Do you remember how bad our pass coverage and secondaries were in the Detmer era? Yes, Derwin Gray played then, and I remember him getting beat plenty of times. He also made some good plays.
Hands down, the worst corner we have ever had was Eric Bergeson. #7. He got badly beat every single time, and they even tried hiding him on the field, and teams would seek him out and throw at him. I could never understand why he not only played, but played a lot. I remember watching the classic Drew Bledsoe/Ty Detmer come-from-behind shootout in the stake center, and Bergeson kept getting beat over and over. One of the guys took issue with my thoughts on him, and said that he was his mission companion and he has sprinter speed. That may be, but he gets beat every play; foot speed alone doesn’t equal keeping your man in front of you and not letting him get behind you.
To me and my dad’s shock, he was drafted by the Falcons (Jerry Glanville). He never played a down in the NFL (his stat sheet is blank; no plays registered), but the fact that he was drafted at all was a marvel. My dad said Glanville wanted someone who was good at jumping on the pile.
And with all that, our defenses were also capable of shutting people down on occasion. Remember the Miami game? They held Scott Erickson in check in the 28-21 win. That was very uncommon back then. More common were 50+ points given up to Oregon, Washington St., San Diego St., Hawaii, etc.
Besides the arm slinging, he didn’t try running. I think he only called his run once and it was for a short gain. Receivers get used to the ball speed and the wobble. If it’s different because of the release that can cause a timing issue and the feel for the ball from the QB. He didn’t look right. He needs to be right against Toledo because we will have to keep up with their scoring.
I think Miami was ranked 1 at the time. But it’s like Floyd noted-often our front seven was pretty good, but the secondary always played back as they were concerned about getting beat deep
my thoughts on the season: a lot of griping about BYU and what our team IS and IS NOT. Washington is the cream of the P12. They have the best coach in Peterson, maybe in all of football. Washington’s lines are elite, Their offense goes 326 lbs, avg. I wouldn’t be to heart broken over that loss. Their QB is averaging close to 80% of his throws and is a Heisman contender. They will beat Utah, who had a top 5 defense.
I had BYU losing to Utah and Washington, Beating Tenn and USC, then when USC’s Slovin dismantled Stanford, I changed my mind but in the end we are 2-2 after 4 P5 teams.
Going forward BYU should be in every game going forward except maybe BSU. Losing Williams is a big problem and losing Anderson on D, another big problem. I like Sitake and where the team is headed. Beating USC was a season changing win in my opinion.
We are going to lose 1 and probably 2 more and that’s alright. Go Cougs
Interesting comments Chris, and I can see your reasoning and I have a certain amount of optimism also, particularly with the offense. I would be interested in your predictions on the next 3 games, which I consider crucial, because I see us losing in Logan and possibly SSU, so i consider Toledo and USF must wins. I have BYU going 2-1 the next 3 and upsetting BSU. Go for and give me your predictions
I have a mind that remembers trivia. Lavell had a boatload of top linebackers from day one. In his first year way back in 1972 he had an all conference linebacker named Ron Tree and there were a ton of All America, all conference linebackers, and some future NFL linebackers that followed:
Larry Carr
Doug Adams
Sid Smith
Rod Wood
Larry Miller
Gary Kama
Glenn Redd
Kyle Whittingham
Tod Shell
Curt Gouviea
Leon White
Marv Allen
Rocky Biegel
Bob Davis
Shay Muirbrook
Rob Morris
Those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. I am sure I missed a few. Some of those in the early days I remember because I was going to school at the time. Lavell always said his defense was the key to his great teams. He had great linebackers and some good down linemen. They always lacked speed in the secondary but could stuff the run.
Fred Whittingham was an NFL linebacker and was an assistant to Lavell in the early years and I think he had a lot to do with developing some great linebackers. I heard from a friend who had brother who played linebacker at BYU that Fred Whittingham and Lavell had a falling out at some point and that is why Fred Whittingham ended up at the U and why Kyle and his brothers all ended up there. I don’t know if there is any truth to this or what may have happened but that is what I heard. I am still curious about it and if anybody knows what happened I would like to know. I wish we had Kyle Whittingham as the head coach and Sitake as the D coordinator.
I bought Shell’s car from him when he left for the 49’ers, hahaha. He was in my ward, as was Ainge. good times.
So, Toledo should be a high scoring affair. ESPN has them as a 55% winner but vegas has BYU with a 2.5 point win and a over 60 points. I think ESPN smoking dope and Vegas is way under the total.
Toledo has played CSU, Murrey and UK while BYU played 4 better teams by a looooong shot. Tenn would be the lowest ranked team and they would kill Toledo.
Toledo wants to run the ball. They have senior leadership in Guadnagni BYU wants to run the ball more but has faced some pretty stout defenses. Toledo was not stopped the run and even with Williams out, BYU has two good RBs in Katoa and Estupa.
When will BYU quit making stupid drive killing penalties? Signs of a young team. BYU gets by in 3, game in the 30s. Toledo has the MAC to win, BYU really needs this game to right the ship.
USF is not that good. BYU win
BSU- With Williams, we would of beat them. BYU Loss
Utah State @ US, Hit me later on that one…Ugh
Then we win out.
Same thing I’ve written several times. LE defense was never that good either. We just outscore teams. We made penalties then too. The difference? Oh, QBs that would throw for 400 - 500 yards, a game!
Hope you are right. I have watched BSU in all of their games. Their QB has been sacked or knocked down more than anyone in the nation. He is a freshman and has a tendency to hold the ball too long. If BYU allows him to sit back without pressing him they will lose. The thing is, BSU knows how to win. They play excellent in the 2nd half. I would say BYU has a better chance to win against BSU than USU simply with home field. I really liked Shell and Morris
