Fall Practice Miscue Revisited for Bowl Prep

Bronco back in fall practice didn't use all of the available practices because the team was so far ahead of where other past teams were. That assumption ended up not manifesting itself on the playing field through the first half of the season.



Fast forward to the end of the year and Bronco has elected to not use 6-7 of the allowed 15 practices leading up the bowl game. I understand that there are finals, but I doubt you will hear of any other school not practicing more than this leading up to their bowl game. This is supposed to be the time that the younger players get a lot of reps leading into spring ball. Also the bigger problem: James Lark has thrown 6 passes this year. He is one hit away from being our quarterback in the bowl games. Don't you think he needs more practice time?



If we lose this bowl game I will be very frustrated with Bronco's practice decisions.



http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/cougars/53094685-88/bowl-byu-game-football.html.csp

Very disappointing decision by Bronco.

Jay Drew is oversimplifying and jumping to conclusions. BYU can still use all 15 allotted practices via doubling up on practices. Long film sessions in the AM, long field practice in the PM = 2 practices against the 15 you are allotted.

Maybe several of our players have struggled with classes and Bronco doesn't want APR to drop any more?

snoscythe wrote:
Jay Drew is oversimplifying and jumping to conclusions. BYU can still use all 15 allotted practices via doubling up on practices. Long film sessions in the AM, long field practice in the PM = 2 practices against the 15 you are allotted.

I hope you are right.

snoscythe wrote:
Jay Drew is oversimplifying and jumping to conclusions. BYU can still use all 15 allotted practices via doubling up on practices. Long film sessions in the AM, long field practice in the PM = 2 practices against the 15 you are allotted.

That is a possibility, but last bowl season he didn't use all of his practices, so this is not out of the unusual--for BYU and Bronco Mendenhall. I've not heard of other teams taking this route, but which other team have you ever heard of that tells their players that football ranks down #5 or #6 on their list of priorities?

I think skipping practices at the beginning of the season was the bigger blunder. Team was not prepared.



Practices at the start should never be skipped. Team is tired, beat up after the season and it's finals week, so don't blame him going a bit light.



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And don't forget that we've already had an extra week of practice thanks to the Hawaii game. I'm not concerned.

If anything they should be used to get lark and/or munns reps for next year. I think it is a mistake to not use all of them. whether he really is only using about half of them or no, I don't know given sno's comments, but i think he should use all of them to get younger players some repetitions.

Bronco's Bowl Record is...4-2. He wants them enthusiastic, focused and peaking as they enter the game. Trust him - he has a better feel for mental and physical condition of players than Armchair QBs.



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byucougar1 wrote:
Bronco's Bowl Record is...4-2. He wants them enthusiastic, focused and peaking as they enter the game. Trust him - he has a better feel for mental and physical condition of players than Armchair QBs.



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Except for the start of this season when he thought the team was ready to go and that Jake should actually be the starter.

I think it is funny how fans criticize Bronco for his practice schedule and for making public his "priority" list. I would venture to guess that there is not one fan who has a closer finger on the pulse of the BYU team then does Bronco. I know we can all look back and criticize Bronco for cancelling the last fall practice and Bronco has admitted that as a mistake but that is in hindsight. If BYU had come out and blown everyone away, it would have been guaged as a genius move but since they didn't, Bronco is a lousy coach. The bottom line is, Bronco knows what he is doing since BYU wins 10 games every year, and has done that for 4 out of 6 of his years as HC and has a shot at doing it again this year. What if BYU practiced all 15 times, and then came out looking like they were tired against Tulsa, how many fans would be criticizing Bronco for overworking the team? The only crime Bronco has done since he has been HC at BYU is not go undefeated but if you look back at BYU history that has been done exactly once in the history of BYU football so it is not an easy thing to do. If the utes hadn't done it twice this decade, I think that Bronco probably would have been given more of a pass too. IMO, we should all just relax a bit. I have a feeling that BYU is going to come out and look fresh against Tulsa and we will get 5 bowl wins in 7 years which will be a BYU record. And this will also mark 5 10 win seasons in 7 years which, once again is a BYU record.

Could he just have the 3rd and 4th string players at a practice (plus Lark/Munns)? They are the ones who need the work.

scott715 wrote:
Could he just have the 3rd and 4th string players at a practice (plus Lark/Munns)? They are the ones who need the work.

This is what I was assuming would be happening, with the exception of having the 1st string receivers stay longer to catch passes from Lark. Bowl prep should be looked at as a pre-spring camp. The first five practices can be all about the young players. Then as you are closer to the bowl game you go back into your normal practice routine with the 1st and 2nd string getting all of the reps as the team focuses on the actual opponent.



Before this year BYU had a hard time getting the 15 practices in because we always played before Christmas and we don't practice on Sundays. Last year I don't think we could have even held 15 practices unless we did practice on Sundays with how early our game is. This is the first time in 10 years that we have a bowl game after Christmas and we apparently are not taking advantage of the practice time.



I no longer blindly assume that Bronco knows what is best for the football program and what he decides to do is what is best.



Is he a great coach? - Yes.

Do great coaches still make mistakes? - Yes.

Has Bronco made mistakes? - Yes.



Even with a win in the bowl game we won't really know if this is a mistake because the real loss goes to the practice time that the younger players miss out on. Its hard to gauge how much cleaner spring practices would have been with the extra practices in December.

byucougar1 wrote:
Bronco's Bowl Record is...4-2. He wants them enthusiastic, focused and peaking as they enter the game. Trust him - he has a better feel for mental and physical condition of players than Armchair QBs.



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He is 4-2 and likely to be 5-2 in bowl games after this year. How many times has he utilized all 15 bowl practices? Zero, I believe.



How many times has he done better than 1-2 to start the season? Twice. How many times has he done better than 2-1 to start the season? Once.



Maybe there is a connection to the slow starts and the missed camp/bowl game practices...

BTW--there is no such thing as a 15 practice limit for bowl games. You get the usual 20 hours per week until the bowl game, so Bronco has 20 hours each week to use, and he's let them go last week and this week, and he'll have 20 available hours each of the next two weeks.