This article (from the most unlikely of sources) nails it!

[KingCoug]

Well, almost. I agree with about 90% of it.



Gordon Monson: BYU football must break free from its mythology or go on suffering from its consequences
By Gordon Monson
August 30, 2019


In the aftermath of BYU’s 30-12 loss to Utah, evidence of Cougar football’s problems are scattered in pieces on the ground, like a weather balloon crashing on the LES field, taken down by lightning strikes.

A hundred of them.

A delay in the action did not, could not spare the Cougars another loss against a quality opponent.

And that quality-opponent deal is one of BYU’s problems. In its independence, the school’s leadership has scheduled as many top-drawer teams as it can, including the Utes. That leadership has claimed, in so many words, that to be the best, you have to play the best, at least the best you can sign up against. So, the scheduling has gone throttle up, with a few unavoidable stragglers toward the end of the season.

The difficulty with that is BYU football is not ready to beat the best, not with any consistency. The Cougars occasionally knock off a marquee opponent like Wisconsin, as they did last season. But they lose a whole lot more than they win against competition like that.

The result against Utah is the latest example, the Utes’ ninth straight victory over BYU. It was emblematic of what BYU has become — a gutty bunch of diligent workers who try real hard, but who are not talented enough, through no real fault of the players themselves. They cannot be better than they are. They simply are not at the same level.

And, yet, they play in a 60,000-seat stadium in front of a fanbase that wants to believe, on account of some vague memories of a national championship awarded 35 years ago, that the team for which it roots can somehow pull off athletic miracles on whims, wishes and prayers, week after week.

Here’s the truth: It cannot.

The only way BYU football can reach that level is if it commits the sizable resources necessary, with the proper structure and qualified leadership, to make it happen. It might also have to rearrange some of its policies.

That’s complicated, and maybe impossible.

Noted, the Cougars are not part of a P5 league, and they do not have the squadron of Brinks trucks that come with that membership. (They do have other potential sources of funding.) But they are scheduling — and thereby perpetuating a rapidly disintegrating myth — as though they are capable of competing against and beating that kind of competition.

They can, on occasion. But not with any consistency.

They are not the Notre Dame of the West. They might be the third-best college team in Utah.

And still, there the players are, out there on the field against Utah — and teams of that ilk, such as Tennessee, USC and Washington — representing BYU, repping their program’s mythology, all as administrators, athletic directors and coaches continue to pretend that loads of winning will come through hard work and proper preparation and prayer.

But it won’t.

There are no shortcuts in sports, not any divine intervention, at least not any that lasts. You either commit the resources required, provide the right leadership, construct a plan and a process that will draw in the necessary talent, or you lose as much as you win.

Or you back off the expectation. And that’s OK, too.

You punt independence into the ionosphere, you quit scheduling the way BYU does, you kill the myth, you join a league which you might be able to compete in and sometimes, in good years, conquer.
You be what you are.

What you don’t do is build the fans up, stoke their expectations, sell the home schedule, and then trot the kids out and watch them battle as best they can, only to get their heads kicked in, their tongues tasting the bitterness of defeat. Again and again.

Nothing wrong with playing a few good teams. But what objective observer didn’t feel a little sorry for BYU’s players and coaches on Thursday night against the much more talented Utes? In that game, Utah looked like the old cartoon character that, while yawning and looking away, held its arm and hand straight out into the forehead of another character, the one with its legs and feet spinning in a circle but getting nowhere.

It wasn’t the players’ fault they weren’t as good as the Utes.

Whose fault is it, then?

Not sure it was the coaches’ fault, either.

Look a little higher up.

Not that high up. God doesn’t care who wins football games.

Administrators should care. University leadership should care.

If they don’t, then portray and project BYU football for what it really is — a nice little appendage to a religious school that has its standards, has its honor code, has its academic requirements, has its mission, none of which earnestly includes playing big-time college football, not at its lofty levels.

Maybe the Cougars will pull off an upset or two this season. They have some talented players, some talented coaches, just not enough of them to be what they want to be.

Existing in a mirage, then, where the goals and the reality do not match up, must be painful for everyone in the program, and for those on the outside who have a rooting interest. At the current rate, in this strange state of denial and independence, it will be interesting to see how long that widespread rooting interest lasts.

Sooner or later, either way, BYU will have to face what’s real.

It will have to make systemic changes, significant ones, invest in its program, get lucky with a P5 conference, join a G5 league, or lessen its football aspirations.

Anything is better than wallowing in a myth, even if ESPN televises it.

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2019/08/3 ... onson-byu/

[KingCoug]

The only things Monson said I would take exception to are

1) Rearranging policies (depending on what he means by that).

2) The coaches not being at fault.

3) Joining a G5 league. That will kill BYU football as fast as anything. Staying independent with strategic scheduling is the answer, as I've been saying for years now.

[CougarCrazy]

In January he wrote an article saying Sitake should be extended.

[frdbtr]

For the last 4 or 5 years, we have all looked at our schedule and wondered how BYU was going to compete. We have had lots of big named opponents that looked like they were going to crush us. Every year when all was said and done, the teams weren't as good as advertised. BYU has been lucky in that we have caught some big named opponents on down years. For example, Wisconsin last year and Michigan state in 2016. We have had the teams that could compete with these schedules when you look back and evaluate the season as a whole. The problem right now is coaching. If we had had competent coaching, we would have had 10 win seasons, at least the last 2 years, and if we had had Bronco in 2016 we would have ran the table on that schedule. Every team that year was down, with maybe the exception of West Virginia which we lost to by a field goal I think. We will have to see how this year turns out but to state that we are simply over matched talent wise is ridiculous and I don't buy it. Yes, we need to upgrade our talent to compete week in and week out with the College football elite but our schedules have not been the gauntlets that everyone has been touting at the beginning of each year.

[EM_Puma]

I'm not saying that it's not possible for him to speak some truth, but I'm sorry, but as they say, even a blind squirrel finds the nut sometimes. I'm still not compelled to read any of Gordon Monson's dribble. I only ready people I respect and he has earned none from me.

[EM_Puma]

Honestly, this whole experience is starting to get me to question why I waste time with sports as much as I do because this has quit being fun most of the time. I'm starting to envy those that say they really aren't affected by local sports. I can understand if you have family playing, but outside of that. what's the purpose?

[Gunk]

He's right.

We either invest in our football program like P5s and make some policy changes (lowering academic standards would help) or we lower our expectations and schedule accordingly. Why is that offensive? It's true.

We're becoming a doormat for the Pac12. The more we schedule games like this and lose them the more our reputation slips. Fewer fans tune in. ESPN renegotiates our contract for less. Revenue slips. We lose recruits and the quality of players decreases. The hole keeps getting deeper and deeper and deeper. In a few years at this rate the hole will be so deep that it would cost BYU more to pull itself out of it than it would to invest in it now.

BYU is at a tipping point. It cuts bait with this coaching staff, invests, and changes a few minor policies and it could where it wants to be. But expecting different results with more of the same is a myth.

The world is different now. College sports is different. BYU and the Church are slow to adapt.

[Gunk]

Honestly, this whole experience is starting to get me to question why I waste time with sports as much as I do because this has quit being fun most of the time. I'm starting to envy those that say they really aren't affected by local sports. I can understand if you have family playing, but outside of that. what's the purpose?

I went through a similar experience a few years ago, actually. Why am I getting so wrapped up in sports, especially when BYU and the other teams I follow (except for my Warriors as of late) lose.

I was spending hours a week between basketball, football, and baseball watching sports. Why? Half the time it wasn't even entertaining; just frustrating, especially with BYU.

[KingCoug]

He's right.

We either invest in our football program like P5s and make some policy changes (lowering academic standards would help) or we lower our expectations and schedule accordingly. Why is that offensive? It's true.

We're becoming a doormat for the Pac12. The more we schedule games like this and lose them the more our reputation slips. Fewer fans tune in. ESPN renegotiates our contract for less. Revenue slips. We lose recruits and the quality of players decreases. The hole keeps getting deeper and deeper and deeper. In a few years at this rate the hole will be so deep that it would cost BYU more to pull itself out of it than it would to invest in it now.

BYU is at a tipping point. It cuts bait with this coaching staff, invests, and changes a few minor policies and it could where it wants to be. But expecting different results with more of the same is a myth.

The world is different now. College sports is different. BYU and the Church are slow to adapt.

I don't like the idea of the Church "adapting to the world." If I wanted to root for a school that's done that, I would be rooting for Utah. The fact that Utah fits so well with the world is a big reason why they're in the PAC 12. This is what LDS Ute fans don't seem to realize or want to admit.

BYU being BYU IS why I root I am a fan. BYU doesn't need to sell out or give up it's unique identity. But it does need to change some things

1. Invest more money in the program.

2. Schedule smarter.

3. Get a coaching staff who can win consistently under the restrictions we have.

[frdbtr]

Back in the day when Lavell was dominating, BYU was recruiting and getting athletes through the school that would never be allowed on campus today. That is why BYU is little brother to both the utes and USU now.