College football is a game decided by inches, footwork, and momentum, more so than any other sport. An analysis of BYU's season, the national championship game, and countless other games will verify that. Generally, that is what makes it great. In the case of BYU, the Natty Title game, or several SEC-against-nobody games this year, it's what made them suck.
Title Game Punt Miscue
Notre Dame was beat up and outclassed, no doubt. But how different is that game if one first quarter play goes differently? If the ND gunner is a few inches to the left or the ref is a few inches to the right, or if the punt returner adjusts his footwork slightly differently, the entire outcome can change. Imagine if ND gets the ball at the Bama 25-yard line and goes in to score. They take a few more minutes for their D to rest and adjust. The score is 7-3 or 7-7. Bama gets the ball with 4 minutes left in the quarter, starting closer to the 20 than the 40. Even if they march down and score, it'll take the remainder of the quarter. Maybe it's 14-3 or 14-7 early in the second quarter instead of 21-0. ND starts believing, their D is getting more rest, their O has more confidence and less desperate, and Bama starts doubting.
But, at 14-0 midway through the first Q, it falls apart b/c of inches, footwork, and momentum. The DL start taking slightly different angles trying to make big plays. That opens up cutback lanes that Lacy and Yeldon exploit. At 14-7, those lanes aren't there. Everett Golson is trying to make big plays at 21-0 and the O abandons the running game (which was their only chance against Bama). Momentum killed their chances. Again, one play in the 1st Q, decided by inches and footwork, completely changing momentum, changes the game.
BYU at Utah Snap
With BYU, the same thing can be said. Imagine the Utah game, a bad snap when Riley is changing a play changes the tide. Utah scores two TDs in 61 seconds b/c of inches, footwork, and momentum. If that snap is inches to the right and hits Riley Nelson on the way back, perhaps BYU recovers and that drive ends in points. At the very least, Utah will be forced to drive the length of the field to score ONCE (something they didn't do all game long), instead of scoring a TD on that play, and pinning BYU deep on the next possession before forcing a three-and-out and getting great field position. One play, decided by inches, Riley Nelson and Michael Alisa not properly moving their feet to recover, changes momentum. And the outcome.
Several Other Close Calls
There's a myriad of plays that were "so close" against Boise State. Riley Nelson's pick in the end zone ended a possession with no points instead of 3. Riley Nelson didn't move his feet on a play that ended up in a pick 6 for Boise State. A missed block on BYU's 2-point conversion forced Taysom Hill into a situation where he had no chance. A missed tackle on Boise State's final possession allowed Boise State to run out the clock. All of them were just a matter of footwork: poor by Ross Apo on his route, poor by Riley Nelson in the pocket, the right side of the line had problems with footwork all season, and I believe it was Brandon Ogletree that took a bad angle when he had a tackle for loss that could have given Taysom one last possession.
Oregon State was decided by a couple of tipped passes. Inches gave Oregon State a TD and a pick 6 in the 4th Q, instead of a FG and a BYU first down.
The Notre Dame game had several close calls as well, one of which, late in the third got the crowd back into the game and changed momentum. SJSU was the same way. An analysis of the BYU wins would yield the same result: one play changed everything. The right tackle with some awful footwork trying to block Van Noy starts a 14-point barrage by KVN and gives BYU a bowl victory.
In the End, It's Why We Love It...
Inches, footwork, and momentum were the reason Bama won the national championship and the reason BYU went 8-5. Sometimes, it is a play in the 1st Q, sometimes it's in the 4th, but every college football game hinges on one or two plays, decided by inches and footwork, that completely alter the course of a game. Momentum matters in CFB. In basketball, coaches get a schwack of timeouts and can slow momentum. With 3 per half, coaches seem unwilling to use them to slow momentum. But in the ultimate view of college football, it's why we love, and hate, it!
Hopefully experience and coaching changes can swing some of those inches the other way in BYU's favor next season, and away from the SEC champ in the National Championship hunt next season. If it's Saban in the hunt, though, I don't trust him to NOT take advantage as he's done when Colt McCoy got hurt or when the refs blew the muffed punt. As far as BYU is concerned, they don't always seem to know how to take advantage, and they also seem to always be the one on the bad end of the inches, footwork, and momentum...KVN and Hoffman can. Will they have enough teammates and coaching next season that can too? We shall see.
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