BYU Football: Further Away Than They Think

BYU began this football season with very high expectations. In their first year of independence, the Cougars had scheduled four tough games to start the year, but knew if they could win those games, they would have a great chance at going undefeated and playing in a BCS bowl for the first time in school history, or even a BCS Championship game.

Kiss those hopes goodbye. On September 10th, the BYU Cougars lost a lackluster 17-16 game against the Texas Longhorns. BYU looked great in the first half, building a 13-0 lead with over 11 minutes left in the second quarter. Texas had trouble moving the ball and the Cougars had two early takeaways. The defense looked stout for BYU and the offense was consistently in Longhorn territory.

That quickly changed in the second half. Texas began running the ball with consistency when backup QB David Ash came into the game. They even made a few plays through the air when 3rd QB Case McCoy came in. But defense is not what lost BYU the game.

Texas exposed several major flaws in this Cougar team, some of which were evident in the Ole Miss game as well:

1) The offensive line is big, but not necessarily good. The Cougars totalled 43 rush yards on 23 attempts against Texas. 1.9 yds/carry = not good. The main culprit is the offensive line. Any and all runs between the tackles were quickly shut down. Locally, the Cougar offensive line is always touted as being very good. Against Wyoming and UNLV they look good. Against decent competition, they are very average.

2) The RB's are just not that talented. It's sad to say that their best RB is J.J. DiLuigi. He is at best a pass catching 3rd down back, but because of the lack of talent in the backfield, he gets the majority of the carries. The way over-hyped "Juice" Quezada is nowhere to be found. And Bryan Kariya is a halfback with fullback speed.

Not one of the RB's is a threat to break a big play. Heck, name one player on the whole offense that is a big play threat. I knew you couldn't do it.

3) Robert Anae sighting. While watching the game, I almost thought I saw Robert Anae on the sideline calling the plays. Oh wait, that was Brandon Doman. They look so much alike...

If I'm not being obvious enough, I will spell it out. The play-calling is WAY too conservative. This is likely the biggest problem of all. Remember how Anae basically got fired because of the bad play-calling in the game vs. Utah last year? In the second half, new offensive coordinator Brandon Doman was worse. The longest play of the second half was eight yards. Eight yards! In an eerily similar game vs. Texas, BYU led most of the way only to let the Longhorns back in it toward the end and lose 17-16. The only difference is that last year, Anae at least called some plays that got the Cougars in field goal range (only to have the FG blocked). In this game, the Cougars never had a chance while throwing their boring and predictable 2 yard outs and even running a draw play on 3rd-and-long.

I realize that all of these flaws go hand in hand. If they could run the ball, maybe routes would open up down field. But stretching the defense is equally important, and it all starts with the play-calling. Heaps really has no chance to shine because Doman won't let the reigns go. In the Texas game, they actually threw the ball down-field a few times in the first half, but only once did they try in the 2nd half (on a desperation 3rd-and-long heave that was intercepted). BYU needs a change offensively to get the ball to these big WR's. Two offensive TD's in two full games against average teams is unacceptable, and the ultra-conservative play-calling and Brandon Doman are to blame.

How many BCS/national championship contenders have all of these major flaws? Not one. If they have a major flaw, it is covered up by an extreme strength. I'm tired of the hype before every season and the disappointment later on. Never again will I believe it. BYU will still win between 7-10 games against bad teams and then claim that they are a national power.

Enough with it! How about they try winning more than one tough game per season? The Cougars worry about being left out of the potential future 16-team super-conferences and not being included in a BCS conference. They should worry, because I'm not sure they belong.