Well, there is a lot I could say about my first trip to watch an Independent BYU football team play. However, first things first: my game analysis. I will follow-up in the coming days about various parts of the trip: a brief travelogue, visiting The Grove, an SEC stadium, the Ole Miss fanbase, and my run-in with Jared Lloyd and Jason Franchuk from the Daily Herald at the Nashville Airport and on our flight to Denver. This will be a quick, though not short, analysis, as I haven't had a chance to look at stats, watch the game again, or read any articles or post-game quotes yet. My stats are just based on my memory of the experience, so I might be mistaken on some of them. I will fact check myself tomorrow as I watch the game again and go through the million articles out there about the game. My wife is headed out of town for filming this week (she's going to be an extra in the New Testament movies the church is making), so I'll have plenty of time for expounding on the game!
Physicality and Speed
The SEC is billed as the most physical and fastest conference in America. That is much-deserved for the conference as a whole. However, Ole Miss is definitely not in the upper echelon of the SEC in those regards. With that said, they are still an SEC team. However, BYU was at least as physical, if not more so, than Ole Miss. Ole Miss had two or three guys with obviously superior speed to BYU, however, everywhere else the speed matchups were fairly even. Perhaps the 40-yard dash times are better for Ole Miss, but in terms of on-the-field speed the two teams were essentially equivalent. If you don't get in the open-field running straight, those 40 times don't really help. Ole Miss only had 3 plays the entire game where they got in the open field and that their speed mattered: the punt return at the end of the first half, the pick 6, and a fly pattern to the end zone where the WR dropped a TD. Other than that, BYU more than held its own where speed and physicality were concerned with an SEC team. I will take that. I guess that means that week in, week out, BYU could do at least as "well" as Ole Miss does in the SEC...
Not a Bad First
Brandon Doman did well in his first game as Offensive Coordinator. BYU had one delay of game penalty and had to use two timeouts because of the play-clock, which is pretty typical for any team in the first game of the season. I believe Ole Miss had the same result, though I believe they had two delay of game penalties.
Watching Doman at various points throughout the game, he was quick and decisive with his play calls. He was usually getting the formations and plays signaled in with 26-30 seconds left on the clock. There were a few times where the personnel groups went out a bit late, but that could be the personnel and not the coaches. If it happens again next week, I'd say at that point it's on the coaches. I would say Doman did well compared to the seasoned vet with NFL coaching experience he went up against.
It was normal for the first game of the season. It was outstanding for the first game of a career. What was even better: the playcalling. While there are always specific play calls that could be questioned, Doman didn't do anything really puzzling. Again, comparing him to the Ole Miss OC, David Lee, he did well. Few, if any, BYU fans would question the game that Doman called. Ole Miss fans all around us were questioning the Ole Miss play-calling (I was questioning it myself). Doman was situationally and formationally unpredictable, which should be a very welcome sight in Provo after years of Robert Anae's predictability. He called a great game. As Franchuk and Lloyd said to me this morning: Doman put Heaps in a position to succeed, Heaps just didn't succeed as much as he could have.
No Huddle
BYU's offense went back to huddling before every play, which hasn't been done in some time in Provo. Apparently, the defense got used to playing against a huddle. Ole Miss marched right down the field as they went to the no-huddle late in the second quarter. Bronco finally had to call a timeout to slow the momentum and prepare his defense. [Consequently, after that timeout, the defense forced Ole Miss to kick a field goal, so the timeout call turned out to be huge. Well done, Bronco!] Other than that no-huddle drive, which started near midfield after a big punt return, Ole Miss only had one drive gain more than two first downs, I believe.
Part of the issue there is that BYU, despite playing a physical brand of football yesterday, is a finesse team. Ole Miss is a power team. BYU, both offensively and defensively, is all about alignment and making reads. Ole Miss is all about beating their opponent man-on-man. BYU isn't going to run up to the line and snap the ball like Ole Miss. BYU will get set and then scan the defense looking for potential numeric or positioning advantages. [That is why BYU never snaps the ball when the other team isn't looking, even though it would appear advantageous to snap it when 6 guys are looking at the sidelines for direction...] Ole Miss is going to come up to the line and try to hit the man in front of them. If there's no one in front of them, they will run around until they find someone to hit. You don't need to wait for the other team with that approach.
Defensively, it is the same way for BYU. The defense looks at the formation and makes reads. So when Ole Miss hurried to the line and snapped the ball, the defense wasn't quite ready. They weren't set and they hadn't made their reads. That is why the no-huddle drive was successful. BYU will need to work on that this week, as Texas is the kind of team that can hurry up and get the defense flustered. That is what made Andy Dalton and TCU so effective against BYU the past few seasons. It seemed like he left the huddle and snapped the ball within about 4 seconds of each other.
Defensive Dominance
When BYU had the time to make the reads, they made the right ones seemingly every time. They were very assignment sound. They always had guys flowing to the right place. The holes were always filled. The defense made all the right moves. Bronco made all the right calls. He dialed up pressure and they got after the QB, but they didn't sell out and give up any big run plays. The defense was awesome. They didn't wear down in the heat, against the size and physicality of the Ole Miss offensive line. In fact, they seemed to get stronger as the game went along. Take away the 49 yard no-huddle drive, and BYU gave up about well under 200 yards for the rest of the game.
All offseason we read about the depth of the Linebackers. While I never questioned that BYU had a good group of linebackers, I didn't realize just how good they were. First off, they made a lot of plays. They chased down a lot of guys at or behind the line of scrimmage. They quickly sealed holes that could have led to big plays. Secondly, in the fourth quarter, with the game on the line, Uona Kaveinga, Kyle Van Noy, and Jordan Pendleton all spent several snaps on the sideline. Brandon Ogletree was out with a minor concussion. The four starters didn't play the entire fourth quarter of a tight ball game. The "back-ups" were trusted enough in that situation. That shows the trust that Bronco has in his group of LBs. It also shows the depth, since they played so much in crucial situations and there was ZERO dropoff in the play of the defense. In fact, Wagner's play behind the line of scrimmage led to a crucial holding penalty on Ole Miss. That penalty backed Ole Miss up and that drive eventually led to the fumble and defensive score for BYU.
Being there, I saw another cool thing about the defense. After the meetings and post-game "stuff" was over, the starting defense came out, led by Jordan Pendleton, and did "burpees" for every point surrendered. For those of you who don't know what burpees are: they are not a fun conditioning drill involving a lot of dropping to the ground and getting back up, and certainly not a fun one to do AFTER a 60-minute affair against a physical team. I like it. I hope the D has a similar amount of burpees to do after next week's game...
Random Tidbits
The front 3 on D did a great job for BYU's D. The LBs were breaking free behind the line of scrimmage because there was no one left to block them. Manumaleuna and Fangupo were also in the backfield and/or making tackles the entire game. Even Ole Miss fans commented to me after the game just how big the defensive front was. I agree, they were large, and yet very athletic.
Heaps was definitely off-the-mark throwing the ball. He also seemed to throw a couple of passes too late, including the pick 6. A half-second earlier and it's a touchdown for the right team. He's still a sophomore and it showed last night. However, he also made some throws that I never saw Max Hall make, even as a redshirt, RM senior. If Heaps can be as decisive in his throws as Doman is in his calls, the offense will pick things up quickly!
It was good to see Riley Nelson in the game on special teams. He also had two plays at QB. I'm sure he'd like to have the first one back: he ran the option, but it looked a lot more like a toss sweep. He didn't make anyone decide anything, he just pitched it at the first sign of red. I hope he gets over that, but I don't blame him: after having a season-ending injury last year, it was his first snap of the season. I wouldn't risk THIS season on the first play either. But still, for the good of the team, he's going to have to be more effective in that option type situation.
JD Falslev was targeted early in the game in third down situations. He might become that third down target for Heaps. He needs one earlier this season after waiting 7 games before having Ashworth emerge as that guy last season.
There were no drops. There were some nice catches made. There were no fumbles after the catch. Those are three major differences from last year's team. The Tight Ends seemed much improved, though the statline probably wasn't too great. Holt and Wilson had about 4 catches, and I think 2 or 3 of them led to first downs with at least one more another setting up 3rd and short.
Special Teams was good (minus the somewhat fluky punt return). A lot of those defensive back-ups are on that team and made significant contributions. There is depth...
The secondary is still a BYU secondary. They didn't cover great. They got beat down the field (though drops and bad prevented completions). They got shredded short. That was against inexperienced QBs and a very vanilla passing attack. They will see much more sophisticated passing attacks, led by much more experienced QBs the next three games. Secondary must step up. And they can't drop TWO picks that were set out on a platter for them.
It is refreshing to come home and look at ESPN and see that "Watch Replay" button. I heard from several of you about how nice it was to watch in real HD. As my sign read in the stadium (probably will have it again next week at Texas and against Utah, maybe we'll get on TV with it eventually): Independence is blYss!
Injury Report
Brandon Ogletree was knocked unconcious after a head-to-head collision and did not return. Josh Quezada sat on the bench most of the second half, with occasional visits from the trainer. RG Braden Hansen was slow to get up after a play and appeared a bit tender the next few plays. It looked like Marco Thorson replaced him briefly, but I'll have to go back to the video to confirm. Jared Lloyd informed me that the only reported injuries were Ogletree's minor concussion and Quezada's "migraine." There was no mention of Hansen in the injury report according to Lloyd. Theoretically, all three guys would be available for the Texas game.
For those that missed it, earlier this week, Ryker Mathews had an MRI that revealed enough damage to end his season as he'll have surgery to repair. My brother had missed that news as he said he was excited to see him and asked me where he was, so I figured he might not be alone.
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