From The Hill

Taysom Hill. Straight from the horse's mouth.



On BYU TV discussing his offseason plans he was asked point blank the three things he needed to improve.



Answer:



ACCURACY

DECISION MAKING



And he went on to discuss having sought advice from former NFL players and contacting someone that they recommended he work with to make those improvements.



He also talked about working with the new guys on TIMING.



He must be getting some good advice from all of those former NFL player advisors. I assume this includes Young and Harbaugh.



He will be throwing with Kurtz tomorrow to work on timing. Asked what he expected re Kurtz he indicated that as a JC transfer, he expects Kurtz will need to adjust to the speed of the game. Hill is probably right about that. Hopefully they all work hard.



Hill, when pressed about relying on his arm rather that tucking and running to get the first down with his legs, he acknowledged that tendency, but also pointed out that it has been a play-calling tendency as well calling on his legs to deliver. He said he is feeling great now after a few weeks to heal up bumps and bruises.

It's always nice when the players and coaches answer questions to the media that agree with what they've learned here by reading Cougar Corner analysis!

He forgot to say field vision---but maybe that goes with decision making. Unless he wants to continue to be Sean Covey with legs, he really needs to improve. Otherwise he will go down as a good, not great QB, who looked better than he was because we were tired of very bad QBs.

Cougarfan87 wrote:
He forgot to say field vision---but maybe that goes with decision making. Unless he wants to continue to be Sean Covey with legs, he really needs to improve. Otherwise he will go down as a good, not great QB, who looked better than he was because we were tired of very bad QBs.

Some games were better than others. I for one appreciated the fact that he always looked to go deep down the field rather than check down. However, he rarely checked down even to wide open players. I believe that's just a scheme issue where he simply doesn't yet have it in his head where guys are going to be on every play. It takes smarts to get there so hopefully his 1st healthy offseason with legit practices will shore all of this up.



I love his aggression and playmaking ability and still maintain that he'll be top 3 in Heisman voting in the next 2 years.

Cougarfan87 wrote:
He forgot to say field vision---but maybe that goes with decision making. Unless he wants to continue to be Sean Covey with legs, he really needs to improve. Otherwise he will go down as a good, not great QB, who looked better than he was because we were tired of very bad QBs.

The Sean Covey I remember was more accurate than Hill when he wasn't getting concussions. It has been so long ago, that I do not remember enough to judge his field vision or his decision making. Anyway, Hill reminds me of Jake Locker - not Sean Covey.



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Cougarbib wrote:
Taysom Hill. Straight from the horse's mouth.



On BYU TV discussing his offseason plans he was asked point blank the three things he needed to improve.



Answer:



ACCURACY

DECISION MAKING



And he went on to discuss having sought advice from former NFL players and contacting someone that they recommended he work with to make those improvements.



He also talked about working with the new guys on TIMING.



He must be getting some good advice from all of those former NFL player advisors. I assume this includes Young and Harbaugh.



He will be throwing with Kurtz tomorrow to work on timing. Asked what he expected re Kurtz he indicated that as a JC transfer, he expects Kurtz will need to adjust to the speed of the game. Hill is probably right about that. Hopefully they all work hard.



Hill, when pressed about relying on his arm rather that tucking and running to get the first down with his legs, he acknowledged that tendency, but also pointed out that it has been a play-calling tendency as well calling on his legs to deliver. He said he is feeling great now after a few weeks to heal up bumps and bruises.

You are somehow saying that any QB wouldn't have said that? Hill is saying that because it is true. I would be disappointed if he hadn't said that. You seem to think just because I said that an NFL team would take a chance on him because of his obvious talent that I don't recognize that he still has things to improve on. Frankly, it won't matter if the Oline doesn't improve, which they talked about too. He said the Oline needed to get stronger as part of his comments when Dave McCann asked him about that too. All things that everyone knows.

Glad to hear he's working on things and has a list.



Between the OL getting a bit better and Hill making some improvements, I suspect we'll see a better offense next year.



I hope some of our RBs and TEs are out practicing with Hill too.

Cougarbib wrote:

He forgot to say field vision---but maybe that goes with decision making. Unless he wants to continue to be Sean Covey with legs, he really needs to improve. Otherwise he will go down as a good, not great QB, who looked better than he was because we were tired of very bad QBs.

The Sean Covey I remember was more accurate than Hill when he wasn't getting concussions. It has been so long ago, that I do not remember enough to judge his field vision or his decision making. Anyway, Hill reminds me of Jake Locker - not Sean Covey.



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The reason I use him as an example is because their passing numbers are almost identical. Covey wasn't a bad QB, he was actually pretty good. Concussions had a lot to do with eventually losing the starting QB job--that and an explosive QB named Detmer.

Cougarfan87 wrote:

Cougarfan87 wrote:
He forgot to say field vision---but maybe that goes with decision making. Unless he wants to continue to be Sean Covey with legs, he really needs to improve. Otherwise he will go down as a good, not great QB, who looked better than he was because we were tired of very bad QBs.

The Sean Covey I remember was more accurate than Hill when he wasn't getting concussions. It has been so long ago, that I do not remember enough to judge his field vision or his decision making. Anyway, Hill reminds me of Jake Locker - not Sean Covey.



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The reason I use him as an example is because their passing numbers are almost identical. Covey wasn't a bad QB, he was actually pretty good. Concussions had a lot to do with eventually losing the starting QB job--that and an explosive QB named Detmer.

If Covey had had Taysom's running ability, we wouldn't have seen Ty play until after Covey graduated. And if either of them had to play behind the offensive line we had in 2013, both would have gotten killed.

frdbtr wrote:

Cougarbib wrote:

He forgot to say field vision---but maybe that goes with decision making. Unless he wants to continue to be Sean Covey with legs, he really needs to improve. Otherwise he will go down as a good, not great QB, who looked better than he was because we were tired of very bad QBs.

The Sean Covey I remember was more accurate than Hill when he wasn't getting concussions. It has been so long ago, that I do not remember enough to judge his field vision or his decision making. Anyway, Hill reminds me of Jake Locker - not Sean Covey.



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The reason I use him as an example is because their passing numbers are almost identical. Covey wasn't a bad QB, he was actually pretty good. Concussions had a lot to do with eventually losing the starting QB job--that and an explosive QB named Detmer.

If Covey had had Taysom's running ability, we wouldn't have seen Ty play until after Covey graduated. And if either of them had to play behind the offensive line we had in 2013, both would have gotten killed.

Fair points on both counts. In other words, we were looking for a little more than we got from Covey (didn't have enough to keep Detmer on the bench) and we are still looking for more from Hill. I think next year tells us whether Hill stays in the Covey range or will be one of the greats. I don't know of any of the QBs at the top of BYU's pedigree that only had one really good passing year.

I actually equate Hill with Detmer, in that as a freshman, it was obvious that they were better than the people that were starting in front of them, had outstanding Soph years, setting up for a stellar Jr year. Hill obviously has a long way to go to be considered anywhere near Detmer, but I doubt he'll ever have a 5 INT game either.

Steve Young only had one really good passing year.

1983: 306 of 429 for 3,902 yards 33 TDs 14 INTs, 168.45 PER, 71.3%

1982: 230 of 367 for 3,100 yards 18 TDs 18 INTs, 140.00 PER, 62.7%



BYU average QB since 1972: 187 of 313 for 2,511 yards 19 TDs 12 INTs, 142.98 PER 59.7%



Steve Young had one really good (ok great!) passing year and one entirely average and pedestrian passing year.

SpiffCoug wrote:
Steve Young only had one really good passing year.

1983: 306 of 429 for 3,902 yards 33 TDs 14 INTs, 168.45 PER, 71.3%

1982: 230 of 367 for 3,100 yards 18 TDs 18 INTs, 140.00 PER, 62.7%



BYU average QB since 1972: 187 of 313 for 2,511 yards 19 TDs 12 INTs, 142.98 PER 59.7%



Steve Young had one really good (ok great!) passing year and one entirely average and pedestrian passing year.

If at the end of his Junior year Hill has a 140 PER, then he will be well on his way. Next year will tell us a lot.

If Hill is at 140, BYU will be VERY difficult to beat. That'll also be the highest PER in half a decade at BYU.

SpiffCoug wrote:
If Hill is at 140, BYU will be VERY difficult to beat. That'll also be the highest PER in half a decade at BYU.

If he gets OL help in the red zone, he'll get to 140.

If Hill is more accurate and efficient in the red zone he'll get to 140. He completed just 41.7% of his red zone passes. Say what you want on the OL and play calling, but a lot - if not most - of that is on Hill. He was horribly inccurate in the red zone.

SpiffCoug wrote:
If Hill is more accurate and efficient in the red zone he'll get to 140. He completed just 41.7% of his red zone passes. Say what you want on the OL and play calling, but a lot - if not most - of that is on Hill. He was horribly inccurate in the red zone.

I agree with this as well, but if you can't run straight ahead, passing becomes really, really hard in the compressed space.

It seemed like Hill was missing on throws. One thing I don't think we did enough of was throwing the ball up high for our all WRs to go and get and make a play.

SpiffCoug wrote:
It seemed like Hill was missing on throws. One thing I don't think we did enough of was throwing the ball up high for our all WRs to go and get and make a play.

Absolutely correct. I can't remember a single play all season long where we leveraged our receivers height.

SpiffCoug wrote:
If Hill is more accurate and efficient in the red zone he'll get to 140. He completed just 41.7% of his red zone passes. Say what you want on the OL and play calling, but a lot - if not most - of that is on Hill. He was horribly inccurate in the red zone.

A former BYU offensive lineman disagrees with you. Trevor Matich, just listen to BYU sportsnation the Monday after the Washington Bowl game.