I'm not sure why people are saying that the offensive line is talented. Just because you are a returning starter and you sucked last year, that doesn't make you talented. I would have been happier if we didn't return anyone not named Tejan to starter on the line.
I have seen no evidence of them being talented. They are getting beat at the point of attack week after week, play after play. Even against Portland State. The quarterbacks have almost zero time to drop back and find someone. And that is generally with a straight rush.
The few times that we do have time to throw, it is generally a straight rush (the expected normal) or they have dropped into some sort of protect/zone scheme, and aren't sending additional men.
5 - 6 blockers should be able to handle 4 men rushing for more than 1 or 2 seconds. There is no excuse for the way they are getting beat.
While the pass blocking is by no means impressive, I think pockets have generally been clean. Some of it is on a QB who has a poor feel for where the pocket is--Tanner drops too deep making him and easy target for rushing ends. Stepping up into the pocket more often would help his OL out.
I'm most surprised at how bad the run blocking is. Part of the transition to the pro-style offense is transitioning to using traditional power/gap run blocking to supplement (or replace) the zone blocking they were doing with Hill at QB. Power run block requires bigger, stronger linemen than the ones that were recruited under the previous regime, so I believe some of it is that BYU doesn't have the big dudes to run their preferred scheme. That said, I'm surprised that the line isn't further along than it should be--maybe by going back to the zone schemes early last year with Hill and Williams has hurt the line's development in the long run.
I think a power blocking line will help with the style of RBs BYU has now. Zone blocking requires the RB to read where the hole is--some thing Williams (and Hill) was good at. The traditional power scheme is more about the line making the hole in the specified location and the RB getting through the designed hole. Wisconsin looked very good using their power scheme because the hole was appearing where it was designed to appear and all the running backs had to do was run through the hole exactly as it appeared in the playbook.
Right now BYU seems to be in a netherworld of either trying to win now using using out-of-system plays better suited for the current out-of-system players or focus on implementing a system that is better in the long run (hopefully) so that the underclassmen and new in-system recruits will have several years of development in the system before they get significant playing time. Or perhaps there really isn't a trade off between short and long term and the optimist in me is just making excuses for poor coaching--the problem is there's no way to know the answer immediately.
Wisconsin is a school that under Barry Alvarez chose a system suited for the types of players they can recruit (big, strong Midwestern boys) and has continued to use that system since turning the program around over 20 years ago. It may take a few years, but I think BYU should be able to implement a similar system with similar success.Statistics: Posted by Mingjai — Tue Sep 19, 2017 2:47 pm
]]>