Well, the offense didn’t impress either. In both of the last games there were some strange calls. Running the ball on 3rd and nine?
Hey guys- it’s been a while. Still a devout Cougar fan-
I have an inside connection within the BYU coaching staff- I will not name that connection, so don’t ask. This person told me that Holker went to Coach Roderick after the Oregon game and screamed at him , told him he was a terrible coach and he should quit now- expressed some rather unsavory language etc. Holker has been a cancer in the TE room. When Sitake got wind of this he called Holker in and Holker doubled down on his statements. Sitake told him to “get his sh-t and get out- you are no longer on this team”
My feeling is that if this is true, and if Holker is a cancer then he should move on…
My first year teaching high school, I was assisting the varsity basketball coach and JV coach. When we were 2 -18, some of the players got together and approached the head coach and told him to resign. I felt the coach’s mistake was not to tell the most vocal critic and best player to get his things and get out. At 2-18, there was nothing to lose and everything to gain as the leader. The coach was fired at the end of the season.
Sitaki, if this is true, did the right thing. We are 4-1 and in the last 2.5 years 25-5. Holker had no standing. Good riddance if this is true.
With that said, we are better than the scores we are putting up including last year. We lost Grimes and had he continued with BYU, we could be scoring much more. Roderick makes some puzzling playcalling at times. Especially the last 3 games. He needs to get a great plan for the next two games.
If true, of course he should move on. But I don’t know if it is true Roderick says he was blindsided by Dalin’s decision to leave and enter the portal. To be blindsided would indicated he had no idea there was a problem. But even if this story about Holker makes the news it is clouding the issue of this offense not being designed to focus on TE’s on certain down/distance situations. Particularly on Second and 5 or third and 7 or longer. BYU has excellent WR’s and they are deeper than at anytime in the last 15 years…… maybe 25 years. But they will be even more effective if the TE’s are used more. So will the running attack. So the issue isn’t Holker it is the focus of the offense.
Someone’s lying. As the Prophet said today, someone should repent and end the rumormongering.
If what you say is true then it is a good thing he is gone, however, I always wonder about stuff I read where the story comes from an unnamed source.
My cousin was the strength coach several years ago and he made a comment to me about a guy who came into the program as a guy who thought he was going to set the world on fire as a wide receiver. He had one pretty good season as a sophomore and then was gone. I mentioned the name of the guy to
my cousin and he said the guy was a “cancer”, no other details and I didn’t ask him. I never posted anything about the guy here and won’t say who it was even though some of his antics were publicized in the news.
I never tried to get insider info from my cousin. The two times he told me anything about a player in the program it was unsolicited. I made a comment about the player and he made a remark with no specifics. I once brought up the name of Jake Heaps at a time we all thought he was going to be the next great BYU QB. I was hoping to hear some great things about Heaps. He had just had a very good freshman year and was one game into his sophomore year. My cousin’s only comment was that BYU had just signed a guy from Idaho who was the real deal. He never told me who it was, I assume it was Hill or Mangum. The impression I got was that for some reason he wasn’t impressed with Heaps. I never asked him about it, but Heaps regressed in his sophomore season, lost his job, and then transferred. I never mentioned the conversation here because he never told me anything, really, but the implication was clear as far as I was concerned, but he was wise enough to avoid saying anything negative about Heaps. In the case about the wide receiver the guy had already left the team.
I guess the point I am making is that even when we get some inside story there may not be much point in
posting it on social media when you can’t divulge
your source without putting your source in jeopardy. It piques curiosity but in one sense it is frustrating because these sorts of second hand revelations are unverifiable.
The one thing that doesn’t add up about the Holker story is that Roderick said he was surprised that Holker left and he implied the two hadn’t talked. That is far different than a story where Holker is alleged to have blown up, publically insulted Roderick, and cursed at him. If that happened then the BYU staff decided to remove him from the team and then give the story that Holker left of his own accord. Also Roderick said he really liked him.
Aro,
One thing that made me wonder about what is “really” the truth with Roderick was when the coach was asked “If Holker withdraws from portal, will you let him back on the team?”
Roderick answer: “That will be up to Kalani to decide”.
while I do understand that Kalani is the final decision maker, Roderick in the past has openly welcome back other guys who went into the portal then withdrew(WR Jackson).
So I personally believe there is more to this story than “someone blowing up at a coach” or that “he has had enough”.
But like Thawk said “Roderick is not utilizing the TE as other coaches have done in the past”. This is backed up by Dennis Pitta statements.
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If you had possibly the best group of WR, would you not reduce the TE role in the pass game? What makes Alabama and Georgia so good? Their players know they have to compete to play. Most of those kids go there knowing this and don’t complain about coaches. Hopefully, BYU gets to that point.
The answer is “No” to your suggestion, Hopper. Since you have had to be educated about football and basketball over the last 10 years on this forum your comment shows you need to keep working on learning the game. Great WR’s and great offenses go hand in hand with great TE’s! Both are used to keep the defense from putting more coverage on either the Wide outs or the TE’s. The great 49er’s teams with Rice had a great TE. The great Cowboys teams had Ervin and a great TE (out of Wyoming) and even the Patriot teams put Julian with …. Gronk! When you find great offenses you find both! Keep learning!
Best BYU offense’s ever …. All featured 1 or 2 TE’s who were NFL quality. They were used more often and caught a greater % of passes per game/season than we are now seeing.
The other issue is that the TE can free up the running game if used properly. Where is BYU having problems? Against Oregon? Against USU in the first half? Our vaunted OL is struggling to open holes but why? Count how many defenders are generally in the box.
Maybe some in football but not in basketball. My comments are solid. Our wide receivers get open. If you watch the TE going out for passes, they are rarely open. Pay closer attention to this. I have.
I don’t agree with the line comment. Davis showed that there are holes to run through. With Unga getting in the face of Brooks telling him to put more effort he hit some holes in the last game as well.
Only in your own mind…
1st most of the time, the WR are covered, we have some good WR who can catch in traffic.
2nd, out TE for the most part are used for blocking to help give Hall extra time. I showed stats to back that up (not based on my biased view of a game).
3rd, All Running backs do you not run the same way. Brooks is simply a man who runs straight up through the line. Davis is a slasher who changes direction on the dime, then if you remember Hall dad, his best ability was what they call a sweep runner off the edge.
When the HC of BYU states “Our O-line has to open the holes better for our RB’s” I think you can safely say that the O-line is not doing their job.
EVERY Good NFL team utilizes the TE as a way to open up the WR’s…
Just look at the Chiefs/Bucs game last night… Kelce helped KC open up the WR’s.
That game had Title written all over it, Did Mahomes want it? Better believe it.
As Hawk points out,
I was shocked in the OU game when we had both Nacua and Romney injured and threw to our elite TE’s maybe 5 times.
Hopefully we have all our receivers healthy and can “Open Up” their defense so that we can run as well as throw effectively to the TEs.
Of the 11 teams on BYU’s schedule (not including Utah Tech) Notre Dame ranks 7th in offensive yards/game. They are 7th in passing and 8th in rushing. Overall rank is 7th. Their head coach is just getting his feet wet but he is no dummy. He will watch film of USU and particularly Wyoming and ND will run run run the ball. BYU hasn’t shown they can stop the run and ND has better athletes and an NFL TE on their roster. So my bet is that Sikate will take over the D and we will try some new things with our front 7. We will probably be better prepared and look better than we did in the last 2 games with the run D but I don’t hold out a lot of hope for 4 quarters of improvement unless Sitake never allows Tui to call the game.
ND is a 3 pt favorite and I think they are right in Vegas. Unfortunately!
I know what’s been going on. Sitaki has been messing around keeping the scores close to throw off Notre Dame. That’s it! BYU will come out with a great offense like with South Florida. And, the defense will be like we were with Baylor!