Bronco's Statements Evidence that Team was Fractured

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There were Heaps guys and Riley guys. This all started because of the coaches inability to pick a starter last year. By Bronco's own words it was a big mistake. I have to agree.



His comments in his latest press release are very telling and vindicate the opinion many of us had but were ridiculed for having on this board. It was obvious there were chemistry problems. some wanted jake and some wanted riley. those that wanted riley played harder for him. i woudl say bronco's comments support that conclusion.



Armed forces teleconference comments are telling. gurnery has been tweeting quotes.

If only the guys who had wanted Jake had played as hard for Riley when he was in then Riley would have looked better from the beginning and it would have been easier to redshirt Heaps!

;)

You mean that there was a disagreement among the players as to who should start? How can that be considering everyone on this board and every other BYU fan board all agrees on who the starter should be? Obviously, Bronco needs to get control of his teams so that they never have any opinions that differ from the standard company line. :roll:

"What I learned is how difficult it is to have a game plan, get chemistry, have your team united around a single leader."

The worst thing is we won our opener against Washington with two quarterback situation

Draw your own conclusions. He said two qbs was a mistake, then he said didn't realize how difficult it is to get team to united around a single player.

jonnylingo wrote:

"What I learned is how difficult it is to have a game plan, get chemistry, have your team united around a single leader."

The worst thing is we won our opener against Washington with two quarterback situation

Draw your own conclusions. He said two qbs was a mistake, then he said didn't realize how difficult it is to get team to united around a single player.

I think that Bronco over estimates the maturity level of his team sometimes. He has a bunch of return missionaries and thinks that they all will act like Cam Jensen or John Beck. The problem is, they don't always do that. I am sure that Bronco has learned from this mistake.

Some people want to think that playing football at BYU is all rainbows and lollipops, and that the coaches are perfect and never make mistakes. Players are simply drones that are programmed to do what the coaches say. Ummm, no. Locker room issues happen, coaching errors happen. And they happen in every program. BYU is not exempt. And the coaches know it too. They are not dumb.



BYU's biggest issue is that the QB issues started in 2010 and continued into 2011. And they were no different than debates that occurred on this board. Opinions were drastically different on who to play and why. Upper class guys want to win now, and perhaps not play a growing QB who could be great later. Younger guys want to play and have the chance to grow and develop for later. And there you have it. Add to it personality issues--and those were a big factor--and you have BYU Football for 2010 and 2011. Lucky for us our schedule sucked this year and had so many gimmes.



Best part of Jake transferring is that this is now behind us for 2012. Sucks it had to go down this way though.

Lawboy wrote:

Best part of Jake transferring is that this is now behind us for 2012. Sucks it had to go down this way though.

that is what we said when riley went down last season. The coaches need to learn how to solve these problems without injuries or transfers happening to solve them for them.

hawkwing wrote:
If only the guys who had wanted Jake had played as hard for Riley when he was in then Riley would have looked better from the beginning and it would have been easier to redshirt Heaps!

;)

So why did all the Jake players play hard under Riley this year? If the team really was as fractured as some are saying, then those who favored Jake shouldn't have played hard for Riley.



Or maybe there weren't as many players favoring Jake as the Heaps camp is trying to insinuate.

jonnylingo wrote:

Best part of Jake transferring is that this is now behind us for 2012. Sucks it had to go down this way though.

that is what we said when riley went down last season. The coaches need to learn how to solve these problems without injuries or transfers happening to solve them for them.

I think these problems have been solved. I think the problem left the program.

We are going to see if the problem transferred or not. If we no longer hear rumors of a fractured locker room, we will get our answer. It does seem funny though that all this nonsense started in 2010 and continued this year when in the past we never heard this crap, even during the Beck/Berry days we didn't hear so much crap coming out about locker room issues.

frdbtr wrote:
We are going to see if the problem transferred or not. If we no longer hear rumors of a fractured locker room, we will get our answer. It does seem funny though that all this nonsense started in 2010 and continued this year when in the past we never heard this crap, even during the Beck/Berry days we didn't hear so much crap coming out about locker room issues.

Internet era. And if you were on CougarBoard back then, you heard about it. This is nothing new at BYU. Or any program. Just that we as fans now have greater access to inside info.

SpiffCoug wrote:

Lawboy wrote:

Best part of Jake transferring is that this is now behind us for 2012. Sucks it had to go down this way though.

that is what we said when riley went down last season. The coaches need to learn how to solve these problems without injuries or transfers happening to solve them for them.

I think these problems have been solved. I think the problem left the program.

LOl. That is a 'simplified' way of looking at it.

SpiffCoug wrote:

If only the guys who had wanted Jake had played as hard for Riley when he was in then Riley would have looked better from the beginning and it would have been easier to redshirt Heaps!

;)

So why did all the Jake players play hard under Riley this year? If the team really was as fractured as some are saying, then those who favored Jake shouldn't have played hard for Riley.



Or maybe there weren't as many players favoring Jake as the Heaps camp is trying to insinuate.

I think the jake supporters lost faith in jake as his play deteriorated. It was clear he was getting worse and worse as each game went by. I think Gurney's intuitions are probably right that Jake was burned out. He had too much on his shoulders. He had been fighting for the starting job for years now and struggling with everything else at the same time. pressure finally was too much. these kids are young. the coaches should be better at seeing that and putting them in a position to succeed. picking both quarterbacks was the worst thing they could have done for jake or riley. it fractured the team and made it very hard for either to succeed. each party has has a part in what has happened but i put more on the coaches than the players because it is them that make the decisions. i think both jake and riley were hard workers willing to do anything to help the team. i honestly think that. some disagree, but neither deserve to be ridiculed.



when people were ridiculing riley for 'not supporting' jake when he was starter i was telling those people to shut it. I think those calling jake a quitter and a whiny brat need to do the same, shut it. He is a young kid who has worked his tail off for many many years. to say he is lazy and a quitter after all he went through is stupid.



spiff, i am surprised you have been as hard on jake personally as you have. Doesn't seem like your style. Jake doesn't deserve the hate just as riley didn't.

What happens when we still suck next year against good competition?? Who are we going to blame then being that the "problem left the program"?

Lawboy wrote:

We are going to see if the problem transferred or not. If we no longer hear rumors of a fractured locker room, we will get our answer. It does seem funny though that all this nonsense started in 2010 and continued this year when in the past we never heard this crap, even during the Beck/Berry days we didn't hear so much crap coming out about locker room issues.

Internet era. And if you were on CougarBoard back then, you heard about it. This is nothing new at BYU. Or any program. Just that we as fans now have greater access to inside info.

I was on Cougarblue at the time and we weren't hearing it there. I've been following BYU on the internet since 2001, started on Cougarblue and then came here when all the good posters moved here.

I called him a quitter on the first day in the first few hours. I've calmed down now.



I just don't believe the stories that are coming out/have been around about how Jake was a helpless bystander to a nefarious plot to sabotage his career.

It's all about winning. Players want to win.



The new pups liked their boy Heaps and thought Heaps would give them the best chance to win. The dogs liked their man Riley. It sort of worked out for the pups the first year, but became quite apparent 3 games into this season Heaps wasn't up to snuff; over throwing passes, launching balls into the ground, or getting picked off more than putting the ball in the endzone.



Enter Riley and suddenly the ball is going where it's supposed to go, BYU moves the chains, BYU wins, BYU has more touchdowns in one game with Riley at the helm than it did all season. Winning is infectious and trumps all. If you're a WR, do you want the QB that puts it in your hands or the one that throws them 5 feet above your head and down at your ankles? Pretty easy pick.



Heaps lost support because he couldn't win.



We don't hear of discord on the Yankees because they win for the most part. Moment they start to lose, we'll hear of discontent. Same went with BYU.

I think there are three versions of the locker room story floating around in this thread.



Story #1 - the locker room is completely unified. Jake and Riley are best of buds. Bronco has full control over the team's disposition. Some people may believe this, but I doubt many people here do.



Story #2 - the locker room has issues. Rifts occur along the lines you may expect (youth vs. experience, RM vs. non-RM, good attitude vs. bad attitude). Sometimes players just like one QB more than another. There's gossip, trash talking behind each others' backs, maybe an occasional direct confrontation. These rifts are a problem, but they're manageable when we're playing well. They become a serious concern, however, when we're playing poorly, just like in most locker rooms. I think most people here would agree with this scenario, but they might tweak a few of the details.



Story #3 - the locker room plays out like a teen drama, like Dawson's Creek or Friday Night Lights on steroids. Riley played his soap-opera mind games to sabotage Jake's career - meanwhile, Jake was the biggest snot-nosed prima donna the program has ever seen. Players were so united behind one QB or the other that they were intentionally dropping passes and throwing games to get their guy in. Outside of a few posters, I don't think very many people believe this.



I think the problem is that people who believe in a lighter variant of story #2 are perceived to believe in story #1. On the other hand, people who believe in a more problematic story #2 are perceived to believe in story #3. Just my take.

SpiffCoug wrote:

Lawboy wrote:

Best part of Jake transferring is that this is now behind us for 2012. Sucks it had to go down this way though.

that is what we said when riley went down last season. The coaches need to learn how to solve these problems without injuries or transfers happening to solve them for them.

I think these problems have been solved. I think the problem left the program.

Spiff, not trying to pick a fight here, but did you mean, "I think the [scapegoat] left the program? The scapegoat who yes, had very indentifiable problems and contributions? The scapegoat who we are hanging all the program's sins on and glad he chose to leave to remedy our problems?



I think it would be somewhat easy to speculate on who was in whose camp. BUt probably more and "higher ranked" teammates on the Riley camp. He had paid his dues.

frdbtr wrote:
We are going to see if the problem transferred or not. If we no longer hear rumors of a fractured locker room, we will get our answer. It does seem funny though that all this nonsense started in 2010 and continued this year when in the past we never heard this crap, even during the Beck/Berry days we didn't hear so much crap coming out about locker room issues.

There was "stuff" with Beck/Berry, but not near as dramatic, palpable, nor public. And I think that both Beck and Berry IMO, were both more mature than Heaps and Nelson collectively.