I understand the even keel

[snoscythe]

....but it has it's limits.

If you've ever heard Bronco speak about his experience playing at Oregon State, his perspective on bulletin board material makes a little bit more sense. He felt like he was snubbed by BYU, and the sole reason he chose to go to Corvallis was because OSU would play BYU during his time there and he wanted payback. OSU came to Provo and won. As Bronco stood on that field, he thought "what next?" and realized that spending all of that energy towards revenge was a wasteful exercise as he still had to finish what he started at OSU. At the same time, Bronco is trying to train these young men (whether we like it or not) to live a faith that calls for us to not be easily offended, and the idea of posting inflammatory statements in the locker room to inflame passions we hope they are trying to temper sends the wrong message. I get all of this, and I don't have a problem with making sure the team is finding its motivation in the right place.

What I don't agree with is the idea that every game is the same as every other game. The concept behind this coaching line is two-fold--you don't want your players getting lax in prepping for cellar-dwellers, and you don't want them to get distracted/intimidated in prepping for the big games. I think we have the cellar-dweller prep down, but there is something broken in this program when it comes to the big games. An axiom comes to mind from an LDS source: "When nothing changes, things stay the same." TCU 08, Utah 08, OofA 08, FSU 09 and TCU 09 are evidence that things are staying the same. With the outlier exception of the Oklahoma game, everytime BYU has been hit in the mouth, they have folded like cheap patio furniture. When this team gets down 10+, the game is over. I doubt Bronco expects fans to come to the stadium with the same level of enthusiasm for Northern Illinois as for TCU, so I would hope the team would come with a little more fire. He needs to find a way to dig passion from this team from the right place. For someone who loves movies like 300 as he does, you'd think he could hobble together something to get the team fired up.

I'm not upset with the loss. I'm upset that the team just quit halfway through the 3rd quarter.

[Schmoe]

Here's the problem with using the even keel right now: we are not talented enough to win all of our games when playing at the same level. As we bring in better recruits I think we will see the even keel work more and more until we eventually win all of our games because we will be playing at such a high level every time (something USC should probably consider). But, with the guys we have now, we need to be up and down a little bit if we want to win big games.

[Ddawg]

Insightful thoughts Sno. Even @ USC - they get fired up & have emotion pumping on their sideline. There is a place & a time.

[Schmoe]

Insightful thoughts Sno. Even @ USC - they get fired up & have emotion pumping on their sideline. There is a place & a time.

That's also USC's problem, though, is the inevitable letdown the week after a huge game (see Washington this year, Oregon St. last year, Stanford the year before, etc.). USC has enough talent and athleticism that they SHOULD pretty well win every game on their schedule playing an even keel style of football. We, unfortunately, do not have that same level of athlete playing every position 2-deep, so we need to get amped a little more for the big ones. Basically, we need Bronco to adopt a little more of Carroll's style, and vice-versa.

[Mars]

If you've ever heard Bronco speak about his experience playing at Oregon State, his perspective on bulletin board material makes a little bit more sense. He felt like he was snubbed by BYU, and the sole reason he chose to go to Corvallis was because OSU would play BYU during his time there and he wanted payback. OSU came to Provo and won.

If Bronco was as even-keeled in college as he is now, perhaps Oregon State would have lost to BYU that day.

His anger got him the revenge he wanted, and his team won. That's exactly what we wanted against TCU.

[bostoncoug]

I totally agree. Football is about more than just execution, there has to be emotion put into it as well. I fail to see why Bronco can't get his team up for the big games, especially against TCU this year which stands as a symbol of two of the three goals Bronco has for the team "don't lose at home, and win the conference." (win the state championship being the other).It's not like BYU has a game to worry about this week. Fire 'em up for TCU, and use the bye to bring 'em back to reality.

[Short_Change]

The best coach I ever had would talk about that team the entire week and get us pumped up to play them. He would also talk up the other team no matter who they were and it helped us practice harder and get excited to play them. If we practiced sloppy he would tell us that if we played like that that we would get beat. All during practice we would recite little chants about the other team, cheesy, but effective. Most importantly though we would gameplan for what the other team would try to do. When game day arrived we were always prepared and pumped up to play whoever it was. I just don't see the fire in all of our players and coaches eyes. I wish i did.

[Sammich]

I'm not upset with the loss. I'm upset that the team just quit halfway through the 3rd quarter.

THIS is what bothers me.

People are complaining too much about the players not jumping around on the sidelines. I don't care about that, in fact that kind of hype can feel false if the team isn't playing well. Gary Patterson can keep his motivational techniques, I don't think using crappy bulletin-board material is going to change the confidence of your team one way or the other once you get to the third quarter down a couple touchdowns.

What I care about is that the team exudes confidence and a fire that won't give up no matter what the score is. If BYU is intense and just KNOWS they are going to win and play with that kind of fire, I don't care if they're quiet about it. In fact that's what Bronco used to be really good at, that quiet intensity that surprised other teams when they got blasted with hard hits.

So the real question shouldn't be "why isn't Bronco pumping his fists more?" It should be "Why doesn't the team believe they can win with all the odds against them?" Because in my mind THAT is the hallmark of all the great BYU teams.

[BoiseBYU]

At the OU game, remember how fired up he was and how "firing up" he was on the sideline with his D when the D was in its goal line stand? That shows me he CAN get fired up and I think his doing so was firing up to the team too...I'd like to see that some more....Bronco is a man to respect and so if he gets fired up, what student athlete is not going to take strength from it? How about a new tradition: Bronco LEADS the team out onto the field for the beginning of the game...It says this is MY team, I am HERE to play, this is MY game, and these are MY boys....Maybe it is a bad idea...but I think young men feed off of emotion much more than they feed off of some organizationsal behavior outlines and when they see their coach READY and able they will be much more ready and able

[cachevalleycougar]

There's no doubt Bronco was as excitable and energetic as heck when he first came on as a d-coordinator. So he's got it in him. Somehow it's being bottled up.