Sunday, September 8. 2013Red, Blue And Pigskin
I have no idea, no clue. Three days later and I'm still not sure what that was in Provo last weekend. It defies explanation. No one could have predicted that. Not even the most blue goggle wearing, Bronco Kool-Aid drinking, fireside attending, Cosmo loving, Max Hall worshiping Cougar fan. (I say this with confidence because he also told me yesterday he had no idea what went on Saturday.)
The most overused cliche after week 1 is that "a team makes it's biggest improvement from week 1 to week 2." That certainly held true in this state as Utah State, Utah, and BYU rolled to victories and were all running much crisper than in week 1. But if week 2 is about making your best improvement, weeks 3 and 4 are about figuring out what is real, because only 1 improvement from this week should be taken at face value. Yeeeeeeeeee-Huh?
So the experts were mostly right. Texas was going to go into Provo, with their 5 star athletes, bigger faster players, and a royal beat down was going to follow. But what the experts, and everybody else, didn't expect was the beat down was coming from the Cougars. That's not to say that a Cougar victory wasn't unreasonable to expect. It's just that no one expected Texas to get ran over like they have never seen. Literally. This isn't hyperbole. BYU ran all over the Longhorn defense to the tune of 550 yards rushing. Most given up in Texas Football History. BYU QB Taysom Hill ran for 259 yards (not a Byu Record). Super Soph Jamaal Williams added 189. Paul Lasike was close to making it a third 100 yard rusher for BYU with 85 of his own. After Taysom's second touchdown run, the sideline reporter overheard Taysom telling a coach "I'm just taking what they're giving me." Turns out that was the theme of the night. Taking, or not taking, what was being given. Ego-Ball You could say that I've criticized Bronco Mendenhall for his coaching abilities on occasion. However, the coaching display put on by Texas Head Coach Mack Brown and his entire coaching staff on Saturday, makes Bronco's worst coaching performance look like Vince Lombardi's best by comparison. Last week before the game, I heard someone mention on the radio, how when it comes to recruiting, Texas doesn't really need to recruit players. They can basically sit back, decide which Texas grown 5 star recruit they want, offer, and that's it. This same person also said, he thought it's why Texas also misses out on a lot of really good players who are 4 or even 3 star guys, because they go mainly after the elite, top recruits. Because Bigger, Faster, Stronger, always equals better. It was that attitude that was on full display Saturday night. Texas came into this game expecting to win, and expecting Byu to be afraid of them. Looking back, it's telling that when asked about the BYU offensive coordinator during the week Mack Brown didn't know who he was. Problem for Texas was that Byu wasn't afraid of them. Byu actually hit Texas in the mouth first. Texas never adjusted. Mack Brown and his staff were so stubborn of beating BYU their way, they absolutely refused to adjust to what BYU was or wasn't doing. All game long, as is obvious by merely glancing at the stats, Byu was able to run at will on Texas. Meanwhile Taysom Hill was not having a good game throwing the ball. A week after going 13/40 for 175 yards, Hill went 9/26 for 125 yards. Yet despite the lack of production in the passing game, and the abundance of production in the running game, by not just Hill, but all Byu RB's, Texas refused to load the box with more than 7 guys, and dare Hill to beat them through the air. In fact, multiple times in the third and fourth quarter, Texas would line up on first down with only 6 guys in the box on defense. In addition to a complete refusal to adjust to the Byu run game, Texas treated the zone/read option of Byu, as though they had never seen it before, which would be okay if it was indeed something never seen before, and not the current hottest trend in not only College, but NFL football. The hubris wasn't relegated to the defensive side of Texas' gameplan. The weak point of the BYU defense has long been the secondary. This year isn't much different, especially with the problems the Cougars have had keeping corners healthy. On the ground, the area to attack is straight up the gut where the Nose Tackle is. What you don't want to do is attack the edges. Kyle Van Oy and Uani Fuga are too fast. Similarly you don't want any long forming runs. This was the case Saturday as well. Whenever Texas had success it was through the air. Byu was frequently giving up 5 to 8 yards per pass against the Longhorns. But that wasn't what the Longhorns wanted to do, and since they were the Mighty Texas, they insisted on trying to run against the stout BYU defense. There were multiple drives, where Texas would get a quick 20 to 30 yards through the air, and then run two straight QB draws, or edge rushes. Not surprisingly those plays would get stuffed, leaving Texas in 3rd and long, and giving the green light to Kyle Van Oy to come after them. Not to belittle everything BYU did on Saturday, because they played great. They took what Texas gave them, and ran it down their throat. Texas meanwhile came in unprepared, expecting BYU to roll over, and once it was clear they were in a fight, they never adjusted. I commented on Saturday that with the problems Mack Brown has had the last 4 years (Brown lost 16 games his first 9 years at Texas, Saturday was his 17th lost in the last 4), the utter incompetence showed by Brown and the entire coaching staff was deserving of Brown being fired. Well Mack Brown wasn't terminated, but instead of letting defensive coordinator Manny Diaz on the bus, he threw him under the bus and backed over him on the way out of town. Yes Diaz' defense was astoundingly awful. Again how a team like Texas could act as if it's never seen the hottest trend in football (zone/read) amazes me. But the truth is, even as absolutely terrible as their defense was, Texas was in the game in mid 4th quarter, but an absolute refusal to take what was being given to them on the offensive side of the ball led to their downfall. This was a terrible coaching job all the way around, not just on defense. Questions For The Cougars Who are you?? Are you the team that was absolutely horrific offensively, and average defensively against Virginia? Or are you the unstoppable option juggernaut we saw on Texas? Is the Texas win a sign that the team got it together, or is it a perfect storm of events like say in 2007 when an 0-2 Utah upset the 11th ranked UCLA 44-10. Or to continue the 2007 comparison even further is this like an eventual 2 win UNLV team beating Utah 27-0 (The game after Utah's UCLA Win?) We honestly don't know if last Saturday is a blip on the radar, or a sign of things to come. Truthfully the Cougars probably aren't as bad as they seemed in week 1, and aren't as good as they seemed last Saturday. Which brings me to my next question for Cougar fans. This week you are on bye, and the Holy War follows the week after. Kyle Van Oy and Cody Hoffman have both essentially admitted that beating Utah was one of the main reasons they came back for their senior year. So are you glad for this week off so you have the extra week to gameplan for Utah, which would also mean BYU has two weeks to sit and think about it's emotional game, and hear about how great the victory was, or would you rather take the emotion from the big victory this past week and roll right into Holy War this week? Jake Heaps Tracker Heaps redemption tour didn't get off to a strong start against a Div 1-AA foe. Heaps was very pedestrian on Saturday going 10/20 for 110 yards and 1 TD in Kansas' victory. For Kansas fans though, they saw a WR catch a Touchdown pass for the first time since November of 2011, which brings up another question? How truly terrible must a WR corp be to go an entire season without a TD Reception? Exercise In Futility There isn't really much to say about the Weber State game for the Utes. They did what they were supposed to. They went out, took care of business and got to bench their starters at halftime. Of course, they've had these prostitution games each of the last two years, and weren't able to fully take care of business in those games, so maybe just the fact that they did what they were supposed to do is good enough. Yes Wilson was efficient, and the offense was on fire. Even though it's Weber State, Wilson did put enough tape on, to make other teams respect the zone/read a bit more. Outside of that, there's not much that can be taken away from this game, other than live game reps for younger players. Still Some Concerns There are still some concerns for the Utes though. The offensive line hasn't been getting as much push as they should be. That could partially be blamed on USU's scheme in week 1 and being very vanilla in week 2, but if the Utes are going to try and have a strong season, the Offensive Line needs to start being nasty. Along the same lines as the OL, York just doesn't seem to have it. He seems tentative when rushing the ball. Slow to get to the holes. James "Bubba" Poole has been much more effective, and in my opinion should be the starting back. I also think that Lucky Radley should see more times with the ones. The biggest concern to me though, is an overall lack of turnovers. Through two games, the Utes have two fumble recoveries and zero interceptions. This is a continuation of an issue last year, where they just weren't forcing turnovers that frequently. With no Riley Nelson on the upcoming schedule, the Utes defense needs to start forcing some turnovers to help setup the offense with short fields. Time To Buck The Trend I know it's extremely early, but one of the biggest games of the year is this week for the Utes. Not necessarily because of the opponent, but because of recent seasons for the Utes. In both of the Utes first two seasons in the Pac-12 they started out 0-4 in conference play, and were left scrambling the rest of the season. In 2011 they were able to get a bowl game, last year, not so much. That's why it is very important for Utah to win this week, and get a positive mindset. While a win won't guarantee a winning season, or even bowl eligibility, a loss could be very damaging for the psyche of a team trying to overcome the past couple seasons, and earn some respect in conference. The Utes have a good opponent this week for those tasks. The Beavers match up really well to the Utes, as both the games the last two years have gone down to the wire. Last year, the Utes had momentum in the second half and were looking to tie the game up before DeVonte Christopher got involved and fumbled on the goal line. The Beavers will look to pass frequently and test the unproven Ute Secondary, however they seem to have had problems running the ball ever since Jacquizz Rogers left, and aren't helped out by an offensive line that has suffered major injuries. Defensively, the Beavers are looking for help in the middle, as both their Defensive Tackles, and their Linebackers have struggled early on this season. This could be a good opportunity for the Utes Offensive Line to get their legs, and start opening up some holes. However, as Cougar Fans know from last year, this is not a team you can sleep on, especially since it's a team who tends to start seasons out slowly under head coach Mike Riley. The game each of the last two seasons has been very close, and came down to whichever team didn't make the big turnover. In 2011 the Utes only had one turnover and won the game. Last year 4 turnovers was their downfall. This game looks to be much of the same. If the Utes can play their gameplan, and get some offensive consistency, they may finally start a Pac-12 season 1-0. Holy War Kickoff The time for the Utah/Byu game on the 21st has been announced. Kickoff will got at 8:15 pm. Of course that's assuming that yet another BYU game gets delayed by weather. Trackbacks
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