Quarterbacks and Oregon State

It has been a long week of midterms for me.  I escaped doing all right for myself.  But now that those are over, I can return to focusing on more important things: Our Matchup with Oregon State, QB issues for both teams in this game, and BYU’s top 5 defense.

BYU QB’s

Taysom Hill scrambling against Hawaii
last week (photo: KSL.com)

First, let us talk about Taysom’s injury and get that out of the way.  On the last first down of the game this past weekend, Taysom had a QB draw and was hit hard on the knee as he went down.  In my seat I did the math before that play and was expecting a kneel-down.  But they didn’t.  They decided for whatever reason to run another play.   Fine.  Taysom got hurt.  That sucks, yeah, but it isn’t the end of the world.  People are complaining about Brandon Doman making a stupid choice by not kneeling it.  The chances of your QB getting hurt on a run up the middle are very minimal.  It was bad luck. A fluke.  You are practically just as likely to get hurt kneeling it down.  People will question the choice, but I don’t think it is worth dwelling on.  Also, it is important to note that Taysom turned away from the signal caller before the signal to knee it came in.  Then when Bronco realized what had happened, he tried to call a timeout but didn't get it in before the ball was snapped.

Riley Nelson keeps his Eyes downfield while
scrambling against OSU last season (photo: ESPN.com)

Although it sucks for Taysom to have to deal with a potential surgery and nursing that injury, it does not stink for the team.  Bronco has made it very clear that this is Riley’s job when he returns to full strength.  I love Taysom Hill.  I think he is the future of BYU football and the next Cougar QB who will have a decent NFL career.  I think he did a great job filling in for Riley while he was injured.  But he is obviously young.  I would say that Taysom is a better athlete, better runner, and stronger guy than Riley.  But Riley’s decision making is better.  (yeah, I know you just chuckled. Wait for it…)  How many times has Riley scrambled and made a play out of nothing? Instantly coming to mind are the Bowl play last season when Matt Reynolds made the huge hit without his helmet, and 2 different plays against Hawaii last year on the island.  Yes, He throws errant interceptions frequently, but I think the trade off is worth it.  For every stupid in the throws, there are dozen plays made out of nothing.  Although I think Taysom is a better athlete and player than Riley, I think that right now A riley led team is better than a Taysom-led team.

Watching the USU game last weekend from high above LES, I saw so many open receivers missed.  Soft coverage on the outside, but it did not matter, because Taysom was already tucking out of the play and running the ball like a running back.  He puts the ball away.  It reminds me of a guy named (Drum Roll) Riley Nelson!  In 2010, when he shared the job with Jake Heaps (possibly the last time I mention him by name), I was always so frustrated with Riley getting the snap, then giving up on an obvious pass play before it developed and tucking and running.  Taysom is staying with the play longer, but he lacks the confidence and experience to stay in there for another half second and make the throw.  That will come with experience.  I am not worried about that long term.

I think Riley will bring to the table an exciting offense like we haven’t seen in four weeks.  Think back before The Utah game.  Our offense was efficient. Granted, it was Washington State and Weber State, but still.   Riley is on the same page as his receivers.  In Utah and Boise State, Riley was hurt (especially BSU) and we could see that in his game play.  Yet we still lost by a combined four points- to our rival and to a team that is still in the top 25.  Not too shabby- but more on that, later.

Riley will bring this team back to life on the offensive side of the ball.  Yeah, expect a few turnovers, but also expect a play or two where it looks like nothing will happen, but riley scrambles out and finds Cody Hoffman over the top of the defense. It will happen. And you will say I was right.

OREGON STATE GAME

I have seen a grand total of about 5 minutes worth of Oregon State football this year.  I do not know their team.  With that being said, I know they are a top 10 team.  I know they have lost their starting QB for the year.  I know they just played the same Washing state team we played and did not perform that well.  And I know that we beat them pretty soundly last year with a weaker version of the team we have now.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how our team is not as bad as people make them out to be.  We are 4 points short of being undefeated (and not just any 4 points; 3 points against our arch-rival, and 1 point against a top-25 team, in a flat-out horrible BYU offensive performance).  I will briefly rehash this 4-point perception issue:

-The last offensive play in the Utah game was ours for the taking, if not for a defender hitting Riley’s arm.  (giggles again from the Utah fans….)  Yeah, it didn’t play out that way.  I know.  BUT, that arm is not hit and Hoffman is wide open in the end zone for the win with no time on the clock.

- In Boise, Riley should not have played.  I think if Taysom started that game, we would have won.  He was thrown into the middle of a big, close game. Deer in the headlights (or was it a cow, Boise State football truck?).  Boom.  But, instead you give him a week to prepare mentally and with the first unit and we win. He might not come out perfect, but he puts together a few TD drives.  We win.

Those are two small changes resulting in one big difference: WE ARE UNDEFEATED! We are top 10! BYU-OSU is a top 10 match-up going down, college game day is here, and everyone is stoked because it will be a well-fought game going down to the end.  Instead though, I hear grumblings of how we have no chance, we can’t beat a top-10 team, will blow it, etc.  We are the EXACT same team that we would be if we won those two earlier games.  But the perception is so different.  It drives me crazy.  These two teams are so evenly matched.  I was expecting the upset even before I found out that OSU’s QB was out.  Now I am sure of it.  If nothing else, our defense will keep it a close game.

With Riley Nelson returning, I foresee our offense getting its swag back and the defense putting up endless big stops.  Saturday will be a good day to be a Cougar and the Cougars will re enter the top-25 before heading to South Bend for another top-10 upset.  Get stoked.

The ladies teams matter, too!

     While most of cougar nation is paying attention to the football program and looking forward to basketball season, the women’s soccer team has worked its way into a top ten ranking and the women’s volleyball team is still undefeated and hovering around the top 15.

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SOCCER

     Anchored by an experienced backline on defense, the soccer team has opened up the season 9-1, after traveling to Logan and beating the Aggies 1-0 this week.  The backfield has 3 seniors in Lindsi Lisonbee Cutshall, Cami Jensen, and Dana Oldroyd Cusick, who have been playing together for 4 years.  This experience, unity, and cohesiveness along with Junior goalkeeper Erica Owens has led to Cougar opponents being held to only 6 goals on the year. Erica’s endless flow of amazing saves has even led to the birth of a new hashtag, #EricaOwns.

     The offensive attack is one of the smoothest flowing unit I have ever seen, with passes being made with beauty and precision, leading to open lanes and good shots on goal.  The Cougars have taken 183 shots already this year, with 84 being on goal and netting 24 of those shots.  The offense is led by experienced seniors Jessica Ringwood and Carlee Payne Holmoe. Underclassmen Michelle Murphy (Freshman) and Jaiden Thornock (Sophomore) are not afraid to shoot and lead the team with 5 goals each.

     The Cougars have not played an easy slate of games, which is part of the reason they currently have a #8/12 ranking.  They have defeated #11 Long Beach State, #6 Penn State, and #23 Washington, all at home.

Jessica Ringwood thanks the fans after a victory a
 South Field (Photo: byucougars.com)

     South Field has turned into one of the premier pitches in college soccer.  A few years ago, BYU traveled to University Park, PA and played Penn State with a one game contract.  Penn State’s coach recently called Coach Rockwood and asked if they could come out to Provo after hearing about the atmosphere at BYU, wanting to see it with her own eyes.  Penn State got what they came for, as a record crowd of 4922 showed up and played a huge part in helping the cougars win 3-1 that night.  The students behind the east goal were able to help a Penn State penalty kick in the box sail wide left as they chanted and waved their hands erratically to distract the kicker.

     After being denied a trip to the NCAA tournament last year, this big senior class is excited to get to the tournament at the end of this season and make up for last year’s disappointing ending.

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VOLLEYBALL

     Just next door in the Smith Fieldhouse is possibly the most impressive team at BYU.  Earlier today the volleyball team swept the Gonzaga Bulldogs, including a 25-7 whooping in the second set.  The Cougars are 14-0 and have only dropped 4 sets on the year, all in the Wichita tournament.  That means they have swept their way through three tournaments as well as their first two conference match ups.

The volleyball team has not played a slouch schedule, either.  In the Wichita tournament, BYU beat #24 Colorado State 3-1 and also beat #14 Tennessee 3-1.  This past week in the conference opener, #14 Pepperdine came to Provo and was swept. 

The Volleyball team shares a laugh after a cougar point
(Photo: byucougars.com)

     The team is relatively young, with only two seniors on the roster.  The senior experience is playing a huge role as setter Heather Hannemann directs the offensive attack and Nicole Warner has proven to be an asset in the middle.   Freshman Outside Hitter Alexa Gray has been a welcome addition on the team, with the second most kills on the team.  Although she is only a freshman, she comes to Provo with considerable experience, as she has played on a Canadian national team.  She also won the George Washington Tournament MVP last weekend.  Freshman libero Ciara Parker anchors the defense.

     The most valuable player for the cougars so far, though, would have to be Junior Jennifer Hampson.  Jennifer has already been named the MVP of three separate tournaments, as well as the WCC player of the week two times.  With 191 kills and 4.15 kills per set, she leads the cougars in each of those statistical categories.  No team has been able to stop the 6-7 opposite yet this year.

     Something special is happening this year in the Smith Fieldhouse.  BYU has a strong team this year and doesn’t look to be slowing down. Great coaching has lead to solid play all around from the defense to the setter to net play.  Make sure to get down to the Fieldhouse this year a few times and be part of this season.

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     The Soccer team plays UVU this Thursday night. Volleyball is on the road until Oct 11, when they return home to face Portland.

Boise State and Utah: Rivalry Losses

     Now don’t get me wrong and try putting words in my mouth; a win is a win, and that is all that matters, no matter how ugly the game is. That is how it has been since the beginning of time. Everyone knows that, and there is a reason why people only watch Gymnastics once every four years (and if your house is like my house, everyone in the room throws out their own judgment on the gymnast, and no one is ever even close to what the judges say). Winning is what matters. Ugliness does not. This is football.

     In consecutive weeks, The BYU Cougars have gone on the road and played in some of the most difficult environments. They have come out short of the victory, each time losing on the last drive. Last week, BYU played on the road for the first time this season, playing at the home of their archrival Utah Utes. After a dismal first half, BYU stepped up in the fourth and mounted a comeback worthy of this rivalry.

     Since 2005, when Kyle Whittingham took the ropes at Utah and Bronco Mendenhall stepped in at BYU, two games have gone into overtime. Four more games have been decided on the last play. That means that 75 percent of games have gone to the last play. Going to the last play defines a healthy rivalry. And lets not forget that the 54-10 romping from last year was a close game in the first half, before the Cougar defense had been on the field too long and could not hold on any longer. But that game is a story for another time. Again: Winning is what matters. Not heart or a first half that went better than people now remember.

     Last week was no exception. With 1:11 left on the game clock, Riley Nelson and the offense took the field deep in their own territory. After a first down, a sack, a spiked ball, and an incomplete pass, BYU found itself in familiar territory: 4th and long deep in Utah territory. Just like Max Hall, his QB coach, Riley Nelson stepped into a collapsing pocket on the 4th down play, narrowly escaping the grasp of defenders before delivering a strike 40 yards down field over the top of the defense on the right sideline. This time it was to the wide-open Cody Hoffman. The play must have been all too familiar to the suddenly silent Rice-Eccels stadium as BYU hustled to the line to get a few more plays in.

     With 7 seconds showing on the clock, Riley dropped back to pass. As he saw Utah’s corner bite on Hoffman’s out and go, Riley must have seen victory. He must have envisioned a pass falling gently into Cody’s arms before he high stepped into the endzone with no time on the clock. He cocked his arm back to throw to his receiver who now had 2-3 steps on his defender down the sideline. In this game of inches, the Ute who got into the pocket and got his hand on Riley’s arm altered the game significantly. After a clock replay and clearing the MUSS off the field, BYU had one last chance to kick a field goal, which, reminiscent of the 2010 Desert First Duel game, was blocked at the line.

     Because the kick never crossed the Neutral zone, the ball was still live to both teams, giving the Cougars the ability to pick it up and run it in. As impossible as that was, the play was still going and the MUSS needed to stay off of the field. Thanks to this blunder, BYU once again had the chance to tie the game and send it into overtime. The football gods thought differently though, as the kick clunked hopelessly off of the left goalpost, sending BYU to an empty loss.

The last second field goal bounces off the far upright

     Empty because it wasn’t worth being mad over. Empty because seeing the MUSS lose a game for the team would have been so epic that I don’t even know how I would remind each of them each year. Empty because we were 6 inches away from bringing our rivals to overtime for the third time in 8 years in a game that matters so much to this state and these fan bases.

     An ending only fit for BYU Utah: 3 chances to win it or send it into overtime and it still does not work out. A 2-0 team, with distant whispers of a potential BCS busting season turned into a 2-1 team bound for the Poinsettia bowl because of those 8 inches and a bad bounce.

     Luckily in this beautiful game of football, there is always an opportunity to bounce back next time, and the short week was welcomed by BYU fans waiting to get this season back on track. The situation was picture perfect, too: BYU was going to Idaho to play ranked Boise State on their famous Smurf Turf, where they have gone 75-3 over the past dozen or so years. A win against this team, a team who had lost many role players in the offseason, was achievable. With a Kyle Van Noy led defense taking the field, any game will be kept close.

     We all saw it. The game was far from pretty for both offenses. After an early missed Field goal by BSU, Chris Peterson showed he has lost all trust in his kicker, electing to go for it on 4th down 5 times during this game. None of those defensive stands were bigger than the drive which started on the BYU 1 and ended 4 plays later on the BYU 1 as KVN came around back and pulled the quarterback off the back of the pile for the final stop of the impossible-to-miss drive by Boise State.

     BYU, on the other hand, had their own struggles. Five turnovers (Four by Riley Nelson including a pick-6) later, BYU elected to turn the reigns of the offense over to true freshman and Stanford transfer Taysom Hill. After a few remarkable runs and a handful of not-so-remarkable passes, BYU finally put together their first impressive drive of the game with 8:03 on the clock, capped by a 3-yard touchdown run by Taysom, with 5 defenders hanging on as he plowed in. This was going to happen. We would tie with the extra point and go to overtime.

     The next thing I knew, I was jumping up yelling at the TV. I was so confused. Taysom was on the field. Then I remembered that he could kick field goals, so I justified that he would be kicking the extra point. Then I saw regular receivers on the field and the reality sunk in: We were going for 2. My eyes flashed to the scoreboard, hopelessly looking for a 4th timeout to pop up. We weren’t really going for 2, were we? We were just trying to trick them, then we would call time out and go for 1. Right? Please? I know it doesn’t sound logical, but we cannot be going for 2, can we?

     That timeout never popped up on the scoreboard, and the truth was there in front of my eyes. In a game where no one was scoring, Bronco decided to go for 2 in a 6-7 game. The phantom timeout was not going to be called. I will never understand this decision. It baffles me why you wouldn’t trust your kicker to make a 17-yard-straight-down-the-middle field goal and send it to overtime. A defense that has allowed a grand total of 2 touchdowns (Note: they were a 39-yard and 17-yard drive; hardly their fault) in the past 140 minutes of game time was watching from the sidelines; BSU didn’t trust their kicker; BYU didn’t have a timeout as an insurance policy; BYU had momentum… and KVN’s crew. And they went for 2. Baffled.

Taysom's extra point pass falls incomplete.  Photo: KSL.com

     A missed block on the line made it so the play could not develop as planed. Taysom was forced to make a throw and he made a good throw to one of his FOUR open receivers in the end zone. By the unlucky tip of a finger, the ball fell to the ground incomplete, all but sealing the outcome of the game. Pure anger filled my bones. I am normally (relatively) realistic about sports and keeping it in perspective, but this one was so infuriating. Losing because of a call I do not understand at all. All I wanted to do was break something. Instead I went home to vent, and found an empty apartment and a computer.

     As expected, my Facebook newsfeed was full of “fire Bronco”, “fire Doman”, and “get rid of Riley” rants. As mad as I was, I knew that was not the answer and I refrained from making any serious comments of opinion on Facebook, and this is why: We are 8 inches and one boneheaded call away from the top 20 and a 4-0 season. Again, don’t read between the lines too much. We lost to Utah. We lost to Boise State. We are 2-2. Those are facts. But change 8 inches (which is about 0.3 degrees on a 36 yard kick from the far hash) and one bad call from the coaching staff and we are 4-0, still hearing the “BCS-busters” whispers.

     We aren’t wondering who might get fired or who will be the starting quarterback next week against Hawaii. We are not hearing people talk about how we will lose the Notre Dame game already. We are not hearing about a wasted defense.

     Picture this: The EXACT same games were played in both games with one exception. Same heart, same effort, same fortunate and unfortunate bounces of the ball. One made field goal is the difference at Utah, one extra point kick is taken in Boise, completely different outcomes. Despite what the record says, the Cougars still have the same team. The Cougars are going to have a successful year despite these two early losses.

     In 2006, Bronco’s second year as the head coach, BYU opened the year with a devastating loss at Arizona, followed two weeks later by an overtime loss against Boston College. After a 1-2 start, BYU went on to win the rest of their games that season, including Beck to Harline and a 38-8 romping of Oregon in the Vegas Bowl. Bronco has said that the he believes the 2006 team would not had won all of their games later in the year if not for the lessons learned in those two early loses. I firmly believe that this team has the same opportunity to finish as a special group who can overcome early adversity.

     We have a special defense, anchored by KVN, Brandon Ogletree, and Spencer Hadley and led by a defensive mastermind named Bronco. We have a Quarterback, who (when healthy) is someone I would trust to get it done against anyone- not because of his tremendous skills as a quarterback, but because of his drive and shear will to win. We have a solid running game with Mike Alisa and Jamaal Williams as well as talented, tall receivers in Hoffman and Apo on the outside. Despite the miscues at Utah, I also expect our special teams to be special. Falslev and Cody are good returners, Punter Riley Stephenson has a boot to help win the field position battle, and Justin Sorensen has a crazy strong leg when healthy.

     Lets keep things in perspective and realize it isn’t the end of the world or the season when we lose two nail bitters against quality rivals. This season so far is nothing to be ashamed of. Go Cougars and let’s get back on track, baby! RISE UP.

     (As a side note, I want to clear up the fact that BYU would have finished the Utah game- even if it went past midnight and late into the night. BYU’s long-standing policy is to do everything they can to not play on Sunday. Meaning they will not schedule a Sunday game. If a game rolls over into the Sabbath, they are not going to quit or ask the other team to wait 24 hours to complete the game. They would play it out.)