Fixing

[BroncoBot]

I think the Taysom injury broke the team's collective will and confidence.

Sure there were deficiencies on the Defense and the defensive players likely knew it. But they knew that if they failed that Taysom and the offense had their back. And even though the offense has struggled in long stretches of games since the injury and have played well enough to win all but the USU game, the Defense doesn't have that same confidence in the offense.

So they press. So they freeze with indecision. This team lost its identity and leader.

Just have to point out, T. Hill had some long periods of no scoring with the offense as well. First half of Texas comes to mind. Defense played alright in that game because up until then, no one was throwing the ball on every play yet.

[frdbtr]

Hill was this teams identity. They didn't need to come together. If the OL broke down, no worries, Hill would make it work. If the defense gave up some points, no worries, Hill would go get some more.

I like what the offense is doing right now - involving lots of players, even a TE!

As far as fixes, first and foremost, Howell goes and they bring in a legit DB coach. Holmoe makes the final call on who they bring in because Bronco cleary has issues when it comes to spotting coaching talent.

Fire the athletic trainer. Whatever that person is doing is resulting in high ankle sprains left and right.

Go get a Juco QB from a system that resembles ours as much as possible.

Bag GFGH. It hasn't given us any sort of edge. I'm fine mixing it in every now and then to keep opponents off balance but GFGH all the time isn't doing anything for us.

Use every minute of allocated practice time. I don't care if its in the morning or the afternoon, every minute that players can practice they should be practicing.

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The offense is fine. go fast, go hard, is working fine. We are averaging 32 pts per game on offense and giving up 30pts per game on defense. That is a full 10 pts per game higher than Bronco's average has been since he has been the head coach/d coordinator. (20.4 pts per game average 2005-2013) If BYU were only giving up 20 pts per game this year, we would have only lost 1 or 2 games. The issues are with the defense. Our offense is fine this year. We need to stop the stupid defensive penalties and get teams off the freaking field. BYU's defense is stopping no one right now.

[stuckinbig10country]

Find a way to get more money for assitants. Bronco is getting close to 2 million. That's good, but the assistants are still underpaid (relative to good college assistant coaching wages).

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[Cougs_Rule]

Hill was this teams identity. They didn't need to come together. If the OL broke down, no worries, Hill would make it work. If the defense gave up some points, no worries, Hill would go get some more.

I like what the offense is doing right now - involving lots of players, even a TE!

As far as fixes, first and foremost, Howell goes and they bring in a legit DB coach. Holmoe makes the final call on who they bring in because Bronco cleary has issues when it comes to spotting coaching talent.

Fire the athletic trainer. Whatever that person is doing is resulting in high ankle sprains left and right.

Go get a Juco QB from a system that resembles ours as much as possible.

Bag GFGH. It hasn't given us any sort of edge. I'm fine mixing it in every now and then to keep opponents off balance but GFGH all the time isn't doing anything for us.

Use every minute of allocated practice time. I don't care if its in the morning or the afternoon, every minute that players can practice they should be practicing.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

The offense is fine. go fast, go hard, is working fine. We are averaging 32 pts per game on offense and giving up 30pts per game on defense. That is a full 10 pts per game higher than Bronco's average has been since he has been the head coach/d coordinator. (20.4 pts per game average 2005-2013) If BYU were only giving up 20 pts per game this year, we would have only lost 1 or 2 games. The issues are with the defense. Our offense is fine this year. We need to stop the stupid defensive penalties and get teams off the freaking field. BYU's defense is stopping no one right now.

Are you kidding? BYUs offense sucked the first 20 minutes last night and by then the game was over. Multiple three and outs giving the ball back to that steamroller of an O. GFGH is hardly working fine.

[Brayden Green]

Hey, I wrote about this 3 weeks ago! At risk of being a Dbag and reposting myself... this applies quite nicely here, maybe even more so as of today:

BlueIsBetter » Sat Oct 04, 2014 4:59 am

Here is a list of things that must be immediately changed in BYU's program. Items on this list do not need to be accomplished by next week, but should be instituted as soon as possible, either throughout the season or in the offseason.

#1 Bronco needs to take back the defense, and that needs to be explicitly his. I am not suggesting a demotion. He must be the DC, and can also be the HC.

#2 Bronson Kaufusi needs to move back to DE. I never understood how removing him further from the action and dropping him back in coverage was going to make us and him better, and we are seeing this stupid idea playing out in front of us.

#3 BYU needs to operate out of ONE (1) offensive set until each lineman knows how to properly pick up the blitz from, at the very least, the middle. Hopefully the OLB blitz and the defensive line "twist" can also be picked up by the end of the season. Once all lineman can block and not false start efficiently, we can add more offensive packages.

#4 Byu needs to hire an offensive mind that can operate both efficiently and effectively given the plusses and minuses BYU has. Offensive line should never, ever, EVER be a weakness for BYU, and it has been for the last 5 years. The Robert Anae experiment has already failed once, and it is failing again.

#5 Tight ends need to come back and be a prominent part in the offense3 (I would imagine they do when Anae and his gimmicky, hole ridden offense leaves).

#6 Penalties need to stop. Players need to sit for mistakes.

#7 BYU either needs to switch out of the 3-4 defense or learn how to blitz properly. We rarely get pressure on the quarterback in the last 5 years. Both playcalling and "execution" are very suspect.

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[SenorCougar]

BYU lost its season with the loss of Taysom. Some players, like Taysom, inspire play on both sides of the ball. His loss means more than downfield passes and running...

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[Yzzazz]

The problems look terrible this year. But I wonder. Maybe they aren't so bad as we think.

1. I think the core problem is lack of depth, really at every position, and I'm not certain it can ever really be "fixed" at a football-is-fifth program being led by an I'm-trying-to-coach-like-Jesus-would man. From that perspective it is a wonder BYU wins any games at all. Realistically BYU should play in the IVY league or be in the WCC or something. But the fact that they have vastly outperformed that level is what has given them the opportunity to consider being something else.

In past years, if Marc Wilson goes down, the back up guy is Jim McMahon. Remember getting down three QBs and Ryan Hancock actually makes the season a beautiful thing? I don't know who is behind Stewart, but I strongly doubt he's been overlooked. Since 2007, the QB stable has been very thin and low on talent. I'm not certain, but I think QB's realize Bronco's ways are not a ticket to the NFL. Ben Olson couldn't handle the Bronco way. I know, BO wasn't much to talk about, but I do wonder if there is evidence of a persistent weakness between Bronco and star QBs. Right now it is a very tough sell to get enough talent here to really solve that issue. If 80% of your offense is that guy, you better have two of them.

I do wonder if QB depth can ever be fixed or not.

#2. Now the way BYU gets around problem #1 is an attempt at superior system design and scheme. The information age reduces the value of this approach because anything one person learns can be more quickly learned by others today than ever before. If this ever worked for BYU in the past, it may not work now. But if it were to work, near-perfect execution is the requirement.

It is likely that the weakness of this approach is that without the starters executing, it breaks down. Every time BYU has sustained an unusual amout of injuries, an unusual amount of losses occurs. Think TCU's major comeback in Provo Circa 2006. Any time we have had new coordinators, losses have occurred unexpectedly.

Offense wasn't an issue until we didn't have anyone ready to replace Taysom.
Defense was an issue from the start, but Howell is new. Shouldn't be a surprise. The injury bug looks terrible. The team should take a hard look at what might be going wrong. But the truth is that it could simply be a streak of bad luck.

The reality is that both of these things could revert back to the mean and BYU could begin winning games next year.

I hope simply staying the course is the right thing to do, but in reality I think some amount of improved QB recruiting needs to come into play and the defense needs to get a little deeper talent-wise if possible, to make it through the year.

[SpiffCoug]

Are you kidding? BYUs offense sucked the first 20 minutes last night and by then the game was over. Multiple three and outs giving the ball back to that steamroller of an O. GFGH is hardly working fine.

Yep. I think as a whole the offense is working fine. But when it doesn't - it doesn't work at all. It develops a rhythm. It either takes the offense several drives to get that rhythm going or it loses it for several drives in a row.

[frdbtr]

Are you kidding? BYUs offense sucked the first 20 minutes last night and by then the game was over. Multiple three and outs giving the ball back to that steamroller of an O. GFGH is hardly working fine.

Yep. I think as a whole the offense is working fine. But when it doesn't - it doesn't work at all. It develops a rhythm. It either takes the offense several drives to get that rhythm going or it loses it for several drives in a row.

And in the past the defense would stop the other teams O and keep us in the game until rhythm is developed. This year the other team has us down 21 before the O does anything and it spells disaster. Offenses aren't going to be able to score on every drive, it is up to the defense to make sure the other teams O doesn't score on every drive.

[SpiffCoug]

Are you kidding? BYUs offense sucked the first 20 minutes last night and by then the game was over. Multiple three and outs giving the ball back to that steamroller of an O. GFGH is hardly working fine.

Yep. I think as a whole the offense is working fine. But when it doesn't - it doesn't work at all. It develops a rhythm. It either takes the offense several drives to get that rhythm going or it loses it for several drives in a row.

And in the past the defense would stop the other teams O and keep us in the game until rhythm is developed. This year the other team has us down 21 before the O does anything and it spells disaster. Offenses aren't going to be able to score on every drive, it is up to the defense to make sure the other teams O doesn't score on every drive.

If we're down 21-0 it's not just because the D is giving up points, it's because the O isn't scoring either.

Against Boise, the Offense had three 3-and-outs and a fumbled punt before they go going. That's been the only game where the Cougars got beat from the start.

Against Nevada, they scored on their 2nd drive - it was their scoreless 3rd quarter (due to fumbles and missed FGs) that lost that game.

Against UCF they started the game scoreless through five drives before figuring things out to a degree with a FG on drive six. But the defense held UCF to 10 early points and then nothing until the 4th when the offense again stalled, killed themselves with fumbles and special teams gave up big returns and momentum.

It's WHEN the offense is failing that's doing the team in just as much as when the defense is failing - which was the entire Boise game.