Defense is improving so much better than last year

Football In Game
1

I read this article about BYU defense which states, at the current moment, BYU is ranked 26th in the nation.

BYU football: What to make of BYU’s upset victory over K-State – Deseret News

  • 23rd total defense
  • 71st rushing defense
  • 15th passing yards allowed
  • 3rd pass efficiency defense
  • 18th scoring defense
  • 23rd turnover margin
  • 23rd fourth-down defense
  • 32nd red-zone defense
  • 58th third-down defense
  • 4th TDs allowed per game
  • 16th yards per play allowed
  • 20th fumbles recovered

Not bad for Hill and the boys coming from one of the worst defenses last year.

Another thing that caught my eye was the comments by Harmon and Drew about the K-State game:

Drew:

“My take is that BYU probably isn’t as good as the final score suggests, and K-State isn’t quite as bad.”

“Perhaps the most troubling aspect of Saturday’s blowout win for BYU was that K-State ran for 228 yards when BYU was loading the box a lot of the night to stop the run.”

Harmon:
“This win reminded me of the way Utah coach and former BYU team captain Kyle Whittingham seems to win games. He wins with big defensive plays, special team gems, short-field scoring drives, big momentum changes via big and dramatic plays. All of this allows an offense that struggles to do enough to win. This is a clone of Whittingham’s success over his tenure. And why not? Sitake, Jay Hill, Gary Andersen and Chad Kauha’aha’a all worked for Whittingham.”

"We’ve learned that QB Jake Retzlaff is making better decisions, is capable of elite throws (TD pass to Chase Roberts), and is a far better quarterback than he was in Week 1 and 2 of this season. "

2

that’s the saddest part of BYU, we’re clone of Utah. ugh I feel so sick now saying that out loud

3

If we can replicate the success they had in the PAC 12 I don’t mind being their clone as long as we can surpass them in the near future.

4

So, success is something we should not apply from an outside source? I know it’s Utah but successful people pay attention to other successful examples.

5

Where did Kyle learn his coaching abilities? His dad Fred, who was the DC for BYU for many years. So Utah is actually a clone of BYU! think of it that way instead!

3 Likes
6

So winning at any cost is okay to you? We’re just becoming Utah’s little brother and loosing who we are in the process. I don’t want to be like them I want us to be BYU, QB U, offense comes first, air it out, pass sets up the run. While Utah was down in the 80s and 90s did they try to copy us? did Urban Meyer say hey that BYU team is doing well lets be them? no because you build a your own culture that is distinctly you not someone else. yes it has been successful for them, but that is them, let’s be BYU.

Floyd your statement supports what I am saying. Did Kyle make Utah like BYU or did he follow the culture of Utah and build it out from there?

if we loose our Identity we will stay a low subpar team, because we have no direction or purpose. Winning at all cost will mean we will follow every trend never take risks and never reach our full potential. Being a trail blazer and risk taker means that we become our own team. don’t forget this is why we loved LeVell.

7

Have you ever coached at the high school or above level? There are these things called coaching clinics run and taught by successful coaches. See, you develop your coaching style and skill by learning from others. In some cases you will look like others. Nothing wrong with that.

Floyd made the observation where Wittingham may have got his defense strategies from. And, before he goes after the top offensive players, he builds the defense because defenses win games. I know it’s Utah. Got it. But, the old offenses don’t work as well because the defense caught up to our schemes. So, offenses today have to complement the defenses. Not the other way around. We do need to up our run game for sure.

8

no I haven’t and neither have you. so don’t speak as if you have authority.

there are clinics? WOW I had no Idea. Don’t patronize me. If you want to say you disagree with me just say it and make your case.

Leadership adds to Culture it doesn’t make it. Case in point Bronco. he didn’t change who BYU was he added to it.

I know what he said.

welcome to their philosophy and culture. this has been who Utah has always been, Kyle just built on it. Bronco, a defensive minded guy didn’t build a defensive minded program, because that isn’t who BYU is. A good leader knows this and builds on it.

what consistently top 10 program has this philosophy?

9

Kyle learned from one of the best DC in college and NFL and that is his dad Fred who coached at BYU, Utah in the college ranks and the Raiders in the NFL.

The trademark aggressive defense is all “Fred”. To answer your comment, I think Kyle made Utah defense into what he and his dad thought a defense should be.

I think if you really look at, not in a fan way, but a coaching community, coaches are good friends with rivals and often talk about issue that they face.

So as a fan, I can understand you comment, but that is not the reality of the coaching world.

Prime example: back in the 1980’s BYU had Anige, Roberts, Kite playing Utah with Vranes and Chambers. Coach at the time was Arnold for BYU and Jerry Pimm was the coach for Utah.

Don’t remember who won the game, but after the game, Arnold, Anige, Roberts, Chambers, Vranes and Pimm all went out to dinner. Several BYU and Utah fans saw them and could not believe they would eat with the enemy.

Anige had the best response of the group “While they are on the floor, they are the enemy, but after the game, they are my friends”.

But Bronco learned his defense from Rocky Long, so was BYU defense a New Mexico defense clone?
As hard as it is for me to admit, Hopper is right, coaching is a family that they use to bounce ideas and theories off of to become better.

10

This is by far your best ever post. Full of logic and reasoning along with facts. You sound more and more like an republican :grin:

11

Floyd has the best response. Just wanted to say I did coach basketball in high school for 10 years. You’ll note that in the example in my last post. Jcoug was a referee in some of my games.

12

understand I don’t care about the type of defense we play or that coaches from rival teams are friends that isn’t my argument. my argument is that we are loosing our Identity. what is BYU known for? offense. lets play our game not Utah’s.

13

Just so that I can understand where you are coming from, please explain to me what you mean by our “Identity”?

Granted, under tuiaki, our defense was a bit of a dumpster fire. But with Hill, I see our defense going back to the days of when Leon White, Todd Shell, Tom Holmoe and how they played.
(BTW, all those guys played in the NFL)

Hard hitting, aggressive, with solid mechanics. This is the same type of defense that Bronco brought from New Mexico, and now Hill is reinstalling it.

Now on Offense, I happen to agree with you that we have no “identity”, we are not the BYU from old where we passed for 400+ yards a game. Nor are we the team that had a balanced attack under Grimes.

FYI, a lot of Rocky Long defense that Bronco learned was heavily influenced by Fred Whittingham’s defensive scheme.

14

Ya, he thinks that during the Lavell era we didn’t play much defense. He would be wrong of course. The hope is that we can recruit more 4 and 5 star player for the offense. I agree. But, we can have excellent teams if the offense can complement the defense like we did against K-st. See what happens with Baylor.

15

Floyd I think you are right—we have no identity on offense. How do I know that? Because when BYU is on D we are all excited to see what’s next. But When BYU is on offense we are all white knuckling the remote control just hoping something bad doesn’t happen. Many BYU teams have had such great passing that we knew the opponent couldn’t do a thing to stop it. Lately we have had some great running teams where we knew we would run for 150-200 yards and didn’t care what the opponent did to try to stop it. Now we just HOPE the offense can do ANYTHING without screwing up. Am I more hopeful after the K State game? Of course I am. Am I at all confident we can get 400 yards of offense next game? Not at all.

1 Like
16

this quote is what got me fired up. BYU has never been defense first offense second or third, but I fear that is Kalani’s intended path forward. like I said before “BYU is QB U, offense comes first, air it out, pass sets up the run”. don’t get me wrong Utah has had a lot s success with the way they are doing thing, but If I wanted to root for that I would just switch sides and root for Utah (ugh I just puked in my mouth a little bit).

hopefully this makes things more clear.

17

Hopper, can you take back these words you put in my mouth. they taste awful especially coming from you.

I want our defense to be awesome and I don’t care that we have a year where the defense is better then the offense, but that shouldn’t become our status quo

1 Like
18

Of course, we now play 10 P-4’s every year. Unlike back in the WAC and MWC. Or, even during independence. Apples and oranges when it comes to the opponent’s defense.

19

We aren’t playing in any rec football leagues anymore. We play against top notch future NFL players. We have to go with the changes and teams from week to week. So, I see this as just win anyway we can.

1 Like
20

I kind of like having a tough defense. The best teams, overall, have a strong defense and an offense that doesn’t make mistakes. Sure it was fun 40 years ago to score lots of points and throw the ball around all over the place. I remember a game at SDSU that ended up 52-52 and it felt like a win. BYU can’t do that anymore because of the OC they have, but the game evolves and changes over time and a team has to do whatever it takes to win games. That is the bottom line. Not sure why there is this idea of BYU following Utah. I don’t see it but there are probably similarities because there is so much similarity in the coaching staffs and who worked with who at what school over the years.