So what do we do now?

Football
1

TO BE CLEAR, I AM ASKING QUESTIONS AS TO WHERE WE BYU COUGAR FANS ARE AT THIS TIME OF THE 2019 FOOTBALL SCHEDULED SEASON, REGARDING OUR FOOTBALL SUCCESS OR LACK OF SUCCESS.

DO WE QUIT. IS IT TOO HARD TO LEARN TO BE GOOD?

IS IT NOT WORTH THE EFFORT TO KEEP TRYING TO BE A
P5 TYPE of TEAM?

IS IT TAKING TOO MUCH TIME WHEN SOME OF US HAVE TOO LITTLE PATIENCE TO BECOME A P5 TYPE TEAM?

AS TEXCOUG WOULD PREFER, SHOULD WE TRY TO GO TO A G5 CONFERENCE WHERE WE MIGHT BE IN THE TOP HALF OF THE CONFERENCE, OR SHOULD WE GO FCS WHERE WE CAN BE AT THE TOP OF THE CONFERENCE, OR SHOULD WE STAY INDEPENDENT AND LOSE THOSE HEARTBREAKERS UNTIL WE FINALLY LEARN HOW TO PLAY VS TALENTED TEAMS.

ONE MIGHT ASK SIMILAR QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR COACHES.

SHOULD WE KEEP CHANGING COACHES WHEN WE ARE LIMITED TO LDS ONLY CANDIDATES IN GOOD STANDING WITH THE CHURCH; WHEN WE ARE NOT WILLING TO PAY THOSE COACHES AS MUCH AS THEY CAN GET SOMEWHERE ELSE? -----OR-----

SHOULD WE KEEP WHAT WE HAVE WITH OUR COACHES AND KEEP THE PRESSURE FOR THEM TO GET THINGS RIGHT.

I DO NOT PRETEND TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS, BUT I WOULD CERTAINLY LIKE TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE THINKING AT THIS TIME.

2

Ok Ron-interesting questions and I don’t have some of the answers.
Let’s address the coaching issues. I happen to like Sitake, but BYU has not renewed or given him a new contract. This tells me they are waiting to see what happens this year and BYU is on the edge of not having a winning season and missing a bowl game. This is probably unacceptable for them retaining the coaching staff.
BYU is not playing terrible football, but they are making a lot of mistakes that good teams can’t make and expect to win. This goes back to discipline and again part of coaching responsibilities as well as players.
Injuries are tough-losing Williams then Wilson may be tough to overcome . In two weeks we will see what Hall has to offer.
Is Grimes calling the plays? If so-I’m a little disappointed. Failing to score inside of the red zone continuously is an indicator of faulty play calls.
Failing to meet expectations. BYU is a couple of plays away from being 0-5. It’s hard to evaluate a game listening on the radio, but Toledo seemed to run the ball down BYU’s throat the 2nd half, which they were unable to do in the first half-why? I expected the defense to play tough the 2nd half too, but they didn’t. Maybe my expectations were to high though they considerably outweighed Toledo.
Watching as a fan-it’s hard to remain positive about the program when you see all kinds of dumb errors. It makes one feel like they have just run a marathon by games end. I endorsed Grimes when he came, but he has spent a lot of his time as an OL coach-so is he a really good play caller and I believe he is calling the plays.
So your questions you brought up are tough ones and I don’t really know the answers, but I believe the BYU athletic programs are based on winning seasons for several reasons and it would be unacceptable to be a doormat, even in a P5 conference.
Most critical game of the season is in two weeks-it could be the defining game for Sitake and company

3

I agree. The game in two weeks will tell us what kind of team we are. I saw some good running from our back up RBs. What we’ve missed is the running of Wilson in the last two games. I think he was told to stop running and he is a QB that has to be on the move. So is Hall. Let’s see what happens.

4

What do we do now? Do we quit?

Of course not! I still like the fact that on any given Saturday, we could get a performance out of them where we could beat a P5 team. Yes, we still also have the potential to lay an egg, but just having the potential to play well makes me not give up on my team.

That said — the last several years have taken the sting out of losses (especially to Utah), as I am tempering and managing expectations. Since the stakes aren’t high, it’s not as devastating when we lose. Probably healthier from a mental/emotional health standpoint.

Can someone help me with some things?

  1. What was our issue on offense? The box score indicates (to me) that we should have rushed more.
    We averaged a good amount per carry, but didn’t seem to run very much. What happened to “smash mouth football,” and why have we not ran Ty’son Williams or Escupa or Fonua nearly as much as it seems like we should be?

  2. What was Wilson’s injury? Jaren Hall at the end seemed to run the team just fine — maybe better than Wilson.

  3. Did we still only rush 3 linemen on defense? Do we ever blitz against anyone? It seems like we lack so much confidence in our ability to defend against the pass that we don’t dare take any chances and blitz. Is that a fair statement today against Toledo?

I’m just wondering, not having watched the game.

5
  1. We are not a smashmouth running team since Jeff Grimes came to BYU. We are not SEC team.
  2. Wilson tackled an opposing player to prevent a pick 6 and hurt his thumb.
  3. Since Bronco M. left to UV, we have not seen hardly any rush going after opposing QB’s. It is DC Coach name IT. IT hardly discipline himself or/and to his players.
6

The last two games, in which we lost, Wilson was not running and moving the way he was in the first three games, two of which we won. Wilson was hurt at the end of the USC game and I think coach stopped him from running and improvising. We haven’t looked the same since. And, Wilson got really hurt this time.
They have to let Hall run or we may have a losing season.

7

Hall is a very good athlete. I was worried that he would transfer at the end of the season with no playing time in the foreseeable future. Now he has his chance. Wilson Hurt his hip-flexor muscle when he got tackled at the end of the SC game. He is not going to run much with that injury.

Boy, I don’t know where to start. Play calling is an issue, team discipline, defensive schemes, and just plain poor game management is a factor. It is just mind boggling how BYU has gotten to this point. At least Hall can step in and win games. 2 weeks off and hopefully some adjustments in the coaching ranks on realistic game planning will help us get back on the winning track. I have a feeling Wilson is out for the year.

8

Dislocation most likely. 6 weeks he will be as good as new. Hip flexor will be too.

9

The season is over in 6 weeks.

10

There’s still 2 maybe 3 games. Anyway, I’m glad someone finally said something about Wilson’s hip flexor other than me that he hurt in the USC game. That’s why he was arming the ball in the Washington game. And, that’s why he wasn’t running and moving around the same way. Taking away his mobility makes him half the QB he is.
The question is, will the coaches let Hall run? If not, this will be a long season.

11

Couldn’t have said it more precisely. Hall will be fine-question is will the coaching staff? For right now-just win at USF, before you have a mass exodus of fans that care

12

A little history of won-loss records:
2012 was 8 and 5
2013 was 8 and 5
2014 was 8 and 5
2015 was 9 and 4
2016 was 9 and 4
2017 was 4 and 9
2018 was 7 and 6
For the last 7 years we have won 53 games and lost 38 times.

Since 2012 we have gone to 6 fringe bowl games and won 3 and lost 3.

We are an average to almost good program / team. We have made the same mistakes by players and coaches, year in and year out. 7 years says a lot. We are where we are. Either stay the way we are or make significant changes. That is all we fans can say. It is up to Holmoe and the administration to decide which path is taken.

13

So, what changes do you suggest? Pick the ones you want?

  1. Join a conference
  2. Change Head Coach
  3. Change OC and DC
  4. Drop the Honor Code
  5. Other
14

Thank you to Sr_Burton, yes, you too grasshopper, Rubicon,
dew, thawk,and arkiecoug.

Each of your contributing thoughts and opinions have been good for us to all air things out.

Like Sr_Burton, I too like very much Sitaki. Sr_Burton reminds us that we are on the edge of not having a winning season. Let’s take a look at that edge.
------------------------------------------------------------Win---------loss
Utah a bad loss.------------------------------------------------------X
Tennessee a needed win, but barely----------------X
USC a very good win---------------------------------X
Washington a bad loss----------------------------------------------X
Toledo (unacceptable loss)(unexpected)-----------------------X

Off

Look at the latest rankings 1-130 teams (CBS)
16 Boise state
17 Utah
18 Washington
21 USC

36 Utah State
46 San Diego St.

53 BYU

67 Hawaii

68 Toledo
97 South Florida
103 Tenn.
107 Liberty
130 UMASS
Below 130 FCS Idaho St.

Very likely we are looking at 6-6season with wins over:
USC, Tenn, USF, Liberty, UMASS, and FCS Idaho St., and

losses under Utah,Washington, Toledo, Boise St., Utah St., San Diego St.

If we win the season 6-6, then Hawaii will be our game in Honolulu Bowl. We should win this as a close game giving us a 7-6 season with the bowl.

Let’s evaluate. We are playing 4 ranked teams, We are playing 4 P5 teams. We are playing without our running back star, Ty’son Williams, out for the season due to injury at he Washington game, and we are without our star Quarterback injured in the Pick play that game the game to the other side.

It seems like BYU has two game plans. One like plays USC, and the other that plays like the rest. We need to keep the USC plan and get rid of the other.

15

Thanks again to Sr_Burton, grasshopper, Rubicon, dew, thawk and arkiecoug.

Like grasshopper said. We will see in two weeks what kind of a team we are when we go against #97 out of 130 teams, USF, to see if our #53 ranked BYU will play them like we played against USC, or if we play like we did against Utah, Washington, and Toledo. Tenn. in overtimes is kind of a wash with that 3 point win over a team ranked 102 in the nation out of 130 team.

Grasshopper had an interesting take on the health of our QB before playing this Toledo team. Read his post.

Grasshopper says, “Dislocation most likely. 6 weeks he will be as good as new. Hip flexor will be too” I wonder where he got the information. Is it verifiable? Can it be fact-checked?
In the six weeks, we will have had a bye week, played USF,
Lost to Boise State, played Liberty, and our FCS game vs. Idaho St. If like grasshopper says, we will have our star running back, back, (Ty’son Williams) and our star Qb back, (Zack Wilson,) we can use them to play #130 UMASS and SDS before going to the bowl game to play Hawaii.

16

Thanks to Rubicon, Sr._Burton, grasshopper, dew, thawk, and arkiecoug for your replies and opinions. I appreciate each and every one of them and ask for them to keep coming.

Rubicon points out that there is no quitting now.

When we can beat teams like Tenn and USC there is hope. We have the ability to play tough. We have the coaching staff that can get us to where we need to be. We have the backing of the AD.

What we do not have is consistency. We can lose to a team like Toledo, and play so poorly vs Utah and Washington, but beat a team like USC with all of our cylinders functioning properly.

It begs the question, Is it our great players that are lacking consistency or is it our great coaches that are in-consistent or
is it both?

Rubicon has learned to temper his expectations for the team as long as we are learning how to play vs the real guys from the P5 and not just the want a be guys from the G5 and lower. For him, it is worth the wait and worth the patience that it takes for our team and our coaches to get it right and keep it right.

17

Thawk said hip flexor injury. I have been saying either lower back or high glute. Maybe he heard what it was specifically. Caused him not to throw properly and not able to run. Or, the coaches said don’t run. Which is a major part of his game. Will they shut down Hall from running too?

So, I’m curious about what needs to be done. I asked Arkiecougar these 5 things and which ones are needed to correct our recent past average seasons:

  1. Join a conference
  2. Change Head Coach
  3. Change OC and DC
  4. Drop the Honor Code
  5. Other

What do you think?

18

To all of those that replied, I am grateful and ask that you keep this going.
dew feels that we should take a closer look at our DC to see what he is or is not coaching. Dew feels, if I understand him correctly, that we should expect more from the current DC.

19

thank,
thanks for your reply.
I felt that Hall did a good job. At first, each play was a run play but later he got into the passing game. I think that he will do well vs USF.

I agree that some of the play calling was not what you or I would have called, had we been in that position.Pre planing must take place each and every day for each and every coach.
Hypothetical situations must be set up as the possibility for each team we play. Film room must be used extensively. Bronco was not a big fan of the film room. He said that we plan for each game the same way. We learn how to execute and do it well . I only partially agree with that I feel that the film room is absolutely a necessary part of he whole.

20

I’m not yet convinced our defense is bad. Except for Washington, our offense has given up points and given teams short field position. I’m concerned about our inability to score significant amount of points. We missed 2 short field goals yesterday as well which ended up being very important. That 3rd and 6 Call was back to Anae and Detmer days. Why do our OCs call strange plays?