This is a big statement for BYU football—it means a lot of things to me:
The AD and President and BOT have decided that our on AND off the field Discipline problems, and our academic problems—both exponentially higher since Bronco left—can be overcome by Kalani.
The Poly pipeline will continue to flow—hello Sol-Jay!!
Kalani will stay loyal to his friends come hell or high water, and I will suffer Tuiaki for 4 more years.
As our talent increases, we will keep upsetting good teams, but our lack of commitment to consistency and discipline will result in our continually playing down to weaker competition (and driving me crazy).
I’m a huge fan, but want to be a proud fan who has fun watching the games, and the garbage I’ve seen the last two weeks against TERRIBLE opponents has been boring, uninspiring, and not fun at all to watch.
Coach Sitake, please listen.
There is a reason why Coach Whit has the #1 defense in America…Whit poaches all of his best players for defense (at the expense of the offense). Athletes who are looking to go to the NFL know that they will be drafted high in a Whit system.
It also has its downside, as in Whit has had to replace his offensive coordinators 19 times in a 20 year period. Whit never gets great QBs to play for him. His signature Utah team is a ridiculous (good) defense with a grind it out running offense. That is why Whit has a bazillian Dmen and a few great running backs in the NFL.
BYU’s signature is a passing offense, for decades, QB U etc. the defense often would get gassed because our offense was on the field for maybe a minute and in the box score we would see a time of possession of 40 minutes-Opposing team, 20 minutes-BYU.
When Bronco came to town, that all changed because his signature was closer to Whit’s philosophy. Defense came first, at the expense of the offense, Guys like Van Noy, Ansa, and Warner are tearing it up in the NFL but offense suffered.
Coach, We love your choice for OC. We love that you brought back QB U. We love your trick plays. But your Defense sucks! You defensive coordinator sucks and you almost got yourself fired over it. Your 3rd and short schemes are complete disasters (goal line included). Either get rid of Tuiaki or take over the defense at critical times in games.
Athletes and D linemen will not sign for a vanilla drop 8, rush 3 defense, they want glory and their name in the papers in the form of Blitzes and Sacks. BYU ranks dead last in QB pressures, sacks and 3rd down stops. Please put an end to this madness.
The game against UMASS will be interesting. Arguably the worst team in division one-how will BYU show. Even the ISU game was hard to watch for me. Penalties almost every possession-ugh-not fun. I would love to see BYU’s 4 qbs each get equal time in this game, though Hall may still be in protocol. It’s time for the most productive qb to get the start against SDSU and the bowl game. If Sitake has no qualms about hanging on to his DC, does this carry over to his QB? Wilson looked rusty-maybe it’s time to shelve him for the year and open up the competition again this spring and fall or not. This is not a slam on Zach-but who knows how his thumb really is?
I am not sure Fish… I think Kalani taking over more the DC job this year shows that he is not worried about ruffling feathers. It will be interesting to see if we have any changes on the defensive side coaching in the off season.
I think Kalani is the right person because he has embraced Independence, where Bronco did not. After an interview with a Texas Journalist (when BYU played Texas), Bronco without provocation went off on BYU about being independent, he wanted to be in conference. He was not very nice about what he said about the administration decision to go to independence.
I think Kalani has the “Lavell” touch when connecting with players. Lavell did not always have the best athletes, but because of his connections with them, they played above their level. I think we may now get to see some of the recruits that Kalani is bringing (Coming off missions).
I do agree we need to get rid of Ituiaki, I think he is a disaster as DC. I will say though, that I heard on the TV that Prudue (1-10) is the only other school in the NCAA Division I besides BYU, that started 13 freshman this year.
We had to use 13 true or red-shirt freshman this year because of injuries. That begs the question about the quality of the strength and conditioning coaches.
Love Kalani, the right man. One thing I can tell you is Tom has a connection or 2 inside that I don’t and if he mentions that BYU has disciplinary problems that we have not heard about, its because BYU is very careful about ever throwing a player under the bus (Davies) again.
Having lived here is Utah Valley and having many Poly friends, this I will tell you. A good number belong to gangs. They go out on a Saturday, gang bang (you can read into that whatever you want to) and they come home, go to church like nothing happened. It is a culture here in Utah. Shootings are not off the table. So when I see the high number of Poly players at BYU and for Tom to bring it up, just know that it is a real problem.
I see Kalani as a Father figure, just as Lavell was, to some rough street smart kids.
After Kalani took over, we had a significant drop off in academic and behavior performance. We lost a staff that made that stuff a top priority, and replaced it with a staff that did not. It hit a critical low point where TH forced or convinced Kalani to get actively involved in the off the field stuff. The situation is still bad, but much improved. So what I mean is that the powers that be are frustrated by how bad it got on Kalani’s watch, but see improvement and think Kalani is now committed to that part of the job, so they are willing to roll the dice and gamble that Kalani’s improvement coupled with his great recruiting skill (and other positives) outweigh the risk that he will let the program fall back to where it was 1-2 years ago. I hope that makes sense—i have to be careful how much I say, because I’d never betray the trust and confidence of where I get it, and I’m often told how much I can or cannot share with you guys. But I love the dialog and hope everyone keeps posting on this board!!!
Okay, I appreciate you keeping your confidences, that tells me a lot about you.
I had the strangest thought watching the game last Saturday that kind goes long this line. As I watching Zac Wilson on the sideline the thought popped into my head, wonder how this football junkie (the amount of time he watches films, practices, etc.) is doing with his school work?
We see this gifted athlete on the field, only too find that he is struggling in school, even with the programs they have to help players do both.
We really never know what is going on behind the scenes and simply assume because it is BYU, everything is doing great…
Not only for gang bangers, Living in Utah in the valley of the church HQ, I can tell you that a lot of LDS kids do things during the week that is not according to gospel standards, then show up on Sunday to pass the sacrament (maybe that is why I was never called to be a bishop, I would hold them “Too” accountable) and act like nothing is wrong.
It is the culture of the youth, especially when that kid plays sports.
I have met lots of BYU athletes the last 8 or 9 years, and many have discussed their academic struggles with me. While at BYU, my oldest daughter worked for three years as the academic mentor for the men’s basketball team–those were the Tyler Haws, KC, Chase Fischer, Skyler Halford, etc. teams. As a note, that group was VERY solid in the classroom–and you know why? Yep, because of MARK POPE. He rode them relentlessly on their classwork and spoke directly with my daughter about how she could call him anytime, anywhere, about anything if a player was falling behind. My second daughter worked for a couple years as a tutor for the athletic department (and subsequently married a BYU baseball player); my youngest daughter has worked for about the last year and a half as a tutor for all sports. I made sure to never ask my daughters to give me any information that was privileged, but I did see VERY close up how many resources are made available to athletes–that “normal” students DO NOT get. I have met LOTS of BYU athletes and talked to them in the academic center on many occasions. There is no, and I mean NO excuse for a BYU athlete to get bad grades, but MANY do. BYU makes an incredible commitment to keep these kids eligible, and that’s not to mention the high level of resources that go into the HC counseling available to athletes only so as to proactively (try to) avoid HC violations. These kids have it all–vast talent, vast resources thrown at them, and the adulation of Cougar Nation. When they fail in school, it repulses and saddens me, with all the great kids who can’t even get into BYU these days.
Again, the specific information I get is NOT from my daughters, rather from elsewhere, but through my daughters I’ve met and spoken with many athletes who have directly shared with me their academic and off the field struggles. Again, it’s not all of them, and BYU does far better than most schools. Kalani has stepped in to be more personally accountable, and so far so good. But I will say that based on what I know, I fear that his staff is not committed to the same off the field goals, and I think that spells trouble.
It is my opinion that scheduling any team like UMASS, Idaho State, Weber State. etc. is a lose/lose/lose/lose situation.
If we don’t beat these teams by 42+ points, we are not worth our salt. If we do beat up on these teams and make the points, that we are Bullies. If we win, so what, shame on us if we don’t
If we lose, the sky is falling and we look for a new HC, a new OC, a new DC, a new STC. We just should not schedule for these teams.
I have never found a person that would agree with me both in the academic world and those not in academia, when it comes to sports. I must be wrong, but my heart and my gut tells me otherwise.
Disclaimer: I have taught in College, High School, Middle School, Home teaching and elementary school. I have taught General Education, Special Education and GATE.
My lonely unsupported opinion:
I have seen many Special Education Students, Chronological age
16-17-18 that had a mental age of 7 and had much difficulty reading, spelling, and doing math above the 2nd grade level, yet one of these students could make Fredrick type 3 pointers on the court all day long. I had one student that broke all school records in track and field events. With special tutors, she went to community college and broke more records. She was not permitted because of academics to continue.
In my mind, and in my heart, I am deafened by my inner screaming of what is wrong with society that will hold back a person from excelling in their area of expertise because their academics are not up to par.
Instead of earning big tax paying dollars in sports, they stay home unable to compete in areas that require reading, spelling and math. They live off of the entitlements instead of contributing to the tax base that funds these programs.
In the late 70’s, there was a guy 6’3” that would come to BYU and play in pickup games against Ainge and others. He had a 48” vertical leap. Arnold tried to recruit him. Pimm did too. I think he played one year at then Utah Tech. He probably had learning issues or he just wasn’t motivated. There were colleges and still are that would have taken him.
My brother had a couple of classes with Bill Walton. Bill came to the first class and the last class. UCLA would have taken learning challenges persons.
Now I also know why you have a limited sense of humor:-)
In those aspects you are correct, however, every powerhouse team does it at least once a season. It also enables teams like ISU to have a little financial windfall. The game is interesting to me because it involves a step for BYU that they need to correct before they are again an esteemed program. They habitually play up and down to their competition, resulting in losses that shouldn’t happen. Arguably, UMASS, is the worst FBS team in the country-will BYU come out and dominate or put on another performance like they did against ISU? Interesting, because in my mind, it reflects on Sitake and what kind of hold he has on this team and what is going to happen down the road!
And as we saw last night BYU playing down to Boise. As BSU shot lousy so did BYU. When BSU shot better so did BYU. The age old question we’ve been asking for a long time, how do we get our teams to come out of the locker room and play well?