I have been baffled about how a team that was 10-3 last year with 7’power five teams on the schedule and returning most of their starters including special
teams players can slide so far. I think the reasons are more than the coaching. BYU has the same coaching staff they had last year.
I have several thoughts:
- Last year’s record was deceptive. We probably would not have beaten Utah if Rising had been the QB. That was BYU’s best win. Arizona was terrible last year so that was a P5 win that was nothing really. They were really a low level mid major in terms of quality. USC had their worst team that I can remember. Virginia was a 6-6 team with a defense worse than BYU’s. Arizona St and Washington St. we’re good, but not great wins. Baylor was really good and they dominated BYU.
I think this years schedule is tougher even with only 5 power five teams on it. Oregon, Arkansas & Notre Dame are all better than any P5 team
BYU beat last year with the exception of Utah, and when BYU beat Utah, Utah had Brewer at QB and they were just an average P5 team until Rising took
over from Brewer late in the SDSU game. Both East Carolina and Liberty are better, right now, than most of the P5 teams BYU beat last year. Maybe the tougher schedule this year is exposing the weaknesses that were there last year and were overlooked.
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Maybe we didn’t notice the coaching deficiencies
last year because BYU was winning most of the time against an easier schedule. All p5 teams are not created equal. -
A lot of people criticized Bronco Mendenhall’s recruiting but Sitake’s recruiting classes haven’t been ranked noticeably higher, if at all. Maybe the talent level is what it has always been.
4 I have never thought losing one running back should make that much difference if a team returned nearly its entire o-line, but maybe Algeier was one of those type of backs who made even more of an impact than I thought he did. Last year BYU could give him the ball late in the game and he would close it out. He did that in several close games.
As an aside, l wonder if some of the injuries we are seeing keeping guys out of games should be keeping them out of games. The number of injuries the last 2 years has been ridiculous compared to some previous years and I am not talking about the bad injuries like the ones to Rex and the DB last year. I
am talking about all these undisclosed injuries that the coaches are so coy about and guys miss games over.
The defense has issues that everybody agrees on. The offense was supposed to be elite this year and is slipping badly. I noticed at the start of the game Saturday the same running play over and over and they threw a couple of long passes and nothing over the middle on the first drive and then bogged down and kicked a field goal. Most of the passes were short and in the flat after that with an occasional shot down the field and nothing over the middle. I don’t understand it. East Carolina had a low rated pass defense going into the game and a strong run defense. Why not go over the middle more rather than throw nearly every pass In the flat and depend on the receiver to make a play.