A Look at BYU, Last Year to This

After last spring, a lot of questions remained for BYU at a lot of positions.  The QB battle was undecided.  It was unclear which receivers would step up and help McKay Jacobson out.  There was no real replacement in place for Harvey Unga.  The linebackers were still a little green.  BYU didn't even know what conference they were going to be in or what the MWC was going to look like.

The indecision at QB proved costly in the early going.  McKay Jacobson got off to a slow start and never picked it up, and it was weeks into the season before any receiver had any kind of productivity.  It took a while before Quezada showed that he may actually be better than Unga by the time his career is done.  The linebackers stepped up just as the defensive line went down with injury after injury.  The Big Ten and Pac 10 expanded, the MWC added Boise State, and BYU did what it had to do: signed with ESPN as an Independent.

Now Jake Heaps is the unquestioned leader of the secondary.  Jacobson is healthy, Cody Hoffman looked phenomenal, and the injury-prone Ross Apo looks even better than the more experienced (in college anyway) Hoffman.  Quezada is still a bear, while DiLuigi and Kariya are getting their final cracks at playing college football: that looks to be loaded.  The linebackers are going to be the strength of the defense, which is what BYU football is all about.  Independence is no longer a dream but a scheduled reality, like it or not.

There are still some other questions after this spring: the secondary, TEs, and a first-time play-caller on offense in Brandon Doman.  But when was the secondary NOT a question at BYU?  It may be unclear which TEs will step up for sure, but there are a lot more experienced candidates (my money is on Devin Mahina and Austin Holt).  Doman may be a first year OC, but he was coached by some of the greatest offensive minds in the college game in his playing days (Norm Chow and Gary Crowton) and has NFL experience.  Besides, he's replacing Robert Anae: could he really do any worse than Anae did last year?

The coaching staff is invigorated.  The players are more experienced.  It better pay off early: the front half of that schedule is brutal.  I will look a little more in-depth, position-by-position, and opponent-by-opponent, in the coming days and weeks.  These are the longest four months of the year.  NBA Playoffs and Draft, EPL and UEFA Champions League Soccer, and NHL/Golf/Tennis (if you follow) can carry us through June.  July we have baseball.  August starts fall camps before September brings football!