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What Aggies team will BYU face this year?

by Fido · 6/29/2015

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F
Fido
First they have the 4 defensive linemen (2 who were projected as starters) get injured in the car accident.

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=35280387&nid=858&title=two-usu-football-players-released-from-hospital-sunday-after-accident&s_cid=queue-14" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Now JoJo Natson gets dismissed from the team for rules violations.

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=35282277&nid=858&title=utah-state-returner-jojo-natson-dismissed-from-team&s_cid=queue-7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



That's gotta be frustrating for them.
S
Schmoe
They'll still get way up for the game and if we're too busy worrying about our hyper-chrome-blue-tanium facemasks and 3D shiny-bubble helmet stickers again, we'll lose again.
S
SpiffCoug
Schmoe wrote:
They'll still get way up for the game and if we're too busy worrying about our hyper-chrome-blue-tanium facemasks and 3D shiny-bubble helmet stickers again, we'll lose again.

I think the injury to Taysom had a little more to do with the loss to the Aggies than our chrome helmets.
C
Cougs_Rule
And I would add that we were already facing a comeback even with THill in the game. So, it was our lagging Defense that was clearly being exposed by a well coached, disciplined, hungry team that is tired of being little brother and a two-way LB in particular that BYU did not prepare for but who kicked our Butts. Anae was leaning way to heavy on his confidence in our "scheme" and "doing what we do" and the D was already exposed as a fraud and very vulnerable.
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SpiffCoug
BYU could not have prepared for their two-way LB. USU after the game said that they had specifically saved him for the BYU game so it would come as a complete surprise.



How are you supposed to prepare for a LB to switch to RB when there is no precedent for that. And he ran the ball 16 times for 57 yards (3.6 ypc) with a long of 11.



His first run was for 8 yards. Then he ran for 5, 6 and 1 yards. Then came his 11 yard run. He followed that run up by going for 3 yards and then 1.



In the 2nd half he ran for 5 yards, -1 yards, 1 yard, 1 yard (TD), 3 yards, 4 yards, 10 yards, -1 yard, 0 yard. BYU actually probably did a pretty decent job on a RB that they had no reason to prepare for.
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S
Schmoe
SpiffCoug wrote:
They'll still get way up for the game and if we're too busy worrying about our hyper-chrome-blue-tanium facemasks and 3D shiny-bubble helmet stickers again, we'll lose again.

I think the injury to Taysom had a little more to do with the loss to the Aggies than our chrome helmets.


I see it as a reflection of our focus and attitude going into the game. We should have manhandled that team. Hopefully this year we actually take things "one game at a time."
B
BroncoBot
Schmoe wrote:
Schmoe wrote:
They'll still get way up for the game and if we're too busy worrying about our hyper-chrome-blue-tanium facemasks and 3D shiny-bubble helmet stickers again, we'll lose again.

I think the injury to Taysom had a little more to do with the loss to the Aggies than our chrome helmets.


I see it as a reflection of our focus and attitude going into the game. We should have manhandled that team. Hopefully this year we actually take things "one game at a time."

Agreed, and as to spiff's question regarding how to prepare for a 2 way LB playing rb... How about just playing some assignment sound football. Are you really suggesting that the switch LB/RB couldn't be overcome by BYU against a run of the mill MWC team? Come on now!



BYU should have been able to win that game even with the loss of Taysom, the hype of the chrome facemask, and certainly a switch to RB by a LB. The effort was lacking big time in that game.
C
Cougs_Rule
BroncoBot wrote:
SpiffCoug wrote:
They'll still get way up for the game and if we're too busy worrying about our hyper-chrome-blue-tanium facemasks and 3D shiny-bubble helmet stickers again, we'll lose again.

I think the injury to Taysom had a little more to do with the loss to the Aggies than our chrome helmets.


I see it as a reflection of our focus and attitude going into the game. We should have manhandled that team. Hopefully this year we actually take things "one game at a time."

Agreed, and as to spiff's question regarding how to prepare for a 2 way LB playing rb... How about just playing some assignment sound football. Are you really suggesting that the switch LB/RB couldn't be overcome by BYU against a run of the mill MWC team? Come on now!



BYU should have been able to win that game even with the loss of Taysom, the hype of the chrome facemask, and certainly a switch to RB by a LB. The effort was lacking big time in that game.


One of your proposed alternative explanations includes too much focus on face masks?

BYU may have been able to shut down the LB/RB in 2H but he was a diversion that, when mixed with mediocre effort in the first, and BYUs hero not able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and bring them back, BYU was just not able to overcome their poor first half.
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SpiffCoug
The biggest play of the game (other than Hill's injury) was the offsides by the Defense on the Aggie FG that kept their drive alive.
C
CrimsonCoug
We actually had a good 1st Q and a lousy 2nd Q. They adjusted on both their O and D, and BYU, in typical fashion (which is also true for most people), felt that if they were winning, they didn't need to do anything different than they were doing. Improving when you're winning is the most difficult thing to do. Bronco knows that, at least intellectually, but it's not clear that Anae does. It's really tough to get young kids to see that and buy in. But that's what elite opponents do--they continue to find and exploit additional weaknesses.

Taysom's contribution was more than yards and points. It deflated the team; demoralized them. T was so well-integrated that even if Stew had been as effective as Taysom on the field (and he wasn't at first), that the team was rudderless. It took four games against mediocre-at-best opponents to find enough identity to go forward such that when we lost JSwag, we were still OK.

But yeah, the biggest issue was the defense. Even if Howell did make some adjustments in the second half (the run D held their LB/RB to only 2.75 ypc in the second half), he couldn't overcome the soft mental status of the D. The LB/RB he was enough of a distraction that it threw BYU off its game. That and the sparkly uniforms. Evidence of weak mental prep. That's why I'm more optimistic about this year: Wintrich and Bronco will have the D with a better mental state.

The D was abused and exploited more and more and more as the season went along, culminating with Boise, then the competition eased up and the numbers got better, but they ultimately melted against the middling offense of Memphis.



But, to the OP's point, I don't think USU losing a bunch of their D will have much of an effect on this game per se, but it might have an effect on their season. This will be a good test to see if the new-found success of Logan is soft and shallow or deep. We'll know that way before the last game of the season.
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M
Mars
Fido wrote:
First they have the 4 defensive linemen (2 who were projected as starters) get injured in the car accident.

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=35280387&nid=858&title=two-usu-football-players-released-from-hospital-sunday-after-accident&s_cid=queue-14" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Now JoJo Natson gets dismissed from the team for rules violations.

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=35282277&nid=858&title=utah-state-returner-jojo-natson-dismissed-from-team&s_cid=queue-7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



That's gotta be frustrating for them.

Last game of the year, right? Plenty of time for their guys to get healthy. And for our guys to get hurt. :bug:
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