The state of BYU football, playing for a bowl game

Correct me if I am wrong here…All of us thought BYU would go up to Boise and get thumped. I know I was dreading it. So we go up there, get 14 points behind and don’t die, we actually out play BSU the rest of the game and if you take stupid penalties out of the picture, we wreak them by about 3 TDs.

BYU’s defense is good, real good. For one thing, to be on the field for about 2/3’s of the game and not be gassed speaks volumes.

Wilson will continue to grow (he was sacked 7 times and over 50 yards) that is one thing he has to grow out of. Get rid of the ball, kid. Other then that, man has he got an arm. wow.

Coaching has got to quit losing us these tight games.

I say BYU wins out and goes bowling, just a hunch.

I have a question for you fish…

I watched a little of the game (I work at the Temple on Saturday night)…

I was thinking about our Defense…
I watch Wilson move the cougars down the field and score because of a BSU turnover, but I watched as our defense got shredded by BSU the very next series when they scored a TD.

My thought were: What happened to our stellar front seven?

I remember the days we had people like Buck and Knight on the line while having players like Morris as linebackers.

This year we Kaufusi on the line, but I really don’t see the strong Linebackers as we had in the past…

What are your thoughts?

If BYU makes some luck with some decent coaching we beat UMASS and New Mex. State. The Ute game will be the eighth loss in a row. BYU goes to a toilet bowl and who knows who wins. Its according to who we play and where.

Injuries…What happened to Butch Pau’u? I know we lost our 2nd best guy in Anderson to injury and I did see big Corbin Kaufusi at linebacker for a few games and that was not good. Turns out that BYU had great DB play this year and that is a surprise. We are pretty good at defending the run so if we are hiding our weak areas, we are doing a pretty good job of it.

I just know that BYU’s defense is not the reason why we are losing.
http://www.espn.com/college-football/boxscore?gameId=401016410
We outplayed BSU.

One more thing: Why did Burt attempt to run out of the endzone to start the game…put us on the 11 yd line, then we punted and BSU starts on our side of the field. Just lame decision making everywhere.

I can’t say for sure, but what I heard the radio guys this morning saying was that Burt made the decision on his own, the coaches don’t like to run it out unless it is obvious that you can make it beyond the 25 yard marker…

Who was it that fumbled the punt/kickoff return? I heard that was his first time catching… maybe his last? :open_mouth:

We can’t just throw new guys into the kickoff return and punt return teams all the time. This is a coaching issue. I don’t think they have the right guys on the field and they are panicked now to try to get production out of the special teams!

I thought Shelton was doing that duty, probably got yanked when he said he “would rather play away games because BYU fans can be a downer at times” on live radio…

That might be a good reason to yank him! But he is probably right!! Just can’t say those things or the stadium will quickly become an AWAY stadium with no student section showing up and lots more empty seats appearing. Come to think of it … maybe the team would play better without people in the stands!! Worth a try!!

After starting the season 3-1 with quality wins against UA and Wisconsin and a close loss to Cal, BYU is 1-4 in their last 5 games. Close losses have bcome a BYU trademark and that is on the coaching staff and mental focus of the players as well as their “inexperience”.

I dont see how BYU beats Utah, they will rally around a new QB and do what it takes to beat BYU. They should beat NMSU but who knows with UMass. They give up a lot of points but they also score a lot sometimes and it is there. What if the weather is bad? anything can happen.

Bowl eligible is not a given with this team…

I predicted 6-6 before the season. I thought our OL would be great–instead it has allowed 12 sacks (TWELVE) in 2 games and has CHOKED inside the 10 in two straight games. I thought our D would be too conservative but in the end be OK, which it is. Sum total: boring football. I never thought I’d see the day where I skipped a BYU/BSU game, went to the movies, and watched the entire game in less than 45 minutes the next day. I’m a pretty committed BYU fan but have come to realize that being independent means that after you lose a couple games, NONE of the rest really matter. Meaningless games+boring football=who cares? As texcoug1492 says, when the best you can do is the toilet bowl, it’s just not really that exciting.

Let’s face it: we couldn’t score at home, on a beautiful fall day, against Northern Illinois, in front of what looked like fifteen or twenty thousand empty seats. I’m not the only one who’s starting to tune out. Sitake seems like the greatest guy ever, but it’s been a different excuse almost every week for two years now.

Reminds me of basketball but for a much longer period of time

tlarimer

I agree with every word of your post. In regards to what you are saying, “I predicted 6-6 before the season.” et.al., I ask that you please read my post,“pleading for a trial period for change, and respond”.

I don’t expect you to agree, but I do believe that you will be fair and respectful in letting me know why you don’t agree.

Thanks

Ron

Word on the street, Sitake has to win the UMass game or else. I personally think that since Holmoe personally recruited Sitake and he is his guy, Sitake has this year and possibly the next to turn things around. I like the guy and I think Grimes and Co are good coaches and I think they recruit well so we will see. I don’t think that indy is sustainable and is killing BYU slowly. After a loss or two on the road to P5 teams that won’t replicate their agreements to play in our house, ND and Bame etc… BYU is at a great disadvantage.

I think BYU will play UMass much like the Hawaii game. They can score but BYU can certainly score a ton too on their soft defense. BYU should get somewhere around 40 and keep UMass under 30 points.

BYU keeps changing things up, no wonder they are losing.

I read through this thread today…realized that we could substitute the wins over Tenn,USC and BUS over last year’s Arizona and Wisconsin …….BYU has not changed much

We still choke after big wins and lose to some bottom feeders.

fish, I very, very, very respectfully disagree.
If we ever hope to be a P5 team in a P5 conference with National Relevance, we must stay the course.

This season to date, we beat two ranked teams, #24 USC and #14 Boise State. We lost to two ranked teams, Utah and Washington. Hey fish, we played 4 ranked teams.

We played 4 P5 teams and won half of them, USC and Tennessee.

We are not close yet to being worthy to be in a P5 conference. But we have a much greater chance to learn how to play P5 teams by playing P5 teams that we could learn by playing G5 teams.

People respect our independent schedule and some even think of us as a P5 independent. We could not come close to that honor in a G5 conference.

I would rather finish seasons with 6-6, 7-5 or 8-4 finishes playing the Indendent schedule that we are now playing, that to finish
10-2, 9-3, or 8-4 as a meaningless G5 conference team that may be in the top half of the conference.

Tex,
We payed four P5 teams and won half of them.
We played four ranked teams and won half of them.
We are playing the toughest schedules that we have played in the history of BYU football including the glory years and we are learning each season how to compete on something close to a P5 schedule.

We are doing a lot better than UCLA and we are ranked far above them.

We are doing better then Illonoise, and we are ranked far above them.

We are doing better than Oregon State, and we are ranked far above them.

We are doing better than Arkansas, and we are ranked far above them.

We are doing better than Kansas, and we are ranked above them.

We are doing better than Tennessee and we are ranked above them.

Tex, I am not comparing above teams from G5 conferences of the FCS. All teams that I am comparing ourselves to above are from P5 conferences.

Granted all comparable teams listed above are having down seasons. So are we but we are still doing better then they are.

I am just asking for patience. We are not as bad as you think we are.

Ya but I’m sure the wins weren’t USC, Boise and even Tennessee. And the losses to Toledo and USF weren’t supposed to be losses. We definately should be 5-2 had Grimes gone down to the field during the Washington game and Sitaki taken over the defense after the Washington game.

Well, we agree on patience and we aren’t as bad as some think.

"We are not as bad as you think we are.: That is not what I mean. I mean what BYU stands for, that is a unique University with specific standards. That sports are not as high on the agenda from our Board of Directors as most P-5 schools, which are mostly public institutions who seek to draw more money from the state and the P-5 cartel. BYU is not in their league or leagues.