I know I have had my negative posts on the State of BYU football of late but want all of you to know as a fan of well over 40 years, including many early on sitting at a stake center with other die hardship because that’s all there was, I have been very positive over much of this span. But slowly and surely, what has happened to this team in the last 15 or more years, with some exceptions, is heartbreaking to me.
We have morphed from a respected, if hated team, to a complete joke and irrelevant football team. A string of nice guy but inexperienced coaches at virtually all positions has decimated our quality of play and made recruiting of top talent almost impossible. Edwards found a way to take mediocre players and turn them into winners and that success fed better recruiting and better teams for years. The reality is that all that momentum has been lost and may never be regained. That genie can’t be put back in the bottle, and I fear that competitive football at the highest level may be permanently over for our team
Can anyone honestly tell me why a quality recruit, LDS or not, would come to BYU if he has any aspiration at all to go pro or play in games of any national importance. Maybe I’m not a faithful BYU man, but if I where faced with this choice, I could not see me coming here because it’s becoming a dark hole of poor coaching, poor play and irrelevance. For example, name me one player in the past 5 years who vastly proved his position play because of good coaching? And don’t say Ziggy because the coaches were so poor in evaluating talent that if it had not been for injuries, he may never have played much at all. Van Noi and Nacala are exceptions but they were gifted from the beginning for the most part. Generally speaking, our teams over that stretch played no better the last game of the season (in some cases worse) than they did in the first or second game. That is a clear sign of ineffective coaching and it’s been going on for a long while.
I don’t blame it all on coaching as I believe failure of players to commit to becoming better and the time and effort this requires is no longer a part of being a BYU football player deep inside. Yes, some very few have it, but most do not. I am always astonished at how few players have any muscle definition showing in arms. Williams and Van Noy and ziggy where exceptions as was Hill. I see other teams players and see powerful arms and then see ours that have less definition than my 65 year old arms. I’m not saying that this necessarily makes better players but it does indicate a willingness to physically pay a price in the weight room to become stronger, which clearly is not visible with many, many of our players. If not in the weight room, why should I believe it happens in the rest of their seasonal preparation. Just an example of what I believe to be a very big problem for BYU coaches.
Enough said. I just don’t see a turnaround with the current state of affairs. I actually fear we are now only seeing the tip of the iceberg and that our play will yet become worse barring some major change in leadership in coaching and in players that come in. I don’t believe that football is important enough to the powers that be to make that happen nor do I see coaching at BYU now as a desirable job or a place for good players to come.
I feel for those who missed most if not all of the great football that was played from the mid 70s through the 90s, with some exceptions but many more successes. It was great and brought many happy moments and I would have loved to have all enjoy those kind of games. That time is gone, I miss it, and just don’t see it ever returning.