I happened to be sick yesterday and, as such, managed to catch a significant portion of BYU Football Media Day, 2014 edition. What strikes me is every year seems like a repeat of the same story. "I like our talent, I like our speed, I like our depth. Last year we clearly weren't there, but this year we've turned the corner." Well, coaches, you liked the team going into last year but as the season progressed, you clearly misjudged them. Why should we have any trust in your assessment heading into this season?
I had questions about this supposed depth and talent going into last year and was proven right on multiple accounts. The WRs were experienced but, beyond Cody Hoffman, there wasn't a guy out there that could go make a play, or get open against tight man coverage. The OL had a lot of bodies, but only about 4 that were good, and those 4 were rarely all healthy at the same time. Defenses exploited what turned out to be a poor OL, but in terms of depth, the 9th guy wasn't that much worse than the 5th guy, so, yeah, BYU had depth. BYU gained a lot of yards in small chunks but had way too many three and outs, particularly in the games that mattered: Utah, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, and Washington. BYU's O over the years isn't about being flashy and putting up tons of big plays. It's about consistently driving the ball, moving the chains, and playing mistake-free, or having a guy who could convert a third and long with regularity. Those days ended with Max Hall, Harvey Unga, Dennis Pitta, and Austin Collie. BYU last year racked up yards, big plays, and points against teams they should have. They struggled to keep the ball longer than 5 plays against everyone else.
The front seven was as good as advertised. The secondary was, well, good in run support and opportunistic in pass defense. However, as is typical with a BYU secondary, they did not make big plays in the passing game in critical situations. They were only able to take advantage of QB mistakes. The D was, as has been the case since Max Hall graduated, put in a lot of bad situations and responded very well. Again. But eventually teams will score enough to beat you, given enough opportunities. Utah, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, and Washington didn't exactly score at will against BYU in spite of poor offensive performances, but they put up enough to emerge victorious.
So, what questions do I have heading into this season? Heading into a BYU football season, it's easy to see where the question marks are: the positions that the coaches praise the most. This year, that would be the WRs. The only proven commodity from last year is gone. There are guys that the coaches say they like, but they also loved Mitch Mathews last season. He had a great game against Utah State (because they forgot to cover him 2 or 3 times) but didn't really leave his mark on any other game that he played in. The WRs could be good. But one of the things the coaches have talked about so much with the offensive players is how much more they can do now that guys have a year in the new system. Well, most of the guys expected to play at WR don't have that year under their belt. To me, that makes them the biggest question mark on the offensive side of the ball.
Defensively, the always-obvious question mark is at CB, but I'm not going to go there. Robertson Daniel was pretty good last year for the most part, based on what I saw in 2012 I believe Jordan Johnson may be the best corner BYU has had in nearly 20 years, and Trent Trammel was slated to start ahead of Daniel before getting injured so there must be something there. If 2 of those 3 can stay healthy, I have no question marks there. I never thought I'd say this position was a question mark heading into a Bronco Mendenhall-coached season but, for me, it's the Inside LBs. The BYU D is designed for these guys to make plays in the run game and I don't know if the guys on the roster can do it week in and week out. Manoa Pikula might be pretty good, but I don't know, I didn't know about Uani Unga last year and he had the best tackling season BYU has ever seen. Jherremya Leuta-Douyere didn't see much time last year, even though there was ample opportunity to see he field: to me, that says something about him. Could one spring camp change that? Zac Stout and Austin Heder are both back after absences from football so I don't know how high the expectations can be for them. If the ILBs can't hack it, Bronco may be forced to either cheat the safeties up (which will really test those corners I said I wasn't concerned about, though I might be in that case!) or move one of what may turn out to be a plethora of OLBs to the inside.
So, at Connecticut, I'm watching the WRs and the ILBs. If the WRs can't get open, especially against Connecticut, I'm concerned. They'll see a steady diet of soft zone coverage from average DBs/LBs and if they can't turn that into positive plays then Texas, Utah State, UCF, Boise State, and Cal should be able to duplicate UConn's efforts. Maybe I'm underestimating UConn's abilities under Bob Diaco.
If the ILBs aren't plugging up holes in the run game, the D will take a step back, regardless of how good the other 9 players are. Bronco runs a team-oriented defense. There can't be a weak link. If there is one, my money would be on ILB.
