2013 BYU Football Season Recap

Competitive, but not close.  That sums up the performance by BYU against Washington in the Fight Hunger Bowl.  That also pretty much sums up BYU's season.

A truly good team would have beat Virginia and Utah.  A team with any play makers on O probably beats Washington as well.  I think BYU got outcoached and outplayed on several occasions this season, where a great team, or a team with a few more play makers, probably overcomes a lot of that.

The O didn't perform against Virginia, Utah, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, or Washington and it cost BYU an opportunity to win those games.  How much blame goes to Anae?  How much goes to Hill?  How much goes to the OL?  There's plenty to go around.  The O was brand new, it was fast-paced, and there were some critical injuries on the OL.  How much of that will change next season?

The D performed well enough, for the most part, for BYU to win games.  It still lacks an ability to make plays in critical situations.  In 3rd and medium, its DBs continue to give large cushions leading to easy 3rd downs.  Where BYU needs a 3 and out, the D can't get it done.  When a turnover would help, BYU is close, but no cigar.  Most of BYU's best defensive players are graduating and gone.

The Special Teams was average.  Justin Sorensen was probably the lone bright spot, after several years of turmoil, he had a great season kicking the ball.  The punting left a lot to be desired.  There were a lot of shanks.  There were a lot of balls landing in the end zone without any chance of a BYU gunner downing it inside the 20.  Kickoff coverage was decent most of the year, but let a few big ones go.  Kickoff return was good and would have been great but for a few too many penalties.

BYU was competitive this season against a difficult schedule.  But, in the end, they just weren't close enough.  There were sparks of greatness and it was apparent the team had potential, but I think most BYU fans are dissatisfied with how that potential materialized.

Looking ahead to next year, they lose a lot of key pieces, including their only decent WRs/TEs, their best LBs, and Safety Daniel Sorensen.  The schedule eases though and the offense has one more spring (and fall) to learn the offense.  The D always seems to replenish in the front 7, so losses of Eathyn Manumaleuna, Spencer Hadley, Uani Unga, and Kyle Van Noy (plus Austen Jorgensen and Tyler Beck), while they definitely hurt, may not decimate the defense's ability to keep BYU in games.  BYU's Punter will return a bit more experienced as well, in all fairness, Riley Stephenson had a rough go his first year as punter as well before an amazing senior season.

The OL and DB positions are usually the biggest question marks for the Cougars and BYU has a lot of guys there returning.  By my count, 8 OL that saw significant snaps this year should be back.  BYU played 9 DBs and only lose 3 of those guys.  They get Jordan Johnson and Trent Trammell back from injury and add Chris Badger at the safety position (who was eligible to play this year, but joined the team so late he never really stood a chance to play under Bronco's system).

I expected BYU to get to 9 or 10 wins this year (including a game against a mid-tier Pac 12 opponent in the bowl game).  They fell short, but in a much different way than I expected.  Next year, based on schedule alone, I find it tough to lower my expectations from where they were this season.  I have questions at WR, like big, massive questions.  If I sit here a year from today and am not lauding BYU's double digit win total in 2014, then the 2013 season recap will sum up the next decade of BYU football.