CougarCorner

There's no question our lack of offensive leadership (read: Robert Anae) is costing us games this season. No fire, no schemes, no adjustments. It's impossible to expect a true freshman quarterback to lead a team to wins when the coaching staff begins the year with a half-assed decision, continues tryouts for a few games, and then adopts a tepid, vanilla strategy consisting primarily of three yard passes and DiLuigi runs on third and short.

But let's take a broader view for a minute. Even with our good teams, there have been two glaring issues that are now simply being accentuated. When we play quality opponents we are consistently NOT AS WELL-COACHED/PREPARED and NOT AS FAST. Thankfully Bronco has addressed part of this equation on defense. But overall, in spite of some solid 10-plus win seasons, there is no question we have been passed up by TCU, Utah, and Boise State in these two crucial areas.

When these three teams play big games they are consistently ready and show up to play. They also clearly have better team speed. Just watch a a couple other games on Saturday and the contrast is staggering. Unfortunately for us, our two quickest players--DiLuigi and Jacobsen--are pansies. You breathe on them and they fall down. So their speed is neutralized because they can't break one tackle (or in Jacobson's case, even get off the line of scrimmage). Man, could we have used Harvey Unga this year.

I fear the gap between BYU and these other teams will continue to widen until we address these two things. Sure, when we don't have such ineptitude and inexperience we might post 8, 9 or even ten wins. But we will never make a BCS game and consistently beat ranked teams until we have really good coaching and at least decent team speed.

One more point: while much has been made, rightfully, about dropped passes, just as disappointing is the inability of our wide receivers to get open. On so many plays Heaps simply has nowhere to go with the ball. This has to do with speed, strength, and effort.

I can't resist these threads. Anybody who has paid attention HAS to know how I feel about this already.

First off: Agreed. The game-time coaching has been PATHETIC against TCU and Utah the last few years. Go back to 2006 when our POWERHOUSE team needed a last second touchdown to beat a VERY well-coached Utah team who was so thin at so many positions they used that cornerback who plays for the Chargers now at like seven different positions. (Name???)

Now, I think it was a BRILLIANT move to bring Bronco back to the DC position. HOLY COW!!! Where has he BEEN all my life??? Our defense is a COMPLETELY different animal since Hill's firing. Had our offense done ANYTHING with the ball today we probably hold TCU to under 20 pts and I REALLY believe that.

But TEAM SPEED is my big beef and it always has been for those that have listened to my rants. Two words: Coach Omer. He has NO idea how to coach speed. Strength? Yes. But the kind of strength that helps O-linemen, NOT recievers, db's etc. He's a squats and bench press old school kind of guy and until he changes his regimen AND INCORPORATES YOGA TO REDUCE INJURIES....our team will continue to be slow as molasses.

nycougar wrote:There's no question our lack of offensive leadership (read: Robert Anae) is costing us games this season. No fire, no schemes, no adjustments. It's impossible to expect a true freshman quarterback to lead a team to wins when the coaching staff begins the year with a half-assed decision, continues tryouts for a few games, and then adopts a tepid, vanilla strategy consisting primarily of three yard passes and DiLuigi runs on third and short.

I've seen many great things posted today, but this is probably the best paragraph I've read. 100% spot on. Perfect analysis.