#4 Arod and the offense.
“Saturday night was an Aaron Roderick masterclass. It still blows my mind that a large chunk of the fan base wants him gone. And yet BYU only scored 29 offensive points because Saturday was a microcosm of the season. BYU moved the ball at will throughout and situational execution cost BYU at least 18 points and over 130 yards of offense. BYU had guys open all night long despite missing their top 2 receivers most of the game. If you are going to criticize Roderick for BYU’s abysmal 3rd down offense the first half of the season, then he should get credit for BYU going 19/34 on third down over the final 3 weeks. BYU converted multiple third and longs including a brilliant screen to Parker Kingston who made Travis Hunter look silly en route to a first down.”
Me: the 2nd half of the season Martin was healthy and a big reason for BYU’s 3rd down % going way up. I DON"T like Arod’s be cute and tricky in goal line situations. That Bohanan wounded duck pass was not justified, we were moving Colo. downfield 5 chunk yards at a time all game long in fact, I don’t recall Colo stopping BYU running all night.
How many of the trick plays (not including the on-side kick because that was special teams) worked for BYU in the Bowl game? Right now, can’t think of single one.
Arod to me is a lot like Retzlaff. Sometimes, they are cookin, making the right plays/reads…then the wheels fall off. But 11-2 says nobody’s going anywhere. Live with it and hope everyone gets better
Poor execution cost BYU on 2 drives into the red zone where they should have gotten at least field goals on the 2 Retzlaff interceptions. That’s not on ARod. The play where Bohanon threw the interception it seems ARod was trying to get too cute with that play call, but part of it was that the pass was way under thrown and into coverage. Somebody I know who was at the game said Retzlaff was open on the left side of the field, and Bohanon did look that direction and then threw deep to the right. Watching that play again it didn’t look like Retzlaff was that open to me. It kind of looked like the DB was aware of Retzlaff being there and was playing off just enough to bait Bohanon into throwing that direction. It looked to me like his eyes were on Retzlaff and he could have broken on the ball quickly. That’s the impression I got. Nothing looked that open and Bohanon should have thrown it long where only his guy would have had a shot at getting the ball. The exotic play call was unnecessary and it appeared Colorado had it covered pretty well. It almost looked like the play was designed for Bohanon to throw back to Retzlaff and Bohanon didn’t think it was open.
I think there is a tendency to blame the OC when a play doesn’t work. Sometimes it is just good defense or poor execution. Norm Chow was run out of town after working with some just ok QBs and people thought he had lost his touch. When he had Detmer, or Sarkisian and a few others he was a genius and he was a genius again when he had Rivers at NC State and when he coached elite talent at USC.
The play where Kingston threw a perfect pass to a wide open tight end worked like a charm and the tight end flat out failed to catch a ball that was placed right in his hands. That was a touchdown. It should have worked the receiver just botched the play.
It feels good to know that someone else, who I respect and understand, thinks EXACTLY the same way that I do with regards to a particular situation or circumstance. This time it is the QB/OC conundrum we have experienced.
The defense and special teams play was so good this past season that it masked the ineptitude of the offense overall. Was the offense bad? Was the offense good? I’m of the opinion that it was neither and both. It was a wonderfully disfunctional, fantastic mess at times. Not sure how else to describe it.
Maybe it was like its’ number one fan here, the Hopper. Sometimes the Hopper will post something that gives us all hope that he is finally getting it and then the wheels come off and he posts something that makes us all think he has no clue. He rarely agrees with anyone and he loves to argue EVERYTHING. Like Arod and Jake, he is Jekyll and Hyde and you never really know which one you will get. So unpredictable and nonsensical at the same time.
I’ve heard that Norm was the worst “people person” there is. How someone can coach young men and have the personality of a wet paper towel at the same time is beyond me. I always thought he knew what he was doing, but he just wasn’t very personable.
every team I have ever coached, “If you can touch it, you can catch it”
just for kicks, I went back and looked at when LJ Martin came back…He was injured in the 2nd game, playing SMU. Martin did not come back until the Az game but was not himself until the next game vs. OSU. That is 7 games out…one could say that BYU did not have a good dependable rushing game until the last 1/3 of the season. I think we were 13% on 3rd downs…that all flipped the last 5 games were BYU was over 50% on conversions. Ask Colo. what it is like to be one dimensional??? The entire reason why I predicted a BYU win.
Looking back, running the ball was sooooo bad that Retzlaff was the top rusher in 2 of those early games. I do have issue with both the Kansas and ASU games, throw Utah in there but they always play tough D vs. BYU…but we did not look explosive in any of those last 3.
Your right, we “know” what happen, you are just guessing.
BTW, if it was not for those “big-time donors”, we would not have the current LES stadium, BYU would have had to shut down some sports teams during the pandemic, but these donors gave BYU money to keep operational. We would not have the indoor facility, the Baseball and softball parks.
So before bashing the donors that gave money to support BYU sports, you might want to thank them instead.
Sorry Floyd. I thank you for your donations. But, when donations are made, that doesn’t make you the administration, AD, or any of the coaches. If you think you have any rights on the decisions then that would be corruption, would it not?
Only in your blue colored snow globe does it work that way!
In the real world, BYU sports are funded by a large amount of Donations. if you want to be a “Have” and not a “Have Not”, you need donations.
It is a simple matter of economics, if you want to be in the “Big time”, you need to make happy the donors that donate the money that they “earned”.
I didn’t ask that. Answer the question. When you give a donation, does that give you rights to fire coaches? I’m sure most donators are extremely happy with 11-2 after 5-7. “ If you think you have any rights on the decisions then that would be corruption, would it not?” Try again.
A simple lesson in Sports Economics that even you should be able understand:
Someone(s) gives a lot of money to BYU Sports.
The sports team doesn’t play as well as the giver(s) hoped.
The giver(s) tell BYU’s AD, “We’re not happy with the team’s performance. If it doesn’t get better, we’ll stop giving money.”
The AD fires the coach.
Did the giver(s) actually fire the coach? No, the AD did. But the fear of losing money was stronger than the AD’s friendship with the coach.
That’s simple basics of sports economics! As much as I dislike the fact that people who have money controls a lot of what goes on in college sports, that is the fact of the matter.
How do you think we got Coach Young? It wasn’t because he “loved BYU” that he came here. He came because Smith and Ainge forked over a lot of money (Donations) to BYU to lure him here. So, it can work both ways…
Well, you were doing well until the end. Young had 2 offers from NBA teams that would have paid him more. If you listen to Young, he prayed about it and BYU was where he should be.
It’s not that simple with BYU. “Are you honest with your business dealings with your fellow men?” Big question and again, is there a high level of corruption? Or do most donors give and let the AD make decisions? Holmoe has been there a long time.