation needed.
Low Point for Bronco is the ridiculous decision to go with, and stick with the two QB system last season, and then try to distance himself from any responsibility for the decision. For Kyle last year's dismal quits against TCU, Notre Dame, and Boise State, almost beat out UNLV 2007. But when you get shut out to UNLV it's pretty low.
Personality: Bronco accidentally let one slip out during the National Signing Day dinner when he ripped a fan, but then he went back in for a tune up to his personality removal surgery. Kyle has mastered the art of coach speak, but he still can be heard occasionally cracking jokes.
Coaching Staff: The Cougars have first year offensive coordinator Brandon Doman who had promised to be more aggressive than Robert Anai. So far that hasn't surfaced. Defensive Coordinator Bronco Mendenhall has seen a remarked improvement in his squad since taking over the duties after the Utah State game last year. The only worry is that it might spread Mendenhall too thin since he has other duties, like being the Head Coach.
For the Utes Kalani Sitake may be the defensive coordinator, but this is still Fred Whittingham's defense that's been at Utah for years. Offensively the Utes are adjusting from the spread to Norm Chow's pro style offense. Chow has forgotten more about football than most will ever know.
Discipline And Adjustments: The Cougars are typically a very disciplined team, typically low on the penalty output. However, they tend to have problems later in games when other teams have made adjustments. Kyle makes great second half adjustments, that keeps his team in games, they shouldn't be. Unfortunately they can sometimes make mental plunders or stupid penalties.
Advantage:
Utah
The Crowd
LaVell Edwards Stadium will be pumped for this game. It's the home opener for BYU, as well as the Independent Opener. After only having one sellout last year, and in a year that seems destined to see fan interest wane, as the quality of home games go down the fans should be amped up.
Advantage:
BYU
X-Factors
There are a lot of interesting factors not normally in play this year.
BYU doesn't have much else to play for this year other than pride, and the stated goal of winning the State.
Utah is representing the Pac-12, they don't want a lost to a non-AQ school, while BYU would love to show the Pac-12 name down Utah's throat.
Really interesting though, is the time of year this game is being played. Usually this game is at the end of the year. This means that both teams have had all year to get into a rhythm and fix issues throughout the season. Utah may benefit the most from the time of play because had BYU had a chance to go through the scrimmage weeks of Idaho State, San Jose State, New Mexico State, and the other terrible games that fill the back half of their schedule, Heaps and Doman would have been able to work out their kinks. As it is, the two are still trying to figure things out.
Advantage:
Utah
Final Thoughts
The two teams are really close to one another. Both teams have really struggled so far early on in the season, and are still trying to figure out their identity.
As far as the rivalry itself, I'll admit it seems weird that the game is this early. It's weird that it will so warm outside, and it's weird that the season is still so young that we don't have a good grasp on the team. That said, the intensity of the rivalry hasn't lessened any for me. If anything, it's actually increased for me, because thanks to the lack of conference affiliation, I don't have to deal with the "A win for BYU is good for the Utes strength of schedule" argument. This means I have been free to cheer against BYU the last two weeks with a 100% clear conscience, instead of the 99.9% clear conscience I've had the past few years.
Utah is trying to score the first repeat in the rivalry since BYU pulled off the feat in 2006 and 2007. The game may not have the same meaning as before since the Conference ties are gone, but in all honestly, very rarely was an outright conference title dependent upon this game. At it's core this game is still the same.
Since 1990 the total score of the rivalry is 532-530 in the Cougars favor, while over that same time the Record is 11-10 in Utah's favor. This isn't a big surprise as this is a game where everything we know about the two teams gets thrown out the window. This year, we don't really know a whole lot about either team, but we can still expect a close, maybe excruciatingly close, game, which has become the norm, as both teams typically leave it all on the line.
Memorable moments have become the norm, so don't be surprised if a new phrase gets added to the lexicon of this modern rivalry.
The good news for BYU fans is that despite what happens on Saturday, they can go ahead and book their travel and hotel rooms for the Armed Forces Bowl.