CougarCorner

Re: Is it Possible that Wisconsin is just bad this year?

2018-09-18T14:37:51-06:00

Wisconsin still #12 in S&P.

Statistics: Posted by Mars — Tue Sep 18, 2018 2:37 pm

Re: Is it Possible that Wisconsin is just bad this year?

2018-09-18T14:08:36-06:00

And if Wisconsin winds up stinking up the rest of the season, I will point to the BYU game as the reason. If they suck, it will be because BYU broke them.

And that assumption will probably have a lot of validity to it, if it ends up that way.

Unfortunately, many people looking from the outside in won't see it that way.

Statistics: Posted by Jarhead — Tue Sep 18, 2018 2:08 pm

Re: Is it Possible that Wisconsin is just bad this year?

2018-09-18T09:38:59-06:00

And if Wisconsin winds up stinking up the rest of the season, I will point to the BYU game as the reason. If they suck, it will be because BYU broke them.

Statistics: Posted by SpiffCoug — Tue Sep 18, 2018 9:38 am

Re: Is it Possible that Wisconsin is just bad this year?

2018-09-18T08:44:00-06:00

This conversation is what drives me crazy about our fans. Last week we had posters who were saying we should not be scheduling teams like Wisconsin and should rejoin the MWC and fill our schedule with teams like Weber and SUU. So now we be a ligit perennial top 10 team on the road and it's...well they really arn't that good. I couldn't be more thrilled with this team. Sure we lost to Cal and could have won that game but I am just happy we actually have an offense that can move the ball and a defense that can come up with a stop when needed.

So, just enjoy the game!!!!

Go Cougs

L Hatton
Louisville, KY

I get more frustrated when fans start complaining about each other.

I don't see anyone definitively stating that this is not an amazing win. I also don't see anyone definitively stating that Wisconsin was for sure a bad team.

There are just some fans hoping that Wisconsin turns out to be as good as advertised, for the sake of our strength of schedule this year. We have a lot of experience of teams collapsing after we beat them (and for some of that BYU deserves some credit). It would be great to see Wisconsin bounce back and have a stellar year, and not turn out like Arizona did, for example, where we beat them and then they fall apart against the next team. Again, I think BYU deserves some credit still, if Wisconsin cracks because of our beating them, but it would just be great if they did not (it takes all the excuses out). We haven't had a lot of experience with teams rebounding and helping our strength of schedule in great wins like this in recent years.

Statistics: Posted by Jarhead — Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:44 am

Re: Is it Possible that Wisconsin is just bad this year?

2018-09-18T07:48:53-06:00

The key thing to remember, is no team BYU has ever beaten has ended up going undefeated.

Statistics: Posted by hawkwing — Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:48 am

Re: Is it Possible that Wisconsin is just bad this year?

2018-09-18T07:47:06-06:00

Wisconsin will not be in the playoff....because we beat them. But this team was legit. If they win out and win their conference, they would end up being one of the best teams BYU ever beat (Miami will probably always hold that title). They will probably end up the year with another loss or two but will end the year in the top 25 which will still be a great win. Don't worry, they are a very good team that we played at the right time with the right attitude and beat. This was a really quality win.

Statistics: Posted by frdbtr — Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:47 am

Re: Is it Possible that Wisconsin is just bad this year?

2018-09-18T05:00:07-06:00

This conversation is what drives me crazy about our fans. Last week we had posters who were saying we should not be scheduling teams like Wisconsin and should rejoin the MWC and fill our schedule with teams like Weber and SUU. So now we be a ligit perennial top 10 team on the road and it's...well they really arn't that good. I couldn't be more thrilled with this team. Sure we lost to Cal and could have won that game but I am just happy we actually have an offense that can move the ball and a defense that can come up with a stop when needed.

So, just enjoy the game!!!!

Go Cougs

L Hatton
Louisville, KY

Statistics: Posted by KYCoug — Tue Sep 18, 2018 5:00 am

Re: Is it Possible that Wisconsin is just bad this year?

2018-09-17T20:57:07-06:00

No team looks great in a loss. If their offense had run up the score and lost, their defense would be suspect. If their defense held us to 3 points and we won, they’d be universally panned as terrible. You can really only look at the adjacent games and overall record to guess accurately whether a team is any good.

Statistics: Posted by Sammich — Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:57 pm

Re: Is it Possible that Wisconsin is just bad this year?

2018-09-17T18:20:14-06:00

Hornibrook is the same QB that lit us up in Provo last year. Jonathan Taylor rushed for almost 2,000 yards and is a Heisman candidate. Finished #6 in the Heisman voting in 2017. Easily pre-season top-5 in just about every analysis. On pace for over 2,000 yards this year. They returned their entire oline from last year, including 3 All Americans - every one of them on the Outland trophy watch list and NFL draft board.

Other stats I saw:

Wisconsin had the #2 defense last year.

They were #6 in rushing coming into this game.

These are good points. It gives me hope.

The reason I think this matters is not because I want to discount the value of the win. It is what everyone has said it was, one of the biggest in school history. The bigger reason is to determine what kind of predictor this win is for the season, and more importantly, the program. Will the offensive coordinator continue to make good play calls and study hard to prep adequately for upcoming opponents? Has the strength and conditioning staff truly improved and made a quantum leap forward? Will BYU actually be able to compete in the top 25 stage?

As much as BYU fans have ever hoped these things would be true, they NEVER really were for any sustainable period. Flashes: 1984, 1996, 2006, but nothing that continued and all revolved around a senior QB.

What we saw in the Wisconsin game appeared to be a whole new level of play. The only thing we ever saw that was close to it, in my opinion, was the Oklahoma game, but the brightness of that fizzled. Injuries, change of personnel, poor coaching in clutch moments are what have defined BYU over the years. We saw no indication of that in this game (minimal injury in a HIGHLY physical game and the game didn't rest on the senior QB though he certainly played his part well) and it would be amazing to think we might be able to expect more of that in the future.

Obviously, we can't know for sure that a sea-change has truly occurred, this week, but a win at Washington would make you begin to wonder. We won't really know until next year (or maybe this year if injury strikes) and a new QB and RB show up. I am very impressed with the idea that our O-line put on an average of 30 pounds of muscle to be ready for this season. I think that shows outstanding foresight by the staff and bodes well for Kalani's future.

Statistics: Posted by Yzzazz — Mon Sep 17, 2018 6:20 pm

Re: Is it Possible that Wisconsin is just bad this year?

2018-09-17T15:43:12-06:00

Other stats I saw:

Wisconsin had the #2 defense last year.

They were #6 in rushing coming into this game.

Statistics: Posted by Mars — Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:43 pm