This season for the BYU football team has more closely followed a mid-day soap opera script rather than one written for a soon-to-be-Independent football program. There’s been controversy at quarterback; drama at wide receiver; players suspended and one kicked off the team.
Losses. BIG losses.
Then there was the firing of Jaime Hill, the team’s defensive coordinator.
This Cougar football squad has had enough drama to last an 8th grade girl through.......well, at least through lunch time.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more “Daniel Day-Lewis”, in rolls the Wyoming Cowboys with a quarterback whose name even sounds like a soap opera actor: Austyn Carta-Samuels.
Yes, TV Guide was on hand in the press box, and the E! channel had a studio set up in the parking lot. I think I even saw Ryan Seacrest complaining at the concession stand about the lack of Apple Martinis on the menu.
And if it hadn’t have been for two key first half turnovers, the Cougars may have escaped LaVell Edwards Stadium without any of the as-advertised theatrics (how many times do you write/read about BYU having to “escape” from their home stadium?).
Alas, this is the Year of the Dramatic in Provo, and October 23rd 2010 proved to be no different.
From my seat in the richly upholstered, plush press box high above the field and out of the cold rain I watched as BYU time and again had an opportunity to put the Cowboys out for good, only to let it slip away from them.
In the first half, the Cougars came out running, and HOW!
The opening play of the game was a deep pass to Cody Hoffman from Jake Heaps which Hoffman got his left hand on but wasn't able to reel it in. After that, I honestly don't remember another pass on the drive. I know there probably was one, but it wasn't pertinent. The Cougars marched down the field with Kariya, Quezada, and Di Luigi taking hand offs, finally sending Di Luigi around the left end and diving into the end zone for the touchdown.
The pass I do remember from the first half was the pick six that Heaps gifted to the Cowboys. BYU had the ball at their own 45 yard line or so, and they ran a bubble screen to their back. And that back probably would have gained a huge amount of yards had the ball made it to him. Heaps rolled left, eyed the open receiver, and promptly threw it right to the linebacker who had gotten between him and the receiver. Had he simply DUMPED the ball OVER the linebacker, it might have gone for a BYU touchdown. Instead, the frozen rope went straight into the white jersey of the defender, who then took it back to the house for a touchdown.
(The one bright spot in the passing game was a beautiful little number tossed into the corner of the end zone for senior WR Luke Ashworth, who corralled the ball for a touchdown, his first of the year)
Luckily for BYU, the Wyoming punting game was embarrassing. The Cowboys opted for a scrum/rigby style punting scheme, which backfired twice. Once for 15 yards, once for 8 yards. The second one actually hit the long snapper in the back of the helmet. Had Wyoming not wet the bed field-position wise, the Cougars might not be celebrating a victory today.
Just like any good play, movie, or soap opera, Saturday's episode had a happy ending for the Cougars. Wyoming drove the ball all the way down the field with only seconds remaining in the game. On 3rd and 10 inside the red zone and BYU leading by 25-20, Wyoming's Carta-Samuels threw a perfect pass to his wide receiver around the 5 yard line. I was standing on the sideline on that part of the field at the time, and had a wonderful view and angle of the play. Cornerback Brandon Bradley promptly reached around the receiver and knocked the ball to the ground. The crowd roared, Bradley celebrated, and Wyoming was livid. Bradley had in fact gotten away with "football murder." Pass interference. Bradley's right arm was wrapped around the Wyoming receiver's waist as he reached in front with his left hand. In fact, his arm wasn't just wrapped around him...Bradley got down right cozy with the guy! He cuddled with him in mid air! How he got away with it is beyond me. But on the very next play, 4th and 10, Carta-Samuels' pass was tipped up in the air and caught by an O-lineman, who tried to lateral it backwards as he was tackled to the ground, but it was no use.
The game was over, and the Cougars had pulled off a harrowing victory by a mere 5 points.
At home.
Against Wyoming.
Yes, THAT Wyoming.....
In all, it was a fun game to watch and study, and it made a rainy Saturday afternoon a lot of fun. BYU showed glimmers of promise and strength for the future, though there is still a lot of problems that need to be worked out.
"The Ghost of Drama Past" has not left their presence just yet. If you don't believe me, let me leave you with this one anecdote from today's game. The Cougars were called for a penalty in the 2nd quarter, the type of which I can't recall. That's not important. What is important was the number of the player who committed the foul. Or, rather, the number that the referee ANNOUNCED as the offender.
It was number 4. O'Neill Chambers. Mr Drama himself. Even though he's been kicked off the team, he still found a way to inject a little of his own drama into the game.
Coincidence? Omen? Either way, the bottom line is that it is evident that this team is still struggling to stay above water. Had they not pulled out that big stop at the end, giving Wyoming the victory....well, then we DEFINITELY would have received our Academy-Awards-level of drama to last us the rest of our lifetimes.
And that's the bottom line.
Austin's Sports Blog (the one place where he is ALWAYS right)
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
THE BOTTOM LINE: Aggies Defeat Cougars; Pigs Learn to Fly
The BYU football team lost to the Utah State Aggies this past Friday night for the first time since 1993. 17 years. I was 8 years old in 1993. In fact this was only the 2nd time Utah State has defeated the Cougars while I've been alive. It hasn't even been close. From 1985 to 2009, BYU outscored Utah State 402-261. The idea of BYU losing to Utah State in football seemed as likely to me as the Pittsburgh Pirates winning a World Series. But not only did the Aggies beat BYU, they creamed them.
Start planning the parade route, Pittsburgh! It's your turn.
The loss in Logan dropped BYU's record to 1-4. While many in Cougar Nation are displeased with the offense's inability to score points like the fans are used to seeing, the team's defense has also been less than stellar. In fact, going into Friday night's match-up, the Cougars ranked 94th (out of 119)in rushing defense, and 87th in points allowed. True, the offense's ranking is just as bad, but they lost 3 starters at key positions from last year to the NFL, including their QB. They were expected to struggle. The defense was supposed to be better than this.
Following yet another dismal performance on the defensive side of the ball at Utah State, BYU announced Saturday that defensive coordinator Jaime Hill would be relieved of his duties for the remainder of this season, and would not return to the staff next year. For anyone that isn't following, that's a nice way of saying, "You're fired, now get out and don't ever come back."
After hearing of the announcement, I first felt bad for Hill. Having witnessed him with the players on the roster at practice and during training camp earlier this Fall, I know the team really likes him, and that he works really hard at what he does. I was also among those who believed that the offensive play calling may have been more to blame than the defense's shortcomings. So I decided to go back through the Utah State game and try to see what made Bronco Mendenhall come to the decision to fire Hill. Here is what I found.
I decided to break down the 3rd down attempts on both sides of the ball for BYU. Offense: did they convert or not, and what plays were called. Defense: did they stop Utah State or not, and what plays were called against them.
(full break down posted at bottom of text)
-OFFENSE:
Out of 19 3rd downs, BYU was successful on only 8 tries. They chose to rush the ball 4 times, passing it the remaining 15 times. It was my personal belief that BYU was running the ball on 3rd down when they should have been throwing it, and that THAT was the reason for the low success rate. However, this was not the case Friday night. In fact, BYU ran the ball only once on 3rd down when they had 4 or more yards to go. The other 3 rushing attempts were with 3 or 2 yards to go, respectively. What really killed the success rate was incomplete passes. The Cougars were 7 for 15 passing on 3rd down. Out of these 15 passing attempts, the play ended on an incompletion 6 times (Heaps was sacked once, and JJ Di Luigi ran a route 1 yard short of the first). If those 6 passes would have been caught, BYU's 3rd down success rate would have jumped from 42% to 74%.
So I blame the players on this one. The play calls seem to be the right choice in the situation provided. One disclaimer, though, is that BYU should probably be avoiding 3rd downs on offense more often if they want to turn this thing around. That is to say, the play calls on 2nd down might need some tweaking.
-DEFENSE:
Out of Utah State's offense's 18 3rd downs, they were successful 11 times. That is to say, BYU's defense only had 7 3rd down stops in the whole game, an embarrassing 39% success rate. I wanted to see what was giving the Cougars more trouble: the passing or the running game. The Aggies only passed 4 times on 3rd down, running it the other 14 times. While BYU only stopped the pass once on 3rd down, they gave up first downs on the ground an amazing 8 times on 3rd down (you can see how many yards the Aggies had to go to get the first down on each of the tries). While the players are responsible for executing the plays that are called, the coach is in charge of choosing the best play to set his guys up for success. Out of the 14 times Utah State ran it on 3rd down, they had less than 4 yards to go 9 times. To me, that means the Cougars should have expected the run at LEAST 9 times on 3rd down. Yet they still gave up a first down 8 times out of 14. This lies specifically with Coach Hill's play calling.
While Hill did well to get the Cougars to hold Utah State through 1st and 2nd downs, the ones that count most are 3rd downs. And here is where he failed miserably.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
I don't feel that the Cougars' defensive problems are over, and I wouldn't even expect very much from their YOUNG offense for the rest of the season, either. But I do know that while Bronco Mendenhall was acting as defensive coordinator, the BYU defense was a powerhouse. And since the time Hill took that responsibility over to the present day, the BYU defense has slipped to the point that they are now ranked among the worst defenses in the country. Was firing Hill the right move? I believe it was ONE of the right moves. The only question that remains: What move will BYU make next?
I'm glad I'm just a reporter, not a coach. I like having a job that depends SOLELY on MY actions, and not others'.
And that's the bottom line.
Here's the break down text:
3rd down tries, Offense: 42%, 8/19
4 times rushing:1/4
-Yards to go: 3, 3, 5, 2
15 times passing, 7/15
-sacks: 1
-incompletions: 6
-would've been 13/19 if completed
3rd down stops, Defense: 39%, 7/18
-14 times rushing, 6/14 stops
Yards to go: 1, 3, 6, 1, 1, 3, 13, 1, 1, 2, 5, 14, 9, 2
-4 times passing, 1/4 stops
Yards to go: 6, 7, 7, 8
-stop came on the 6 to go play
-incomplete pass
Game Chart: 3rd Down Plays
KEY:
-rushing plays are in italics
-passing plays are in normal font
-offensive successful results are bolded
1st QUARTER
Offense:
3rd and 3 at USU 38 JJ Di Luigi rush for no gain to the UthSt 38.
3rd and 4 at BYU 12 Jake Heaps pass complete to JJ Di Luigi for 3 yards to the BYU 15.
3rd and 8 at BYU 24 Jake Heaps pass complete to JJ Di Luigi for 8 yards to the BYU 32 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 5 at USU 47 Jake Heaps pass intercepted by Chris Randle at the UthSt 43, returned for 4 yards to the UthSt 47.
1/4 3rd down conversions
Defense:
3rd and 1 at USU 12 Diondre Borel rush for 39 yards to the BYU 49 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 6 at BYU 45 Diondre Borel pass incomplete to Kellen Bartlett.
3rd and 3 at BYU 46 Travis Reynolds rush for 6 yards to the BYU 40 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 7 at BYU 37 Diondre Borel pass complete to Derrvin Speight for 19 yards to the BYU 18 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 6 at BYU 14 Kerwynn Williams rush for a loss of 3 yards to the BYU 17.
2/5 3rd down stops
2nd QUARTER
Offense:
3rd and 3 at BYU 33 Joshua Quezada rush for 6 yards to the BYU 39 for a 1ST down
3rd and 5 at BYU 44 Jake Heaps pass complete to McKay Jacobson for 10 yards to the UthSt 46 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 5 at USU 41 JJ Di Luigi rush for 4 yards to the UthSt 37.
3rd and 8 at USU 20 Jake Heaps pass complete to Cody Hoffman for 9 yards to the UthSt 11 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 5 at USU 6 Jake Heaps pass incomplete to Marcus Mathews, broken up by Walter McClenton.
3rd and 1 at BYU 41 Jake Heaps pass incomplete to JJ Di Luigi.
3/6 3rd down conversions
Defense:
3rd and 7 at USU 40 Diondre Borel pass complete to Kellen Bartlett for 14 yards to the BYU 46 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 1 at BYU 37 Derrvin Speight rush for 3 yards to the BYU 34 for a 1ST down.
3rd and Goal at BYU 1 Diondre Borel rush for 1 yard for a TOUCHDOWN.
3rd and 3 at BYU 6 Joey DeMartino rush for 4 yards to the BYU 2 for a 1ST down.
0/4 3rd down stops
3rd QUARTER
Offense:
3rd and 3 at USU 36 Jake Heaps pass complete to JJ Di Luigi for 5 yards to the UthSt 31 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 10 at USU 31 Jake Heaps pass incomplete to JJ Di Luigi.
3rd and Goal at USU 2 JJ Di Luigi rush for a loss of 2 yards to the UthSt 4.
3rd and 7 at BYU 47 Jake Heaps pass complete to Cody Hoffman for 10 yards to the UthSt 43 for a 1ST down.
2/4 3rd down conversions
Defense:
3rd and 13 at USU 7 Diondre Borel rush for 6 yards to the UthSt 13.
3rd and 8 at USU 33 Diondre Borel pass complete to Kellen Bartlett for 12 yards to the UthSt 45 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 1 at BYU 46 Kerwynn Williams rush for 16 yards to the BYU 30 for a 1ST down.
3rd and Goal at BYU 1 Derrvin Speight rush for 1 yard for a TOUCHDOWN.
3rd and 2 at USU 33 Kerwynn Williams rush for 1 yard to the UthSt 34.
2/5 3rd down stops
4th QUARTER
Offense:
3rd and 22 at BYU 45 Jake Heaps pass incomplete to Luke Ashworth, UTAH ST penalty 15 yard Personal Foul on Rajric Coleman accepted.
3rd and 7 at USU 40 Jake Heaps pass incomplete.
3rd and 10 at BYU 18 Jake Heaps sacked by Devin Johnson for a loss of 3 yards to the BYU 15.
3rd and 4 at BYU 31 Jake Heaps pass complete to McKay Jacobson for 16 yards to the BYU 47 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 20 at USU 36 BYU penalty 5 yard Delay of Game accepted.
3rd and 25 at USU 41 Jake Heaps pass incomplete to Cody Hoffman.
3rd and 4 at BYU 40 Jake Heaps pass complete to JJ Di Luigi for 15 yards to the UthSt 45 for a 1ST down.
2/5 3rd down conversions
Defense:
3rd and 5 at BYU 39 Robert Marshall rush for 2 yards to the BYU 37..
3rd and 14 at BYU 35 Joey DeMartino rush for 10 yards to the BYU 25.
3rd and 9 at USU 42 Diondre Borel rush for 11 yards to the BYU 47 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 2 at BYU 39 Diondre Borel rush for 5 yards, fumbled at the BYU 34.
3/4 3rd down stops
Start planning the parade route, Pittsburgh! It's your turn.
The loss in Logan dropped BYU's record to 1-4. While many in Cougar Nation are displeased with the offense's inability to score points like the fans are used to seeing, the team's defense has also been less than stellar. In fact, going into Friday night's match-up, the Cougars ranked 94th (out of 119)in rushing defense, and 87th in points allowed. True, the offense's ranking is just as bad, but they lost 3 starters at key positions from last year to the NFL, including their QB. They were expected to struggle. The defense was supposed to be better than this.
Following yet another dismal performance on the defensive side of the ball at Utah State, BYU announced Saturday that defensive coordinator Jaime Hill would be relieved of his duties for the remainder of this season, and would not return to the staff next year. For anyone that isn't following, that's a nice way of saying, "You're fired, now get out and don't ever come back."
After hearing of the announcement, I first felt bad for Hill. Having witnessed him with the players on the roster at practice and during training camp earlier this Fall, I know the team really likes him, and that he works really hard at what he does. I was also among those who believed that the offensive play calling may have been more to blame than the defense's shortcomings. So I decided to go back through the Utah State game and try to see what made Bronco Mendenhall come to the decision to fire Hill. Here is what I found.
I decided to break down the 3rd down attempts on both sides of the ball for BYU. Offense: did they convert or not, and what plays were called. Defense: did they stop Utah State or not, and what plays were called against them.
(full break down posted at bottom of text)
-OFFENSE:
Out of 19 3rd downs, BYU was successful on only 8 tries. They chose to rush the ball 4 times, passing it the remaining 15 times. It was my personal belief that BYU was running the ball on 3rd down when they should have been throwing it, and that THAT was the reason for the low success rate. However, this was not the case Friday night. In fact, BYU ran the ball only once on 3rd down when they had 4 or more yards to go. The other 3 rushing attempts were with 3 or 2 yards to go, respectively. What really killed the success rate was incomplete passes. The Cougars were 7 for 15 passing on 3rd down. Out of these 15 passing attempts, the play ended on an incompletion 6 times (Heaps was sacked once, and JJ Di Luigi ran a route 1 yard short of the first). If those 6 passes would have been caught, BYU's 3rd down success rate would have jumped from 42% to 74%.
So I blame the players on this one. The play calls seem to be the right choice in the situation provided. One disclaimer, though, is that BYU should probably be avoiding 3rd downs on offense more often if they want to turn this thing around. That is to say, the play calls on 2nd down might need some tweaking.
-DEFENSE:
Out of Utah State's offense's 18 3rd downs, they were successful 11 times. That is to say, BYU's defense only had 7 3rd down stops in the whole game, an embarrassing 39% success rate. I wanted to see what was giving the Cougars more trouble: the passing or the running game. The Aggies only passed 4 times on 3rd down, running it the other 14 times. While BYU only stopped the pass once on 3rd down, they gave up first downs on the ground an amazing 8 times on 3rd down (you can see how many yards the Aggies had to go to get the first down on each of the tries). While the players are responsible for executing the plays that are called, the coach is in charge of choosing the best play to set his guys up for success. Out of the 14 times Utah State ran it on 3rd down, they had less than 4 yards to go 9 times. To me, that means the Cougars should have expected the run at LEAST 9 times on 3rd down. Yet they still gave up a first down 8 times out of 14. This lies specifically with Coach Hill's play calling.
While Hill did well to get the Cougars to hold Utah State through 1st and 2nd downs, the ones that count most are 3rd downs. And here is where he failed miserably.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
I don't feel that the Cougars' defensive problems are over, and I wouldn't even expect very much from their YOUNG offense for the rest of the season, either. But I do know that while Bronco Mendenhall was acting as defensive coordinator, the BYU defense was a powerhouse. And since the time Hill took that responsibility over to the present day, the BYU defense has slipped to the point that they are now ranked among the worst defenses in the country. Was firing Hill the right move? I believe it was ONE of the right moves. The only question that remains: What move will BYU make next?
I'm glad I'm just a reporter, not a coach. I like having a job that depends SOLELY on MY actions, and not others'.
And that's the bottom line.
Here's the break down text:
3rd down tries, Offense: 42%, 8/19
4 times rushing:1/4
-Yards to go: 3, 3, 5, 2
15 times passing, 7/15
-sacks: 1
-incompletions: 6
-would've been 13/19 if completed
3rd down stops, Defense: 39%, 7/18
-14 times rushing, 6/14 stops
Yards to go: 1, 3, 6, 1, 1, 3, 13, 1, 1, 2, 5, 14, 9, 2
-4 times passing, 1/4 stops
Yards to go: 6, 7, 7, 8
-stop came on the 6 to go play
-incomplete pass
Game Chart: 3rd Down Plays
KEY:
-rushing plays are in italics
-passing plays are in normal font
-offensive successful results are bolded
1st QUARTER
Offense:
3rd and 3 at USU 38 JJ Di Luigi rush for no gain to the UthSt 38.
3rd and 4 at BYU 12 Jake Heaps pass complete to JJ Di Luigi for 3 yards to the BYU 15.
3rd and 8 at BYU 24 Jake Heaps pass complete to JJ Di Luigi for 8 yards to the BYU 32 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 5 at USU 47 Jake Heaps pass intercepted by Chris Randle at the UthSt 43, returned for 4 yards to the UthSt 47.
1/4 3rd down conversions
Defense:
3rd and 1 at USU 12 Diondre Borel rush for 39 yards to the BYU 49 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 6 at BYU 45 Diondre Borel pass incomplete to Kellen Bartlett.
3rd and 3 at BYU 46 Travis Reynolds rush for 6 yards to the BYU 40 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 7 at BYU 37 Diondre Borel pass complete to Derrvin Speight for 19 yards to the BYU 18 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 6 at BYU 14 Kerwynn Williams rush for a loss of 3 yards to the BYU 17.
2/5 3rd down stops
2nd QUARTER
Offense:
3rd and 3 at BYU 33 Joshua Quezada rush for 6 yards to the BYU 39 for a 1ST down
3rd and 5 at BYU 44 Jake Heaps pass complete to McKay Jacobson for 10 yards to the UthSt 46 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 5 at USU 41 JJ Di Luigi rush for 4 yards to the UthSt 37.
3rd and 8 at USU 20 Jake Heaps pass complete to Cody Hoffman for 9 yards to the UthSt 11 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 5 at USU 6 Jake Heaps pass incomplete to Marcus Mathews, broken up by Walter McClenton.
3rd and 1 at BYU 41 Jake Heaps pass incomplete to JJ Di Luigi.
3/6 3rd down conversions
Defense:
3rd and 7 at USU 40 Diondre Borel pass complete to Kellen Bartlett for 14 yards to the BYU 46 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 1 at BYU 37 Derrvin Speight rush for 3 yards to the BYU 34 for a 1ST down.
3rd and Goal at BYU 1 Diondre Borel rush for 1 yard for a TOUCHDOWN.
3rd and 3 at BYU 6 Joey DeMartino rush for 4 yards to the BYU 2 for a 1ST down.
0/4 3rd down stops
3rd QUARTER
Offense:
3rd and 3 at USU 36 Jake Heaps pass complete to JJ Di Luigi for 5 yards to the UthSt 31 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 10 at USU 31 Jake Heaps pass incomplete to JJ Di Luigi.
3rd and Goal at USU 2 JJ Di Luigi rush for a loss of 2 yards to the UthSt 4.
3rd and 7 at BYU 47 Jake Heaps pass complete to Cody Hoffman for 10 yards to the UthSt 43 for a 1ST down.
2/4 3rd down conversions
Defense:
3rd and 13 at USU 7 Diondre Borel rush for 6 yards to the UthSt 13.
3rd and 8 at USU 33 Diondre Borel pass complete to Kellen Bartlett for 12 yards to the UthSt 45 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 1 at BYU 46 Kerwynn Williams rush for 16 yards to the BYU 30 for a 1ST down.
3rd and Goal at BYU 1 Derrvin Speight rush for 1 yard for a TOUCHDOWN.
3rd and 2 at USU 33 Kerwynn Williams rush for 1 yard to the UthSt 34.
2/5 3rd down stops
4th QUARTER
Offense:
3rd and 22 at BYU 45 Jake Heaps pass incomplete to Luke Ashworth, UTAH ST penalty 15 yard Personal Foul on Rajric Coleman accepted.
3rd and 7 at USU 40 Jake Heaps pass incomplete.
3rd and 10 at BYU 18 Jake Heaps sacked by Devin Johnson for a loss of 3 yards to the BYU 15.
3rd and 4 at BYU 31 Jake Heaps pass complete to McKay Jacobson for 16 yards to the BYU 47 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 20 at USU 36 BYU penalty 5 yard Delay of Game accepted.
3rd and 25 at USU 41 Jake Heaps pass incomplete to Cody Hoffman.
3rd and 4 at BYU 40 Jake Heaps pass complete to JJ Di Luigi for 15 yards to the UthSt 45 for a 1ST down.
2/5 3rd down conversions
Defense:
3rd and 5 at BYU 39 Robert Marshall rush for 2 yards to the BYU 37..
3rd and 14 at BYU 35 Joey DeMartino rush for 10 yards to the BYU 25.
3rd and 9 at USU 42 Diondre Borel rush for 11 yards to the BYU 47 for a 1ST down.
3rd and 2 at BYU 39 Diondre Borel rush for 5 yards, fumbled at the BYU 34.
3/4 3rd down stops
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