Expectation control and pleasant surprises

We have room for improvement and some of you have pointed that out well. Here's a few things I was pleasantly surprised with ( recognizing it's just one game)



The team played disciplined. Very few penalties. A real improvement!



Anne called a good game. Gaining over 500 yards, let alone it being against NE at NE is quite good



OLine. Sure there were 7 TFL of which 3 were sacks, BUT QBs generally had time to check off and make plays. And only two holding penalties.



Receivers dropped a couple but they were open a lot and Houk and Kurtz had some very nice catches. And then there was Matthew's catch. Wow.



Tanner played well and with composure. I'm bragging I know, and it's not like I'm the only one, but I've been saying that when the time came BYU fans would be very pleased with him. He's a leader with a very good arm. Very good. He is a special player.



That brings me to expectation control. The team just lost its heart and soul. You can't replace Taysom. Tanner will be a great QB but he is just three months off his mission and now that teams can scheme for him, he'll no doubt have some setbacks and challenges. BSU's bringing to Provo perhaps the best D they've ever had. Totally dominated Washington. It will be interesting to see how Tanner and the rest of the O respond. I just hope fans aren't expecting too much too soon.

BoiseBYU wrote:
We have room for improvement and some of you have pointed that out well. Here's a few things I was pleasantly surprised with ( recognizing it's just one game)



The team played disciplined. Very few penalties. A real improvement!



Anne called a good game. Gaining over 500 yards, let alone it being against NE at NE is quite good



OLine. Sure there were 7 TFL of which 3 were sacks, BUT QBs generally had time to check off and make plays. And only two holding penalties.



Receivers dropped a couple but they were open a lot and Houk and Kurtz had some very nice catches. And then there was Matthew's catch. Wow.



Tanner played well and with composure. I'm bragging I know, and it's not like I'm the only one, but I've been saying that when the time came BYU fans would be very pleased with him. He's a leader with a very good arm. Very good. He is a special player.



That brings me to expectation control. The team just lost its heart and soul. You can't replace Taysom. Tanner will be a great QB but he is just three months off his mission and now that teams can scheme for him, he'll no doubt have some setbacks and challenges. BSU's bringing to Provo perhaps the best D they've ever had. Totally dominated Washington. It will be interesting to see how Tanner and the rest of the O respond. I just hope fans aren't expecting too much too soon.

I watched that Washington game and while I am sure BSU's defense is good, that WA QB was horrible. With an average QB, Washington wins that game. Tanner didn't play enough in the NE game in order to give away too many things that teams can game plan for but after that we will see. I am interested in seeing if he shows the same composure in the BSU game that he did coming in unexpectedly in the NE game after having had to prepare all week and have those nerves of knowing he is the starter. If he looks as composed, we may have something special. Hope he develops quickly, or this year could end up being one to forget as a cougar fan.

I think we learned a ton about Tanner's composure on Saturday. I can't imagine that there is a scenario that he could have been thrown into that could have created more pressure than at Nebraska. His first throw was a work of art, rolling right far sideline on the run, and it was on the money! Very difficult throw. It shows a level of instinct that can't be taught. I would guess a game against his hometown team in LES has been high on his list forever. This one is gonna be special for him. Expectations are low (he's a freshman, 3 months removed from his mission, he's replacing probably the best athlete that BYU has ever had at QB, he'll never be as good as Taysom). When the expectations are lower, the pressure is lower. It's going to be a great 2nd stop on my "4 for 40". How can the team one up what they did on Saturday in Nebraska?



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MesaCougFan wrote:
I think we learned a ton about Tanner's composure on Saturday. I can't imagine that there is a scenario that he could have been thrown into that could have created more pressure than at Nebraska. His first throw was a work of art, rolling right far sideline on the run, and it was on the money! Very difficult throw. It shows a level of instinct that can't be taught. I would guess a game against his hometown team in LES has been high on his list forever. This one is gonna be special for him. Expectations are low (he's a freshman, 3 months removed from his mission, he's replacing probably the best athlete that BYU has ever had at QB, he'll never be as good as Taysom). When the expectations are lower, the pressure is lower. It's going to be a great 2nd stop on my "4 for 40". How can the team one up what they did on Saturday in Nebraska?



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They can one up it by WINNING at home. But they can more easily one down it by losing focus from emotional win and emotional loss of THill and lose at home. BSUs D is strong but not indomitable as suggested. And their O is way down from last year.

Mangum's performance in this one game put to bed any residual concern I had about him as a highly touted high school player after the bad taste JH left with me.



I never saw Heaps coming right out of high school show any inkling of the guts that Mangum showed on Saturday more than two years removed from any sort of real game experience. Mangum got absolutely planted on his 4th-and-1 throw up the sideline to Kurtz, and then he go up and took stood in the pocket and scrambled up the field taking more hits without flinching.



He'll have to protect himself as our bench just got a LOT shallower, but he showed the heart JH lacked, and showed the ability to make the throws. I can be patient with this kid.

A agree about him having guts. It seems whenever backup quarterbacks come in, it is 3 plays in a row of hand offs. Even for that quick series in the 2nd quarter, Mangum was throwing and moving the ball. I am cautiously excited.

I think we can still handle BSU without Taysom. There was an impressive team-level performance against Nebraska, and we will have it on Saturday. I am hesitant now to say better than 2-2 for September. But, I think we will still start 2-0.



Can we expect a freshman to take a victory from the Rose Bowl? The big house? I have no idea, but I won't count it out. My bold prediction is we steal one of those two. My regular prediction, and this is due to the full team effort I saw ahainst NU...we will take down Boise State. Cheer it loud, gents. We need the home crowd thumping on Saturday night!



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Think about it this way - BYU just lost their best Offensive player and team leader, AND their best D player (arguably...per Bronco), during the game, and still beat Nebraska, on the road.



You can't tell me that the BSU game will be tougher than Nebraska.



I watched that BSU / UW game. I'm sure that UW has some athletes on D, but they held BSU in check for most of that game. BSU QB looked pretty pedestrian. Their RB looked decent, but we can handle a good RB. I'd be surprised if our D can't hold them in check, especially after getting Nacua back.



I expect BYU to win, pulling away in the 2nd half. And I expect this to be Tanner's real coming out party. He and Matthews and Kurta and Houk and Juergens and Blackmon are going to have a field day, I believe.

I think the impact of losing Travis Tuiloma may have been a bit exacerbated last week. When he went down, we also lost a starting ILB in Pikula (?) whose backup was already playing out of position due to the Takitaki suspension, so he was essentially replaced by the third option at that position. Pikula will be back for BSU.

TulaneVandyRiceCoug wrote:
I think we can still handle BSU without Taysom. There was an impressive team-level performance against Nebraska, and we will have it on Saturday. I am hesitant now to say better than 2-2 for September. But, I think we will still start 2-0.



Can we expect a freshman to take a victory from the Rose Bowl? The big house? I have no idea, but I won't count it out. My bold prediction is we steal one of those two. My regular prediction, and this is due to the full team effort I saw ahainst NU...we will take down Boise State. Cheer it loud, gents. We need the home crowd thumping on Saturday night!



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BYU will not lose to UCLA or Mich Bc the crowd is loud or intimidating. UCLA is not as loud as Nebraska. And although Mich has like 10k more fans than Neb, Mangum will not be initmidated as many other QBs can be. Now, he may get sacked and abused by Mich D, but that is a different matter. He has already passed the loud crowd test.



As for another post, BSUs strength is in its D. Our D will hold their O. So If BYU can avoid turnovers and protect our QB to give him time to throw, BYU will win this game.

Correct. There won't be enough fans at the UCLA game that will be wearing powder, baby blue shirts - like their Bruins team wears.



Michigan might be tough though, since a lot of those fans will likely be wearing yellow - creating a vast sea of yellow.



And as we all know, it is IMPERATIVE that EVERY Cougar fan wear the correct color shirt when they go to games in Lavell Edwards Stadium. Otherwise we risk the chance that our opponents won't be sufficiently decimated from a morale standpoint and they may play well and beat our Cougars.

BoiseBYU wrote:

That brings me to expectation control. The team just lost its heart and soul. You can't replace Taysom. Tanner will be a great QB but he is just three months off his mission and now that teams can scheme for him, he'll no doubt have some setbacks and challenges. BSU's bringing to Provo perhaps the best D they've ever had. Totally dominated Washington. It will be interesting to see how Tanner and the rest of the O respond. I just hope fans aren't expecting too much too soon.

I've been thinking about this, but I can't quite figure out what scheming for Mangum would mean that would really be different than Hill. Mangum isn't as spectacular taking off and running with it, but he still showed against a legit defense that he can scramble very well and even gain significant yardage with his feet when the opening is there. The only thing I can think is that Hill's running ability was scary enough to defenses that they wouldn't sell out for the pass and drop everyone back. That doesn't mean it would be effective to do that with Mangum though because he seemed to handle it quite well against Nebraska when he couldn't find someone to throw to and saw lots of open field ahead. He's just less flashy, but still effective enough to keep the defense honest.