with the current defensive strategy. If that makes me a fair weather or bad fan in some fans eyes, I really don't care. I'm simply not going to spend time and money when there are better things I can do with both. I have nothing personal against Tuiaki or whatever coach I think may need to improve but I think fans on both sides oversimplify coaching in general. As I mentioned in a previous post, the performance you see is generally not based on one week of practice or even what was done in the off-season. Coaches have strategies and ways of implementing their preferred schemes and spend a lot of time, including how and who they recruit, as part of their planning and what we see on the field may be months or years in the making. Sure game plans can be tweaked but especially with coaches that have "systems" they tend to be pretty stubborn about changing them too much.

My take on Tuaiki, Sitake or whoever ultimately is in charge of the defense is that they built a defense and game plan around making the other team dink and dunk down the field. Like any game plan, there are positives and negatives with every strategy. The ultimate question is "does the defensive strategy including the way it is called, really provide the highest ceiling for BYU especially in years where they have the schedule and talent to possibly compete for a conference championship and playoff spot?"

And the reason I don't like the defense is because while I think it slows opposing offenses down and can work against pass happy teams, it's become obvious that it's a pretty big liability against teams that are run first (or have enough talent to be run first). If it's that easy to beat the scheme then in my eyes it's not going to work consistently against the top 50% of college football and much less so against the top 10-20%. If you're happy with always being the bridesmaid and having 7-9 win seasons but never being the bride and having that special season every so often, I can see why maybe you would think the complaining was over the top. But for me personally, I need to believe that the coaches are absolutely making the right calls and I just can't get on board with this defensive strategy.

If they kept the base defense but disguised better and blitzed more that would help. If I saw that they were doing everything possible to upgrade speed on the ends that would give me more hope. If I saw the occasional corner blitz on 3rd and long, that would be nice. If I saw an improvement in how they tackle, again a good sign. If the DL did more stunting and mixed up their blitzes rather than just bull rushes, I could get on board. But either these things simply aren't happening or happen so rarely that to me it just seems that the play calling is simply too conservative.

Finally, for those that say my expectations are just wrong and fans should never expect a special season, I say to you again, fan however you want. As for me, I'm not investing more in the program unless I see better in-game philosophies on the defensive side of the field.