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
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