What have we learned from BYU scrimmages?

I have been very impressed with some of the players that are starting to stand out as the depth chart becomes solidified.



1. Scott Huntsman LB (6-4/230) - the teammate of Charles West was a baller at Coppell H.S. and turned down scholarship offers from Air Force, Houston, LA Monroe, New Mexico, Purdue, and Toledo. He chose to walk-on and likely with receive a scholarship from Bronco given his play to date. He trained with Jordan Pendleton one month prior to fall camp, and JP thinks he is the real deal (KVN type player). He will see action on 2nd team this year.



2. Trevor Samson K - this guy has been money in kicking PAT and appears to have added ranged to his FG distance (has hit several 50 yd FGs). His consistency will be critical in closely contested games and he may be the difference maker against the first 4 teams we play this year (NE, BSU, UCLA, MI).



3. Adam Hine RB - he is running with more confidence and power. He distinguished himself over the last two years as an outstanding KR and appears to be making the transition to RB. He has shown semblance of dominance as he scored two TDs against TX last year. If he becomes a viable weapon out of the backfield, he would help take the focus off of Taysom.



4. Nick Kurtz WR - it appears that he is becoming Taysom's second most favorite target behind Mitch Matthews. I have a sinking feeling that MM has not fully recovered and may not play at full strength this year so NK will need to step up to fill this void. Very comfortable with the other receivers as long as NK can draw attention (double coverage).



5. Harvey Langi LB - he appears to have become one of the primary leaders of the defense and is becoming a beast to stop. We need him to step up and take charge of the D to become dominant this year. Strong defense will help us win most of our games as the O should put up similar or better numbers than last year.



6. Sione Takitaki LB/DE - the kid is the second best pass rusher behind Bronson Kafusi. He needs to get his act together off the field so that he can stay on the field. He provides an indispensable sack threat when he is in the game.



Other thoughts?

Those are the players that I've heard about. Hine is improving at RBS, is fast and could be a threat in space. How. Can we get in the ball where he can do damage?



Scott Huntsman sounds like a steal. A freshman 2nd string LB? Wow

I'm not ready to write off Mitch Matthews just yet. He is recovering as expected, just 3 weeks out from hernia surgery and he's practicing. He'll be good to go come Nebraska. But good to see other receivers stepping up

I forgot to mention one more player on offense that appears to be ready to contribute, it is RB Francis Bernard (5'11", 215 lbs). He just returned from his mission. He was a beast when he played RB at Herriman H.S. In one game against Orem, he ran for 239 yards on 25 carries and scored 3 TDs. He also contributed 69 receiving yards. Bronco stated that he will play this year based upon his practice performance.



I will be curious to see the 2 deep listing of players on Monday.

Francis is a beast. Threw a big block to spring Hine for a long run today. Also got a what looked like a shoulder stinger, so I hope he's ok.

Dye got a lot of touches today, so glad to see him incorporated more. Find broncos post scrimmage comments. Said Trey is finally understanding and executing.

Takitaki is also elite speed and talent. He will be missed vs Neb but hope he gets back out of the dog-house. Had a pick today, maybe nullified by a penalty iirc.

Oline looked unfocused today. Lots of little mental mistakes.

I still wonder about Mangums height/arch on passes. He has such velocity he can almost throw ropes downfield but short and medium passes seemed to get tipped easy and prone to INTs.

Huntsman stood out today as well. Had look three times at the roster to figure out who he was. He will make a lot of noise. Hard hitter.

I keep hoping that between, quick whistle sacks, THill not really running, MM limited, Tejan out for both scrummages, and Algie as well, that the O is just working on their weaknesses and not focusing on their strengths, bc I have higher hopes than what I have seen past two weeks.

Kurtz did make a great catch on a long ball that was nicely defended and tipped by the DB. If the twin towers materializes and delivers, it's going to leave the middle wide open for slot receivers and running.

How'd Pearson look today? Looking forward to our receiving corps. Lots of talent, should be able to have fresh legs at that position all game long.

I was out in Utah from DC and took the family for the first scrimmage. Been meaning to type up a few notes:



* Taysom looks good overall, but still doesn't check down. He had his third option open several times but was still tucking and running. He also tends to stare down the side of the field of his first two reads. Devon Blackmon was really wide open a bunch--probably in part because the DBs knew what side of the field the ball was going to and it wasn't Devon's so they cheated over.



* Blackmon knew that too, and would cut off running his routes early when he knew the play call wasn't going to his side of the field. Cody did the same thing sometimes during Hill's soph year. Hill has GOT to learn to fully check down his reads. His greatest asset could be a little stutter step right before he slings the ball to his 3rd read who would be wide open.



* Punting is going to be entertaining. Linehan's rugby kicks usually go the distance, but do so in a line drive without much hang time. That said, he takes a bit more time running out on a curl out to get his rugby kick off, giving the cover team more time to get down field. Those kicks were also really difficult team for the receiver to collect, often muffing the catch. If he didn't catch it, though, they'd roll for another 15 yards. On the other hand, he always curls out to his right side, so it wouldn't take much for the receiving team to send a kick blocker straight to where he's going to be--which is away from the three guys protecting the kicker.



* Tanner Mangum is for real. He had some really nice long balls called back. Great touch on the ball. Great placement on the outside shoulder. Great mechanics. Really remarkable to see for an RM 6-7 wks back at that point. Tanner also had a good run or two. I'm pretty excited about him. Reminds me more of NFL Steve Young (pass first, then run if nothing else there--though he's not the runner that Steve was), whereas Taysom reminds me of early Jr yr Steve Young (check, check, run). Hoge didn't have great accuracy and Detmer didn't have the same arm strength--there was a lot of air under his balls. Well placed, though. If he can bulk up, he could be good. Mangum's not anywhere near the QB that Hill is right now, but I feel very good about the future.



* Defense was good, but not as good as Bronco's post game comments written up in the press would have you believe. The reason the score was low was because of a lot of big plays called back because of false starts or holding (O Line), and Blackmon had an offsides--thought he was in the CFL and started running his route across the LOS before the snap.



*Taysom's a good dude. After the scrimmage he hung around on the offensive sideline for a while, before trying to duck out through the opposite corner of the stadium. Unfortunately for him, my nephew spotted him and ran over to get his autograph. A huge swarm of kids followed him, and Taysom was mired down for another 15 minutes. He--and his wife--were really pleasant about it, though.



*Coach Kafusi is pretty high on this year's potential, even without Jamaal. I spoke with him really briefly after the game and wished him luck, expressing hopes that we could get to a NY6 bowl. He had been joking around before, but then he became dead serious. "No," he said. "The playoffs. Maybe not a national championship, but at least the playoffs." That was pretty exciting.

Curious about Ricky Shumway and his "no look" over the head catch that went viral. Is he the real deal. He appeared to be quite acrobatic while at Timpview H.S.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Not gonna get my hopes up. Nope.

CrimsonCoug wrote:
*Coach Kafusi is pretty high on this year's potential, even without Jamaal. I spoke with him really briefly after the game and wished him luck, expressing hopes that we could get to a NY6 bowl. He had been joking around before, but then he became dead serious. "No," he said. "The playoffs. Maybe not a national championship, but at least the playoffs." That was pretty exciting.

That pretty much sums up my attitude. I don't really care about the NY'6, other than it being a very good consolation prize for not being in the playoffs. The playoffs is the ultimate goal, but it is going to take an extremely special group of players to make it happen. I hope to see it in my lifetime again, but I recognize there are a whole bunch of fans whose teams have never had a national championship. We are blessed to have one. It's really quite miraculous when you think about what had to happen for BYU to get that first one...all of the bias that was overcome.

I'm not getting my hopes up too high but will ride the wave hoping for improvement year to year. Now that the big missionary age change wave is over hopefully things settle down into the standard coming/going mode so that should help. And the team is very young--with young players contributing--so I'm hoping that helps with year-to-year improvement.

Cougs_Rule wrote:

I still wonder about Mangums height/arch on passes. He has such velocity he can almost throw ropes downfield but short and medium passes seemed to get tipped easy and prone to INTs.

That's a good point. I remember his ball placement and velocity being good, and his overall mechanics being solid, but I don't know whether the INTs are the result of

one or a combination of a) a low release point, b) low trajectory, or c) inexperience reading the defense. I remember at the time thinking that it was likely the latter because he'd been back of his mission so recently and hadn't had a lot of experience going live and reading defenders. But it could be any of those things.



The good news is that they are all correctable with the right coaching early on. That said, I'm still not convinced that Jason Beck is a good enough QB coach to fix those things (though I do believe he was a better hire than Max Hall would have been, even without Max's unfortunate recent problems). I'd love to make a run to get John Beck as QB coach if/when he finally decides to hang up his cleats. I think he'd do a phenomenal job.

Cougarfan87 wrote:

*Coach Kafusi is pretty high on this year's potential, even without Jamaal. I spoke with him really briefly after the game and wished him luck, expressing hopes that we could get to a NY6 bowl. He had been joking around before, but then he became dead serious. "No," he said. "The playoffs. Maybe not a national championship, but at least the playoffs." That was pretty exciting.

That pretty much sums up my attitude. I don't really care about the NY'6, other than it being a very good consolation prize for not being in the playoffs. The playoffs is the ultimate goal, but it is going to take an extremely special group of players to make it happen. I hope to see it in my lifetime again, but I recognize there are a whole bunch of fans whose teams have never had a national championship. We are blessed to have one. It's really quite miraculous when you think about what had to happen for BYU to get that first one...all of the bias that was overcome.

You're right 87. Our NT in 1984 was a combination of good play combined with outstanding luck for us and bad luck for the other top teams out there. There were a lot of knife-edge games and plays that season. We made plenty of mistakes that season, too, but did just enough and had just enough "magic" that we overcame them. 1984, for all of its awesomeness, was really pretty improbable. Capturing lightning like that ever again will be tough. But I love trying!

I just can't get my hopes up. the oline is thinner than it should be and losing Jamal did it for me. Losing Kearsley and Jamal is going to hurt in a big way. Will the offense still be great, yes, I think so. But I think that Taysom is less effective without Jamal and I think that depth at oline is going to come back and bite us.



I also think that Taysom's injury will hinder him as he is going to try and be a passer which will have him doing things that feel less natural for him. he will be learning and growinggin a part of his game that he has not mastered yet. eventually he will just go back to what is natural for him and i wouldn't be surprised if he was injured again. losing jamal to help carry the load only compounds this. fact is, he isn't naturally comfortable passing and our receivers are the strength of our offense. If he can't consistently and comfortably deliver the ball through the air, our offense won't have enough to overcome the better teams we play. taysom will be learning to be a passer this season which will come with hiccups.



Losing leavitt and kearsley was a big deal. then jamal. we needed these guys for depth and experience. Without them we are razor thin and that will stop us from getting over the hump this year. I just can't see more than 8 wins and that will be hard to get.



I expect much of the same this year. a big win in one of the first 4 games to someone we weren't expected to win, a horrible loss to someone we shouldn't lose to and then after that we win what we should and lose what we should.



On defense i see our line backers still learning. i see a secondary still learning. i see a dline that should be improved. Not a lot to get over excited about.



i am not as optimistic as most are. Sheeesh, I sound bad but that's how I see it.

I'm right with you Johnny. This will be an interesting year.

NY6 bowl > any bowl BYU has been to in the last decade.



I would be thrilled if BYU made it to an NY6 bowl and doubt they do this year.



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