getting better soon.

2016 was a good start, but several issues were hidden by a combination of great seniors and lingering Bronco mentality.

2017 was a historic coaching disaster.  The head coach lost the team and that showed on the field.  Injuries didn't help, but were far from unprecedented and definately  the lesser story.  The season ends and there is fan little expectation of meaningful improvement.

2018 as a whole was a disappointment, but there were definately coaching aspects that have me encouraged.  I have listed those aspects below:

1) Actaul specific defensive game plans were in evidence (at least some of the time).  Now obviously the coaches had game plans before this season, but they  seemed generic and little was (apparently) done that was specific to the opposing team and personnel.  We first saw this against Arizona.  We saw it several other times this season (though at times it was strangely liacking, like vs Washington).  To me this bespeaks the development of the defensive coordinator.

2) The Athleticism of the defensive backfield.  Sitake's defensive defense needs fast athletic defensive backs who can play man coverage.  My biggest concern for this type of defense was the coaches ability to get enough of this type of athlete to BYU to make the defense work as designed.  While on the whole Kalani's recruiting hasn't leven come close to living up to its reputation, his ability to get these athletes and the coaches success at training them has been a very pleasent surprise and one I don't think will be going away soon.

3) The coaches recovered from 2017's lose of the team.  When the coach loses a team it can be very hard to get it back.  Normally, trying to go from "everybody's friend" to "Shut up and stand straight" does not work well.  It can feel fake and forced.  However, somehow the coaches managed to salvage a lot of the respect (or whatever you want to name the intangibles) that was lost in 2017.  A new coach like Grimes was a big help, but how it happened is less important than the fact that it did happen.

After 2017, about the only hope for being good again was centered around a new coaching staff.  Now things have changed.  The offense is still going to be run oriented, fairly boring, and only moderately effective at putting points on the board.  However, combine that with a very good defense and you have a potential recipe for 9+ wins per year.  Just ask Utah.