My concerns, 10 points listed.

I've heard some details from members of the athletic department and people who work them that I believe that concerns me. These are some of the issues I've heard about.



1. Lax practice schedule. The decision was made to take the fall easy, usually going at half speed. Pursuit drills and difficult workouts were eliminated and hitting was limited to only a few times in total. During the season practices have maintained that schedule, sometimes being taken off entirely, such as the bye-week when the players were given the week off of football.



2. Film study. There are no expectations for outside film study. Some guys on the team are spending time doing film study, but a lot are not.



3. Strength and Conditioning. Some of this information comes from people who are trying to CYA, so take it with a grain of salt. There has been a lot of complaining about S&C and the methodologies being poor, but one of the things I've heard is that it's not the program that's bad, it's that only one or two position groups are actually requiring their guys to put in the full time in the S&C and that the reason players are obviously weaker and slower than UMASS is because they simply are not working out. I personally think that the program is also outdated and not utilizing the latest research into training for fast movements.



4. School studies. News is slowly starting to leak out from other players that this year's team has the lowest GPA ever recorded by the football team. Apparently academics isn't considered important.



5. Drinking, Drugs, DUIs. The coaching staff tried to implement LaVell's "sweep it under the rug" philosophy of HC violations without understanding that today's social media and sports reporting business is going to find out everything.



6. Frivolous activities. BYU fans complained endlessly that BYU players were doing a 45 minute fireside in the days before games. Now, the players are going golfing, to see movies, and doing other activities that don't exactly prep them for the game.



7. Locker room/Team room. Word is that it's a big party in the team room with lots of game systems, candies, donuts, etc. One of the first things Bronco did when he took over for Crowton was eliminate all the candy and junk food from the team room and replaced it with healthy snacks. That has been changed back.



8. Team fighting. I've heard some rumors that fights are brewing between the players who actually work out, and those who are coasting.



9. Coaches fighting. We hear all week from Kalani about how the offense needs to open it up, throw down field, and be aggressive. Then after the game Kalani goes on the air and says the offense is "throwing the freaking ball too much," and that he doesn't know what the offensive game plan is or why they did what they did. Why isn't Kalani talking to Ty Detmer during the week? Why isn't he talking to him during the game? He should know, as the head coach, that the game plan for the next game is to do X Y and Z. If he disagrees with that, he should help formulate a plan for which he agrees with. I still have yet to hear him say having the 100th ranked passing defense is a problem.



10. Losing to UMASS. Simply unacceptable.

Wow, if true then this just makes me that more convinced that the entire coaching staff needs to go. It's one thing to say Sitake's recruits are all on missions so he hasn't gotten "his" players in yet. But look at the culture that is being created. No amount of 5 star recruits or coaching geniuses can fix a bad culture.



The only one I'll comment on specifically is the firesides. I see your point about what some were complaining about and how they are not doing anything more productive with their time. But I LOVED the firesides. I attended two of them and to me that is what BYU football should be all about. Even if you don't like the talks that were obviously written 5 minutes before on the team bus, it was great to meet and greet the players, especially for those who don't live in Utah and get to see the team very much.

Bring the firesides back and we will start winning.

Sounds like a frat house, not a high-caliber football team.

Worse, it sounds like a boys' club, not a place to mold men.

hawkwing wrote:

I've heard some details from members of the athletic department and people who work them that I believe that concerns me. These are some of the issues I've heard about.



1. Lax practice schedule. The decision was made to take the fall easy, usually going at half speed. Pursuit drills and difficult workouts were eliminated and hitting was limited to only a few times in total. During the season practices have maintained that schedule, sometimes being taken off entirely, such as the bye-week when the players were given the week off of football.



2. Film study. There are no expectations for outside film study. Some guys on the team are spending time doing film study, but a lot are not.



3. Strength and Conditioning. Some of this information comes from people who are trying to CYA, so take it with a grain of salt. There has been a lot of complaining about S&C and the methodologies being poor, but one of the things I've heard is that it's not the program that's bad, it's that only one or two position groups are actually requiring their guys to put in the full time in the S&C and that the reason players are obviously weaker and slower than UMASS is because they simply are not working out. I personally think that the program is also outdated and not utilizing the latest research into training for fast movements.



4. School studies. News is slowly starting to leak out from other players that this year's team has the lowest GPA ever recorded by the football team. Apparently academics isn't considered important.



5. Drinking, Drugs, DUIs. The coaching staff tried to implement LaVell's "sweep it under the rug" philosophy of HC violations without understanding that today's social media and sports reporting business is going to find out everything.



6. Frivolous activities. BYU fans complained endlessly that BYU players were doing a 45 minute fireside in the days before games. Now, the players are going golfing, to see movies, and doing other activities that don't exactly prep them for the game.



7. Locker room/Team room. Word is that it's a big party in the team room with lots of game systems, candies, donuts, etc. One of the first things Bronco did when he took over for Crowton was eliminate all the candy and junk food from the team room and replaced it with healthy snacks. That has been changed back.



8. Team fighting. I've heard some rumors that fights are brewing between the players who actually work out, and those who are coasting.



9. Coaches fighting. We hear all week from Kalani about how the offense needs to open it up, throw down field, and be aggressive. Then after the game Kalani goes on the air and says the offense is "throwing the freaking ball too much," and that he doesn't know what the offensive game plan is or why they did what they did. Why isn't Kalani talking to Ty Detmer during the week? Why isn't he talking to him during the game? He should know, as the head coach, that the game plan for the next game is to do X Y and Z. If he disagrees with that, he should help formulate a plan for which he agrees with. I still have yet to hear him say having the 100th ranked passing defense is a problem.



10. Losing to UMASS. Simply unacceptable.

I am not as down on Detmer as most are. I don't think he is doing a bang up job but what is he supposed to do when his head coach is a complete disaster. In game interview goes like this "We can win this game if the offense doesn't screw this up" after the game (after we've lost and the offense looks like it is completely incompetent) Kalani says "we are going to open up the offense this week, if I am going to go down, I am going to go down swinging" then back in the game, he sends the signal to go conservative with the offense because he doesn't want them screwing up and losing it for the defense. Frankly, I think if Kalani had left the offense alone from day one and concentrated on getting his defense to quit giving up 14 play 90 yard TD drives, the offense would have been better this year. Overall, the entire program is a mess and needs to be blown up and restructured. It all starts at the top.

scott715 wrote:

Bring the firesides back and we will start winning.

Funny how before everyone was saying the firesides were the reason BYU couldn't win especially the big games. But now bring them back and all problems will be fixed and BYU will start winning again.

a1247 wrote:

Bring the firesides back and we will start winning.

Funny how before everyone was saying the firesides were the reason BYU couldn't win especially the big games. But now bring them back and all problems will be fixed and BYU will start winning again.

I think that Scott was being sarcastic. I loved the firesides. I want them back. That doesn't mean that the firesides alone will make BYU start winning again. But it was great for the fans. And it was something that the players did as a team. The players ran the firesides, not Bronco. That is part of creating the correct culture.

a1247 wrote:

Bring the firesides back and we will start winning.

Funny how before everyone was saying the firesides were the reason BYU couldn't win especially the big games. But now bring them back and all problems will be fixed and BYU will start winning again.

I think the firesides (which were voluntary for players) neither hurt nor helped the football team. But fans sure made them out to be the end of the world often enough.

If what Hawk says is true, I could see Ty resigning at end of year. Who would want to put up with that kind of crap.

If true, maybe Kalani is as bad as some say and he needs drastic change or to get out.

And if it's true he will protect Tui and S&C coach with his own job, then he definitely needs to go.

I had heard last year from someone close to Sr admin that the coaches had no idea what they were doing and practices were total chaos but I put that aside thinking there is no way that Kalani learned that style from Kryle or from Anderson...well...anyway, no way? But all that Hawk shared is very damning.

And it might very well be that TH has no one else to go to.

Maybe he could lure back Poppinga. Is Howell LDS? I always thought he was a Bronco's spitting image.

If true, just WOW.

And does anyone believe they will be working hard in Hawaii?

Are they really worried someone else will come in and do worse?

I see this as classic over-correcting by both Holmoe and Sitake.



Every executive that comes into a new place wants to establish his own identity. Often times, that means they emphasize their differences from the perceived faults of the predecessor. Same in business, same in football.



At BYU we saw that Crowton wanted to establish himself as "not LaVell". He didn't have anything against Lavell; he just wanted to blaze his own trail. But he went away from Lavell's discipline, and emphasized the sweep-it-under the rug approach with respect to the HC.



Bronco saw what didn't work for Crowton and emphasized correcting those weaknesses--putting a premium on personal accountability. He tried to be a bit of LaVell in his game time demeanor, but misapplied that to the media and PR as well.



Kalani (and Holmoe) read the frosty PR of Bronco and the stiff, disciplined (though not uncaring) relationship he had with his players and over-corrected to hiring a "cool older brother" to replace the disciplinarian. Kalani has gone out of his way to publicly express love for players and privately show that by helping to bail them out of trouble (thinking of the Francis Bernard vid) and allegedly sweeping aside the high standards for training, diet and preparation.



To be fair, almost the entire staff has those same personable, folksy qualities--thinking of Tuiaki, Detmer, Mahe, and others. That's not a bad thing, but it can't get in the way of personal accountability--which is more than just briefly pointing out a failed game assignment in team meetings, which is the way Ed Lamb described how coaches hold players accountable during his Coordinators' Corner interview with Greg Wrubell yesterday.



All of this is classic over-correcting.

frdbtr wrote:

9. Coaches fighting. We hear all week from Kalani about how the offense needs to open it up, throw down field, and be aggressive. Then after the game Kalani goes on the air and says the offense is "throwing the freaking ball too much," and that he doesn't know what the offensive game plan is or why they did what they did. Why isn't Kalani talking to Ty Detmer during the week? Why isn't he talking to him during the game? He should know, as the head coach, that the game plan for the next game is to do X Y and Z. If he disagrees with that, he should help formulate a plan for which he agrees with. I still have yet to hear him say having the 100th ranked passing defense is a problem.

I am not as down on Detmer as most are. I don't think he is doing a bang up job but what is he supposed to do when his head coach is a complete disaster. In game interview goes like this "We can win this game if the offense doesn't screw this up" after the game (after we've lost and the offense looks like it is completely incompetent) Kalani says "we are going to open up the offense this week, if I am going to go down, I am going to go down swinging" then back in the game, he sends the signal to go conservative with the offense because he doesn't want them screwing up and losing it for the defense. Frankly, I think if Kalani had left the offense alone from day one and concentrated on getting his defense to quit giving up 14 play 90 yard TD drives, the offense would have been better this year. Overall, the entire program is a mess and needs to be blown up and restructured. It all starts at the top.

Well, in his defense, Kalani did learn how to manage an OC from Kyle Whittingham who has gone through about 9 offensive coordinators in 10 years...

Jarhead wrote:

Are they really worried someone else will come in and do worse?

https://www.mastercare.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2014-Top-Choice-Award-Logo.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

snoscythe wrote:

Are they really worried someone else will come in and do worse?

https://www.mastercare.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2014-Top-Choice-Award-Logo.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

Wow, an award! Thank you. I guess I have to also thank our coaching staff for making this award possible.

hawkwing wrote:

9. Coaches fighting. We hear all week from Kalani about how the offense needs to open it up, throw down field, and be aggressive. Then after the game Kalani goes on the air and says the offense is "throwing the freaking ball too much," and that he doesn't know what the offensive game plan is or why they did what they did. Why isn't Kalani talking to Ty Detmer during the week? Why isn't he talking to him during the game? He should know, as the head coach, that the game plan for the next game is to do X Y and Z. If he disagrees with that, he should help formulate a plan for which he agrees with. I still have yet to hear him say having the 100th ranked passing defense is a problem.

If this is true, I would be more willing to keep Ty Detmer in 2018 than Kalani Sitake.

SpiffCoug wrote:

9. Coaches fighting. We hear all week from Kalani about how the offense needs to open it up, throw down field, and be aggressive. Then after the game Kalani goes on the air and says the offense is "throwing the freaking ball too much," and that he doesn't know what the offensive game plan is or why they did what they did. Why isn't Kalani talking to Ty Detmer during the week? Why isn't he talking to him during the game? He should know, as the head coach, that the game plan for the next game is to do X Y and Z. If he disagrees with that, he should help formulate a plan for which he agrees with. I still have yet to hear him say having the 100th ranked passing defense is a problem.

If this is true, I would be more willing to keep Ty Detmer in 2018 than Kalani Sitake.

I've felt with the proper hard A position coaches demanding perfection while executing that Ty Detmer could run a good offense. I feel like the failings of the offense are due to the culture that has been created rather than the competence of Ty. There is no one on the team like Roger French for Kalani to get away with being the father figure that lavell was. Everyone on the staff is simply too nice. The thing that has irritated me from day one though is the fact that the Defense, which has sucked nearly as bad as the offense this year, has gotten a complete pass by Kalani all year. This is no way to run a team. I would love to see the HC fired and the new one retain Ty, if we got the right guy running the ship, we might get to see what this offense is really capable of. I think it is far more likely that everyone be retained for 1 more year and then the house cleaned after another dismal campaign next year.

ALL TRUE.

I was half way serious about bringing back the firesides. Bronco was losing until he started doing them and that got the team on a roll. It would not bring a NC any time soon but I think it would help correct some of the issues plus KS needs to get the Lord on his side.