The Deseret news is now putting articles in the sports section on the BYU teams of the 80’s and 90’s…
never thought BYU would be regulated to second hand stories.
The team right now is really bad and I am generally a guy who views the glass as half full but I am afraid that all I can see is a glass that is nearly empty. As a BYU fan since about 1962 I am coping by not allowing myself to care. If things somehow really turn around this year I will be sucked right back into caring too much. In some respects it is liberating for a fanatic like me when BYU is really bad. I don’t have the anxiety that is brought on by unrealistic high hopes. I can move on with my Saturdays and relax without the unpleasant symptoms of PFS (pre-football sysndrome) that generally show up hours before any BYU game.
I may have to pull up BYUTV and watch some archived games from the 80s and 90s. Right now things are really that bad. When somebody like me is almost without hope you know the situation is dire.
When fish wrote his piece about BYU looking like a team that had turned the corner, I will be honest that I was hopeful about what could be possible this season. The Portland St. game did little to help with that hope and then after the LSU game I was pretty much left with little hope of something good happening this season.
I guess there is still time to for BYU to at least look like a team that is decent and competitive, but I am pretty much on the same page as Aro… I don’t see much to get excited about.
Yes, this football season is, unfortunately, a dumpster fire at BYU. There is a 90% probability that we lose to USU, MS St, BSU and probably one other team that we can’t foresee! We will not go to a bowl game and that is a good thing because we will get beat if we do. Time to recruit and reevaluate the coordinators on both sides of the ball. We simply have no playmakers. There isn’t a NFL player on this roster who is getting playing time… Maybe none at all.
I’ve got to admit, I was wrong but I will defend the idea from this angle. Sitake is getting recruits that Bronco never could of gotten or even dreamed of getting and that will not show up on the playing field for another year or two.
I will also defend the idea from the standpoint that BYU football starts and ends with the quarterback. Unless you are Alabama, your team is going to win or fail with the QB and we all know that Tanner M is not the same guy we saw two years ago. Someone was saying, “Its the coaches fault” but I don’t see it. I would say its our linemen’s fault on both sides and certainly a QB lacking in confidence and leadership.
I’ll say it (although I’m sure some people are going to freak out about it).
Tanner Mangum’s problems are upstairs.
As we all can see, he is not at all the same person he was two years ago when he threw for over 3000 yards (i.e., it isn’t just the two hail Marys; we remember him as being a competent quarterback who could throw for yardage. I remember being excited that we finally had a quarterback who could throw downfield again).
He can’t now. He looks stiff and lacking confidence. His formerly accurate throws are way off. It looks mental to me, because it looks like he is afraid to fumble, get sacked, or throw an interception. I think the Utah bowl game 1st quarter and the Michigan game left scars on his psyche, and in the back of his mind, he is determined not to make big mistakes, so he aims, gets rid of it fast, and doesn’t let receivers get open or get separation.
I don’t think it’s our O-line, or our receivers. I don’t think Squally Canada can run his way out of a paper bag, and Trey Dye gets nowhere running up the middle, but Fonua and Tolutau are just fine as runners.
I think it would have been much better for him to wait until after his career before becoming the poster boy for anxiety/depression (interviews, stories, etc.). To have that be the off-season, and then to play so dismally and poorly mentally makes me wonder if he has what it takes from a sports psychology standpoint.
I agree with you mostly, thawk, but I will bet Bushman is NFL material. I expect we will see great things from him.
The reason I said it was the coaches was because of the Offensive Scheme that Detmer is trying to instill. The Pro style.
My personal opinion is that Tanner thrived playing the hurry up offensive scheme of Anae. Now that he is required to stay in the pocket and do his reads… it is not comfortable for him.
Just look at how well BYU did in the Utah game when they went to the hurry up offense, Tanner looked a hundred percent better.
I think Detmer is doing a disservice to Tanner by forcing him to play against his natural tendencies.
I heard a story about Doug Scovil, when Gifford Nielsen went down injured, he walked up to Marc Wilson and handed him the play book and told him to pick the plays he liked best. When he got the play book back, it was marked with play that allowed Wilson to roll to the outside. So Doug developed a scheme for Wilson to utilize Wilson tendencies.
Last week I heard Detmer say “We are not going to change the playbook because of Tanner being hurt and Hodges stepping into the QB position, we may tweak it a bit, but no major changes”
See the difference? That is why I believe Detmer is over his head as an OC, he has a great football mind, but that does not mean he would be a great OC…
I am not sure if he will become a great OC down the road, but right now… we are seeing the results of his inexperience.
I think you are correct on Bushman. My mistake.
I must agree with most of your points on Tanner. It simply appears that he can’t process the scene quickly enough to figure out what his best options are when he gets to the line.
you have a point. Tanner does not like being under center. Does much better in the shotgun.
Rubicon also brings some good points but I still say the linemen on both sides are not up to par. We get no push on running plays (I think we will see a big difference in the USU game just because we will be playing average athletes) On D our line was moved an average of 5 yards before we touched a running back. I think that will change as we play lower ranked teams as well.
Hoge to me should be playing more just because he is an extra threat.
I need to be careful because I am close to someone in the program. I don’t want to offend anyone.
I agree with thawk that we are a dumpster fire. We’ve scored 37 points in 4 games. We are on some “Bottom 25” list for the worst 25 teams in the nation. As I analyze it, I see a loss at Utah State. Maybe a blowout loss. I’ll go with 27-10. This is USU’s Super Bowl and they are flying high after their 61-10 win at San Jose St last week. We are flying low after 3 straight physical demolishings.
Why Vegas has us a 3 point favorite is a mystery to me. We are 0-4 ATS this year and none have been close. If I was a bettor, I’d put big $$ on USU this Friday night.
I see no real light at the end of the tunnel. No underclassmen stand out to me. We have maybe one NFL prospect (Bushman). I think we should start scheduling only non-Power 5 opponents. We just can’t compete physically with Wisc, LSU, etc.
If you look at my earlier posts, you will see that I also believe the O-line is horrible, TJ does well in the middle, but the outside protection is bad.
Another rookie coach (Empey) issue.
Just like last year on the outside again
it is the same players from last year.
ARO,
I STARTED BYU SCHOOL YEAR 1953-54. I have been an avid fan of BYU Football since 1970. Before that, I was too busy going to school, being drafted into the Army, raising a family and getting established in my life work in education. I now believe that since 1970, I have seen both the best and the worst of BYU football. I do care.
We tend to jump on each other when things go wrong and defend the team when someone says anything that sounds like a criticism or a need for change in one area or another. Nothing gets accomplished when we act this way.
Every suggestion is important weather workable or not, weather allowed or not, weather appreciated or not. We learn from each other, no matter how far out the ideas seem to be to one person, it may well be the catalyst for someone to hitch hike on to and come up with a workable solution.
Jim,
There are many, many questions that really need to be answered.
- Can we really compete vs teams that has more 4-5 star players on their scout team than we have as starters?
- Do we really think that we are ready to compete in a P5 conference now, playing at least 9 P5 teams per season?
- Do we think that we can be ready for a P5 conference invitation in 7 years when the new TV contracts are re-negotiated
and P5 conferences are expected to expand to 14 or 16 teams each? - For those that think BYU is playing too tough of a schedule now, do you really believe that BYU should play a weaker
schedule now and a miracle will happen 7 years from now, and without getting use to playing a strong P5 schedule, we
will be ready to be successful playing at least 9 P5 teams each year in a P5 conference? - Last question: WOULD YOU RATHER that we play only teams ranked below 86 and have a 11or 12 win season or
would you rather have a 6-6 season playing 6-9 P5 teams per season? HEY, we all want a 10-2 season or better, playing
whom ever we play, but that’s not the question.
Even though we have had negative posts with each other and your post was to Jim, I would like to answer, without ranker.
- No
- No
- Not at present but we will know in 2 more years.
- I advocate continuing to schedule as we are, if that is possible
- See my answer to # 4. It does not matter what we think or want outside of this fan site, board or whatever we want to call it. Unless someone who posts. or reads posts. are high up in the BYU sports administration (highly unlikely), no one else cares what one fan or 5 to 15 fans or 50 fans think. The admin and the majority of the players see fans who write on these sites or who do phone in to call shows or text as pretty nutty folks, not to be taken too seriously.
Roy,
I agree with a lot of what you say, but one thing that I also know is that the Cougar club brass has a lot of clout.
I also know that some them are saying the very things we are saying.
the cougar club sees the same things as we do.
Hope you are correct Floyd about the Cougar Club members and I am sure some in the athletic administration are concerned. But we here on this site or other sites will not get through to the administration. I do say again that we hang on for 2 more years to see what the present coaching staff can do.
Utah State has a very good chance to beat us tomorrow night and if we are beat, how will that impact the players and coaches the rest of the way?