Mike Empey-coach or salesman?

[EM_Puma]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8656 ... tball.html

Honestly, I don't remember being aware that specifically that when Mike Empey accepted his position at BYU as the offensive line coach under Kalani Sitake, that he had been away from coaching for 12 years. That wasn't a "touchy-feely" moment for me as a BYU FB fan. I guess I wasn't paying that specific amount of attention to have missed that fact. 12 years? Really?

I guess it's like the movie Hoosiers where Gene Hackman portrays a former college BB coach who goes in the Navy for like 15 years, only to resurface back into coaching basketball and lead an minuscule town high school BB team to the Indiana state basketball championship.

The article by Dick Harmon paints a picture where Empey had been working very successfully for a surgical supply company in sales and tracking of inventory--none of which would have aided him immediately in his one major responsibility to recruit new talent as a FB coach. In 12 years, a lot of the faces of coaching, where he would have had his contacts, would have changed. I'm not certain it has been any detriment to him thus far, but I can't imagine it was helpful either.

During his first season in 2016, I would have to say that I felt the OL didn't disappoint, but at the same time, it didn't feel like they excelled. I was never sure if Taysom began to run the ball more in the 2nd half of the season because of ineffective passing on his part or his lack of sufficient line protection.

Injuries hurt us on the OL, but how much of our lack of success was from coaching or developing the talent, I can't say. The basic fundamentals of blocking are somewhat timeless, and aren't as changing as what a team trainer would face, or recruiting coordinator to know all that is up-and-coming, and works or doesn't work, or is data you have to know now that you didn't before.

I noted that it seemed to some that the fact that only 3 players in the 2017 recruiting class were OL, and now I wonder if that has anything to do with Empey needing to reestablish his connections or not. I love his outlook on this opportunity, but I hope this was the best move KS could have made. The OL's ability to regain their dominance that they once had in BYU teams of old is key to our success. Empey can really convince me that we're on the right track by bringing on his own son back to BYU from Utah for the 2017 season. James M. Empey completes his mission to Portugal Lisbon toward the end of May. We really need him to be a part of BYU. If Jim's head is not turned toward his father as his coach, then it will be hard for me to believe that Mike Empey is going to be successful in recruiting to the level that BYU needs. The proof is always in the pudding.

[snoscythe]

Empey was the OC and Oline coach at AFHS for 3+ years prior to being hired by Sitake, and he did very well there. One of the top offenses in the state, and they went to the state finals just a month prior to Sitake making the hire.

Harmon's article kind of oversells the absence from football angle. Many HS coaches, more so in Utah than any other state I've lived in, are volunteer coaches (primarily dads) who have regular full-time jobs. I've done it myself, and there's a few guys in our ward now who help out as position coaches (Payson High and ALA-SF).

Granted, I would have preferred to see a John Tait-like hire, but one of Sitake's goals on the offensive side of the ball was to get guys with coordinator experience to help shorten Ty's learning curve, and Empey's three years at AF was probably a big factor in his hiring.

[EM_Puma]

Good to hear that perspective. The article by Harmon kind of made me have doubts that I didn't before as much, especially, as we all noted the large number of DL that committed in this last class and the few OL that did likewise. Could be they plan on bringing over some DL to the OL. We've seen that happen successfully in the past. It suddenly made me wonder if that lack wasn't the lack of Empey not having those contacts.

[frdbtr]

As far as Taysom hill running more the second half of the season. I think he got tired of his passes bouncing off the hands of his receivers into the hands of defenders and kind of decided to take matters into his own hands (so to speak). As far as the offensive line, they kind of underwhelmed me last year. They blocked well in the running game but never blocked that well in the passing game against teams with good defenses. I am giving them a sort of pass last year because there were a lot of new guys and injuries last year but I expect to see improvement this year. I am sick of having sucky offensive lines. It is time to either get them playing well or go out and find another guy like Jeff Grimes who showed major improvements immediately when he got here.

[Fido]

I recall reading an article around his most recent hire that said he really didn't want to uproot his family to chase coaching opportunities so after he was let go he took the full time job and coached where his kids went to school. After his kids are out of school who knows what he might do for his next gig.