Story of a team

[BoiseBYU]

A perennial top 15 team, they lost their star QB and their best receiver this year. Running back is not settled either, but the defense will carry them through. They have to go with a very young QB, even though he is Mr. World. The DC is highly regarded. And they have been pummeled the last two weeks, one week by a very bad team....I speak, of course, of Texas....

[BoiseBYU]

Oh and Penn State with their freshman QB scored 3 tonight...and Florida with their young QB got 6...I'm NOT defending Anae, and I KNOW that Alabama and Iowa are not the teams we have been playing, but part of the problem we are dealing with is that we had very unrealistic expectations about a very good high school QB coming in..name one team who is doing well this year with a freshman QB....and I will even allow for a redshirt freshman...Pretty few eh? Texas is 3-2 I know but they hat their butts kicked the last two weeks--they are struggling too

[cachevalleycougar]

After losing BYU's all-time leading QB, all-time leading RB, and all-time leading TE (not to mention the best FB they've had in years) - nobody should have expected the offense to put up 30+ a game this year. Heaps is just lucky that the O-line is as experienced as it is, or he would be getting sacked 5 or 6 times a game. And as good as DiLuigi is, he's not on all-game back - he's a change of pace back. It also doesn't help that there have been too many dropped catches to count...somebody step up and help a freshman quarterback! The biggest beef I have with Anae's play calling this year is that it seems that almost every pass the receivers catch is a hitch where they get tackled immediately. Why can't we get the ball into someone's hands while they're on the run?

The defense needed to step up and keep the team in games, but they haven't despite having a relatively experienced secondary. I'm all for the firing of Hill.

[SpiffCoug]

I don't think expecting a young team to score more than 20 (currently 15.2) in a game is unrealistic. I don't think expecting a freshman QB to have a rating over 120 (currently 91.94) is setting my expectations too high. I don't think expecting an offense to convert 40% (currently 38.6%) of its third downs is asking too much. I don't think asking receivers to drop passes (well over 30) is requesting this team do more than they can.

We're a young team that is performing far below where they should. The fans know it. The coaches know it. The players know it.

[BoiseBYU]

I don't think expecting a young team to score more than 20 (currently 15.2) in a game is unrealistic. I don't think expecting a freshman QB to have a rating over 120 (currently 91.94) is setting my expectations too high. I don't think expecting an offense to convert 40% (currently 38.6%) of its third downs is asking too much. I don't think asking receivers to drop passes (well over 30) is requesting this team do more than they can.

We're a young team that is performing far below where they should. The fans know it. The coaches know it. The players know it.

I think the fans at Texas and Penn State are thinking the same. I think your expectations are not unreasonable, but I think even more reasonable is the expectation that with a frosh QB, frosh TEs, and no Unga, things offensively were going to be very rough. I wonder what the passing efficiency is of a frosh --not a redshirt frosh but a complete frosh--QB. I bet it is closer to where we are than where you think things should be--and this is with our team having the fourth SOS! OK only put up 28 on USU at OK! Perhaps with USU our SOS went down, but still we have played some dang tough teams!....The dropped passes baffles me--we SHOULD expect passes to be caught and that has not happened.

[snoscythe]

Oh and Penn State with their freshman QB scored 3 tonight...and Florida with their young QB got 6...I'm NOT defending Anae, and I KNOW that Alabama and Iowa are not the teams we have been playing, but part of the problem we are dealing with is that we had very unrealistic expectations about a very good high school QB coming in..name one team who is doing well this year with a freshman QB....and I will even allow for a redshirt freshman...Pretty few eh? Texas is 3-2 I know but they hat their butts kicked the last two weeks--they are struggling too

Hmmm....some of us got reamed in the summer for trying to rein in expectations for Heaps. I practically got railroaded for comparing stats of true freshmen QBs to RS Frosh QBs. With a true freshman under center, the ceiling for wins seems to be 8--and that is with teams who have great defenses and don't screw things up by trying to be cute with a 2 QB system.

Here are teams with freshmen at QB, listed in order of the QB's PER rating (note that Gabbert is a sophomore, and Brantley at Florida is a Jr) :

Georgia is 1-4, averaging about 24 ppg with a RS freshman (PER 146.06)
Troy is 2-2, averaging just over 35 ppg with a RS freshman. (PER 140.04)
ULM is 1-3, averaging just under 15 ppg with a RS freshman (PER 128.54)
Kansas is 2-3, averaging 19 ppg with a RS freshman (PER 127)
CSU is 1-4, averaging 11 ppg with a true freshman (PER 125.72)
Memphis is 1-4, averaging 16 ppg with a true freshman (PER 121.23)
Penn State is 3-2, averaging nearly 20 ppg with a true freshman (115.23)
Illinois is 2-2, averaging just over 22 ppg with a RS freshman (108.83)
BYU is 1-4, averaging just over 15 ppg with a true freshman (PER 88.78)

[BoiseBYU]

Oh and Penn State with their freshman QB scored 3 tonight...and Florida with their young QB got 6...I'm NOT defending Anae, and I KNOW that Alabama and Iowa are not the teams we have been playing, but part of the problem we are dealing with is that we had very unrealistic expectations about a very good high school QB coming in..name one team who is doing well this year with a freshman QB....and I will even allow for a redshirt freshman...Pretty few eh? Texas is 3-2 I know but they hat their butts kicked the last two weeks--they are struggling too

Hmmm....some of us got reamed in the summer for trying to rein in expectations for Heaps. I practically got railroaded for comparing stats of true freshmen QBs to RS Frosh QBs. With a true freshman under center, the ceiling for wins seems to be 8--and that is with teams who have great defenses and don't screw things up by trying to be cute with a 2 QB system.

Here are teams with freshmen at QB, listed in order of the QB's PER rating (note that Gabbert is a sophomore, and Brantley at Florida is a Jr) :

Georgia is 1-4, averaging about 24 ppg with a RS freshman (PER 146.06)
Troy is 2-2, averaging just over 35 ppg with a RS freshman. (PER 140.04)
ULM is 1-3, averaging just under 15 ppg with a RS freshman (PER 128.54)
Kansas is 2-3, averaging 19 ppg with a RS freshman (PER 127)
CSU is 1-4, averaging 11 ppg with a true freshman (PER 125.72)
Memphis is 1-4, averaging 16 ppg with a true freshman (PER 121.23)
Penn State is 3-2, averaging nearly 20 ppg with a true freshman (115.23)
Illinois is 2-2, averaging just over 22 ppg with a RS freshman (108.83)
BYU is 1-4, averaging just over 15 ppg with a true freshman (PER 88.78)

Thanks Sno. And looking briefly I'd say our schedule has been toughest eh?

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