Monday Open Practice

I didn't have long, but I stopped in to the open practice for a few minutes today. I thought the team looked pretty solid today. Here are a few of my insights.



Taysom Hill is physically unbelievable. The only other QB who came close to physically matching him is Mangum, and it's not that close. Koy Detmer, an excellent QB in his own right, looks like a Jr High kid next to him.



Devon Blackmon fumbled a few times in the moshpit drill. A few guys did once, I know I saw Koy drop the ball, and some others, but Blackmon fumbled with both his left and right arms which was slightly disappointing. He also went on to have some really great catches.



Nick Kurtz, D. Blackmon, and T. Houk had some really neat catches. All the QBs looked good throwing the ball in drills, but for the part of the scrimmage I saw Hill > Mangum > Hoge > Detmer. Hill had an incredibly beautiful 50+ yard (guessing here because it was away from me and I was at ground level) pass to the endzone for a TD.



Linehan had 1 good punt and 1 not so good punt that I saw. Almond had 1 not good punt.



The defense had their way with the offensive line. Bronson was a man among boys out there for the few scrimmage plays he was in. The defense was very loud, before, during, and after each play. I like a defense that communicates loudly.



DBs were pretty solid, there were some mixups but for the most part they were on their guy. Will need to improve in pass breakups.



It was nice being out there and not being over 100 degrees.


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Now we could just clone Taysom Hill 8 times to fill out our linebacker, running back and safeties starters......

I'm going to say it right now. The excuses for the offensive line need to be over this year (inexperience and lack of talent). If the Offensive line doesn't improve in a major way this year it is time to look for a new Oline coach. I am finding in coaching that a coach who knows what he is doing can improve a team immediately. He doesn't need years, and this will be the 3rd year that 2J has had the Oline, his first 2 years haven't impressed me. Grimes had our Oline performing at a top level after 2 years.

Tough, at this stage, to judge any OL improvement. We're still in helmets only, until they are in full pads and can hit, it'll be difficult to judge the big uglies.

Thanks Hawkwing. Cool to hear about whats going on.

Its telling that a true freshman, anomylous as he is, started last year. I totally think 2J is the guy along with Anae. Youre right in that there acnnot be excuses, but those guys are THE guys.

SpiffCoug wrote:
Tough, at this stage, to judge any OL improvement. We're still in helmets only, until they are in full pads and can hit, it'll be difficult to judge the big uglies.

I hope so. I find it disconcerting when I hear our young inexperienced Dline is dominating our Oline which is supposed to be a strength of the team this year. I still have memories of John Beck standing behind that wall of Olinemen in 06 with 2 bad ankles and carving up a top 06 TCU defense. Our Oline hasn't been able to hold a block for more then a half a second on a pass play in years. Jake Heaps, Riley Nelson and now Taysom Hill/Christian Stewart all have had to run for their lives before any of our receivers have had time to even get off the line.

hawkwing wrote:
I didn't have long, but I stopped in to the open practice for a few minutes today. I thought the team looked pretty solid today. Here are a few of my insights.



Taysom Hill is physically unbelievable. The only other QB who came close to physically matching him is Mangum, and it's not that close. Koy Detmer, an excellent QB in his own right, looks like a Jr High kid next to him.



The defense had their way with the offensive line. Bronson was a man among boys out there for the few scrimmage plays he was in. The defense was very loud, before, during, and after each play. I like a defense that communicates loudly.



DBs were pretty solid, there were some mixups but for the most part they were on their guy. Will need to improve in pass breakups.



It was nice being out there and not being over 100 degrees.

This all good news except for the oline. I too think the waiting should be over for them to produce. I hope this is just opening day problems that will be worked out.

With how bad our OL was after Weber, I'm amazed at how good they were the last 2 years. I think they'll be fine this year. 2 things working against OL without pads: 1 almost all the plays are pass plays and the D knows it, and 2 can't really hit and grab.



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frdbtr wrote:

Tough, at this stage, to judge any OL improvement. We're still in helmets only, until they are in full pads and can hit, it'll be difficult to judge the big uglies.

I hope so. I find it disconcerting when I hear our young inexperienced Dline is dominating our Oline which is supposed to be a strength of the team this year. I still have memories of John Beck standing behind that wall of Olinemen in 06 with 2 bad ankles and carving up a top 06 TCU defense. Our Oline hasn't been able to hold a block for more then a half a second on a pass play in years. Jake Heaps, Riley Nelson and now Taysom Hill/Christian Stewart all have had to run for their lives before any of our receivers have had time to even get off the line.

Young inexperienced Dline? I don't think you could say BYU Dline is young or inexperienced...



Sr. Bronson Kaufusi 6' 7" 265, 37 games, 23 starts, 103 tackles, 24.0 TFL, 15.5 sacks

Sr. Remington Peck 6' 5" 271, 35 games, 21 starts, 69 tackles, 8.5 TFL, 5.5 sacks

Sr. Graham Rowley 6' 4" 280, 34 games, 11 starts, 42 tackles, 6.0 TFL, 3.5 sacks

Jr. Travis Tuiloma 6' 2" 285, 26 games, 12 starts, 39 tackles, 7.5 TFL

Sr. Logan Taele 6' 2" 280, 22 games, 4 starts, 34 tackles, 4.0 TFL, 1.0 sack

Jr. Tomasi Laulile 6' 3" 285, 13 games, no starts, 8 tackles, 1.5 TFL



4 Sr and 2 Jr IMHO is in no way, shape or form a young or an inexperienced Dline.





8)

Weak Oline? No surprises there. When we haven't sent someone to the NFL at the position group in the last decade that is kind of to be expected. And to back that up, when your big signing day news is that we got 2 **potential** offensive lineman, you know, once one comes home from a mission and we teach them both the entire playbook and technique of pass blocking, run blocking, pulling guard, footwork, proper handwork, silent count... you know... that.



We *might* be good in 2 years with all these young kids in the 2 deep, but right now it is just a personal foul machine at starting center surrounded by a bunch of question marks.



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Thought I'd just tack this on here instead of starting a new thread:



Tuesday's open practice was chippy. Several scuffles broke out between offensive and defensive players and the whole team eventually paid for it, spending roughly half the scrimmage time doing up-downs, pushups, sit ups, and leg lifts.



QBs: Hill was noticeably looking downfield and trying not to run. Most noticeably when he had green grass for about 25 yards in front of him and instead bombed it to Juergens in the endzone for a TD.



Tanner Mangum looked like the clear backup. Passes were on point, played well, one critique is that his long ball floats a little.



Sno pointed out that you want the next guys to be good, too, because they'll be running the scout team and getting the defense ready. Beau Hodge looks to be that guy, and that's a good thing. His game could use some polish, but he's got good basic mechanics, footwork, etc. and throws the ball well.



Detmer threw an early pick and just looks so small out there. His passes are good, but he needs to grow both physically and in terms of reads/speed of the game if he wants to contend in the coming years.



RBs: Hard to say a lot about the guys because it was a minimal-contact whistle-stop practice. Brown looked good, his routes out of the backfield were crisp and you can tell he's itching for full-contact to run someone over. Hine and Carter also got some looks and appear solid.



TEs: Nothing really to report. Don't remember seeing a catch from this group today.



WR: Guys shined today. Blackmon had a couple great diving catches and a great go-up-and-get-it on a fade for a TD. Juergens caught a good mix of short and long balls with at least one TD. Kurtz looked faster than last year and his hands looked good.



OL: Again, hard to judge the big uglies yet, but there was one false start penalty, but otherwise looked okay/mediocre.



DL: Got after it, were better in pass rush than against the run.



LB: Also hard to judge these guys before full contact. No news is good news I suppose.



DB: Were usually in the right place and had some good pass breakups, but occasionally found themselves out of position (the last play of the day was a freshman receiver getting behind the defense for a 60-65 yard TD).



K: placekicking looked fine from the several extra points we saw.



P: punting is shaky. Rugby-style punt is inconsistent from what we saw today.



That's it. The team is ready to go full gear and full contact. The scrimmage on Saturday should be a hoot.

Thanks Schmoe.

I pray we have a running game. If THill has to run a lot to keep the D honest, and out WRs free to run wild, Cougar Nation will be nervous and Tanner Mangum cant get up to speed fast enough.