It is no secret that BYU’s linebacker core may just be among the best in the country. Warner, Pau’u and Bernard. Stuffing the run and pressuring the QB will be fun to watch.
We do have question marks on our Dline but if they can just be decent, teams will have to try to throw the ball…
.notice I said, try to throw because we have two sophomores in Troy Warner and Dayan Ghanwoloku that played well for BYU last season. Troy has NFL talent (as does his brother, Fred) and we all watched Ghanwoloku (formally Lake) take one 50 yds.to the house in the BSU game.
Teams will have to throw a lot of short stuff if the run game is shut down and they’re receivers can’t get open on our fleet corners. Next I will cover the Safeties. Fun to be a Coug.
I love Pau’u motor and hitting. Unfortunately he is too small and he gets inured too often. I don’t think he will finish the season… Again. Hopefully we have a great back up!
Yes, huge loss on Bernard. This really hurts the team. When all is said and done, the success of the year may come down to the D Line. With Bernard out, the line backers are just slightly above average and if we get a injury, we go down to just average. If we can’t stop the run, we will lose 4 games.
I like the guys we have filling that spot though. Adam Pulispher is very serviceable, just not nearly as dynamic as Bernard. I think it will be interesting too to see Isaiah Kaufusi get some more playing time without Bernard in the rotation. I think Isaiah Kaufusi will be a game changer down the line, he looked great in the spring.
We will have to see how this plays out. I would be inclined to give him a release of he wants it. But from all I have heard, his brother is trouble. I think I might take a wait and see attitude and if Francis wants to stay around he will be a star next year at BYU. If he isn’t granted a release, he will have to sit out a year at the U anyway. My bet is that he sticks around if that is the option. Jamal’s mom ought to call Bernards parents and give them a lesson on parenting and how a kid can grow up and excell in the NFL. However, if the honor code office is calling the shots, and the bishop, coach and kid have a different mind set, maybe this whole deal escalates into a bigger problem than it has to be. Kalani has to be feeling a little heat on this one. Hope they can figure it out.
