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Sep 19, 2017
7:11:10pm
ALC All-American
Lets talk BYU Football - Offense
It has been a painful season as a fan thus far, and hard to separate emotion from reality when you are vested in a team. So I am putting my fan hat down and looking at things from a coaches perspective in offering these thoughts. In 30 years of coaching at the high school level, I have been blessed to have been part of a staff that built a power over 13 seasons. Enjoyed the ups and downs of a middle of the pack program, that was always competitive, but never elite. And even came out of coaching 'retirement' last season to help a close friend in his first season at one of the worst programs in the state over the past 20 years, as he set out to change the culture. So in short, experienced pretty much everything you would expect to experience in the coaching profession, and enjoyed every minute of it. But, this is about my favorite college team, so I digress.

Offense in general: I reference my background above, because for the past 18 seasons I have coached Wing T, which despite it's unfair label as a boring, dinosaur offense, it is actually quite adaptable. (John Beck threw 42 TD passes one season running this offense at Mountain View and Max Hall put up equally gaudy numbers following him there) Robert Anae's offense was similar to this, a relatively simple scheme, that could adapt to the type of personnel he had. No further proof of this is needed than 2014, when Taysom went down and Christian Stewart took over and Anae adapted the scheme to his strengths. Ty's offense is (as many have noted) very much reliant on personnel fitting a scheme, and not a scheme you can adjust a great deal to fit your personnel. There is a reason why very few College programs run a true pro style attack (Wisconsin and Stanford being the most notable) for this reason. You need a very specific player in each position group to make it work to it's full potential and we are not there yet. Jamaal as an example, was very much that player and he often made the o-line look better than it was last season, not saying they are terrible, they are just not the prototypes for this scheme.

Quarterback: Truth is, very few QB's get to College these days even close to being prepared to run this scheme. Most Colleges and high schools put the QB in gun, give him simple half field or area specific reads that allow him to react to defenders vacating/filling those areas based on a two route combo, or an RPO. In shotgun he has a more complete view of the field, never gives half the field his back as he sets up and can make these simple reads much quicker. This scheme, especially under center requires much more effort in the mental game. Ty also mentioned he was going to have the QB set protections on top of that. I am not sure he is still having them do that, but when you take that from the center, it adds another dimension. Especially if the center, or other linemen see something different. There are more timing routes and throws going to areas, which require precise route running and the QB and receiver to adjust much more than most of the spread offenses currently being run. Ideally, a QB sits for two seasons in this scheme, learns and in many cases re-learns and then hopefully gives you two productive seasons. If you watch Tanner's HS highlights he came from a system that relied on a lot of vertical pressure and you rarely see him take read more than half the field, and usually only then when pressured. He has struggled to pick up the nuances of this scheme and overcompensated. Against Portland State he came off reads too fast, when he could have let things develop. Against LSU he stayed on his first read too long at times, then panicked and got happy feet. In the Utah game he did little of both, rushing reads, then staring receivers down, but there was definitely some good moments in the second half, then he got hurt. He can still be very good in this scheme, but he needs some help in other position groups.

Running backs: Ula is the best back for this offense, but has been hurt. He still needs to learn to set his blocks better, but he is a hard downhill runner and when healthy and in top condition, which will be next year, he will be good. He will never be a breakaway threat, but a good solid Bettis type bruiser that will move the sticks and give you makeable 2nd and 3rd downs, where the offense can dictate the play, not the defense. We need another back similar to him, possible JC next season as well. Squally is unfairly maligned by some and he is not a back running back, he just fits better in a spread scheme, where the line has wider splits and he gives him a two way go, where he can plant and accelerate. He could be a good change up back to an established bruiser, but will never be the bell weather back in this scheme. Trey Dye is a solid 3rd down back in this scheme, but at the moment, as our best receiving option out of the backfield, and not very good in pass pro, or physical between the tackles, you tip your hand somewhat when he is in there. (not that it is that hard to predict the play on 3rd and 7 or 8 all the time)

Line: Nowhere near as bad as some are saying, but again, these are linemen recruited for a different scheme. Spread linemen are expected to work more horizontally than the linemen in this scheme, who are expected to get off and get after you. You need bigger, stronger linemen for that and Anae made it a point to go after leaner guys when he was here. He didn't screw the current staff over because of it, he was just recruiting to fit his scheme. This is obviously why we don't always see the push needed against better d lines and it will take turnover to get those guys in here. Again, they are not really that bad, just not where they need to be for this scheme, and while Tejan is a strong guy and plays nasty, he is 6' tall and you are not going to pack that much more effective weight on him. Longson is the type of lineman you need in this scheme, long and 315-320, but he is a freshman and was hit twice by cars on his mission, this won't be his year. There are a lot of linemen on the roster in the 270-280 range with decent talent, but they need to still get bigger and stronger and recruiting needs time to get guys that fit this scheme. The big question is, can we beat the P5 schools in recruiting and land enough of these guys? time will tell.

Receivers: No secret, we have no playmakers and this offense needs at least one in combination with a good TE (Which Bushman is and will be) to stretch the field and draw double coverage at times, leaving mismatches with the TE and opening things up underneath for the slots. Trinneman has elite speed, but that is not enough against top level cornerbacks in D1 like it was at the JC level. You just can't run past corners at this level consistently if you don't know how to manipulate your routes well to set them up. This is probably my biggest disappointment with Cahoon as WR coach. He fashioned a long career as a technician who was able to make plays solely on his route running ability. I would have hoped it would have translated a bit better by now. To me right now our best receiver may be Micah Simon, who would benefit so much more if we had a legit deep threat to stretch the field. Shumway is solid and has good hands, and will be serviceable, but he is a possession guy and needs to work on getting stronger and using his body more. Coachable speed should be a priority here in the off season as the typical BYU receiver of years past won't get it done. The route combos are different and you need speed to go with precision in this offense.

Just my opinion and I am not disparaging Ty or KS in any way. But I think a more gradual transition into this scheme would have been beneficial, while the personnel needed to run it were brought into the program. It kind of goes back to the top of the post about Wing T. Tweak your scheme to fit your talent, then as you get the talent you want/need transition. We were almost exclusively under center, then we had a very athletic QB (Jourdan Grandon) who went on to start at U or A in the secondary for three seasons. We ran the same scheme, same plays, just put him in gun some times and ran counter scheme with the QB running the ball instead of another back, little things that just utilize your talent effectively. This is a first time gig for KS as head coach and I am pretty sure, knowing his personality, he didn't want to be too much of a micro-manager. It's Ty's first stint as an OC and he absolutely knows how to recognize a good scheme and how to attack a defense. But, can have the best engine in the world, and it won't perform to standards if you don't put premium gas in it. This may be a painful season, but if the staff weathers the storm, they will grow so much more as a unit and know what to do to get it fixed for 2018, while taking advantage of the bye to make what tweaks they can for this season.

Go Cougs!!!
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