The OFFENSIVE line - am I missing something here?

I never played football for any school. I haven't been around the inner workings of any serious team enough to know. Sure watched a lot but... I pose this question to those who have stronger opinions:



How much of the offensive line performance is attributable to Ty Detmer?



If the answer is like Hopper's line from Bug's Life "Everything is your fault!" then I get it. Ty had to go. But it seems to me that this baldfaced scapegoatism overlooks the severe, but singular, problem with BYU this year.



All told, BYU's defense really wasn't that bad. Outside of the Wisconsin game (can you blame them) they actually did reasonably well. Any kind of offense at all could have kept BYU in the game against LSU! Think about that!



The receivers dropped a couple key balls, but nothing like the Feterik years. Mangum was too cautious at times, Hoge was not cautious enough at times, but hey, injuries to the two best backs BYU had and the two best QBs they had? What is going on?



All of these problems can be explained by the astoundingly poor play of the offensive line. Even the loss to UMass can be hung on key penalties made by the big men. So was that Ty's fault? Perhaps because Ty neglected to beat down on Mike Empey (everyone knows that Ty is a classy guy who doesn't do that sort of thing).





Here is where Empey thought the program was this year at the start of the season: in great shape.



Ref:

http://www.heraldextra.com/sports/college/byu/football/byu-football-empey-has-full-confidence-in-offensive-line/article_8c76761b-fefa-560d-bd31-7a80fb059502.html



Clearly clueless. Or was it that Ty meddled in his plans for the line's greatness? Personally it seemed to me that BYU's offensive line has underperformed year after year under Empey, and my guess is that Ty's offense was straightly incompatible with Empey's offensive line coaching. I think Ty did what he always did, assumed he could take it on his own shoulders and make it work. It DID work until Texas A&M dislocated both of them. In this case, however, an OC can't work without his offensive line in lock step.



Am I missing it? Why didn't they fire Empey? Is it going to somehow be EASIER for a new OC to work with Empey's ineptitude that for Ty to work with a better O-line coach? I am afraid that BYU went down a lower-probability path, and the fact that Kalani couldn't see that basically means his career will be over soon. Obviously no one expects much for next year.



But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Kalani could clearly see the problem and this move will clearly fix it. I doubt it, but would love to hear reason's why I'm wrong.

You aren't wrong. There is really nothing going well on this team. I am hearing that Kalani will get at least one more year, probably two. Then it will take us several years to clean up the mess.

The team hadn't given up many sacks this year, until the UMass game.

Mars wrote:

The team hadn't given up many sacks this year, until the UMass game.

17 sacks allowed in the 11 games prior to UMass. Including just 8 in the 7 seven prior. UMass clearly was doing something we hadn't seen before. On the season, 27% of the sacks came in one game (UMass), which was just 7.7% of the season.

Yzzazz wrote:

All of these problems can be explained by the astoundingly poor play of the offensive line. Even the loss to UMass can be hung on key penalties made by the big men. So was that Ty's fault? Perhaps because Ty neglected to beat down on Mike Empey (everyone knows that Ty is a classy guy who doesn't do that sort of thing).

I'm not sure I agree with the bolded statement. Against Umass, yes, the OL should be embarrassed by that game. The rest of the season I thought they were our strongest offensive unit. Not that they were great by any stretch, but I certainly wouldn't call their overall performance this year astoundingly poor.



There were just too many things going wrong to pin it on one position group, or one coach.



I don't know what the answer is to fix it, but I'm also not the one getting paid the big bucks to do so.

Kelani said he knew what was wrong and how to fix it. For some reason, I’m not convinced. I guess that I’m a “Doubting Thomas” thus far....

Football is [probably] the ultimate team sport. One guy (almost never) wins or loses a game. Sure one guy, a kicker, can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (or vice versa) with one kick at time runs out ... but the truth is that it was the team that put them in that position. Typically the O hasn't put up enough points, or the D gave up too many. I can't think of any instance in which both O and D played well, and it came down to a kick to save the game.



So, in answer to your question, the O-line did many things good this year. They had some key break-downs though ... penalties always hurt, and sometimes are crucial; giving up sacks kills drives; QB hurries (even when it is just that the QB feels some pressure and so doesn't check through all his progressions) hurt. Sometimes it is that the QB, the RB, the coach, doesn't have confidence in the line to do a certain job and that affects play calling, running, etc.



sometimes it is that the O-line doesn't have the confidence in the back, QB, coach, team, and that results in lack-luster play.



For whatever reason, this team hasn't been united all season. Talking to players, I have been bluntly told that they don't feel there is unity, there isn't a leader, etc. These things reflect differently on different position groups: receivers who aren't confident in the QB or the play-calling, run soft routes, and don't fight for the ball; O-line makes mistakes, don't hold a block as well, etc; QB's get happy feet, over/under throw, etc; etc.



I saw the O-line make some bad mistakes. I also saw them play some good ball. The biggest problem that I saw was that the TEAM wasn't ever "in synch" ... they lacked the leader who would/could guide them through the trouble spots and carry them home. D had Fred Warner ... and the D didn't gel around him ... too much turmoil. O never had a real leader.



And all that comes down to the head coach. I don't know what it was he did that lead to the dischord, but the team was not united.



I hope he can fix it next year.

mtnradio wrote:

Football is [probably] the ultimate team sport. One guy (almost never) wins or loses a game. Sure one guy, a kicker, can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (or vice versa) with one kick at time runs out ... but the truth is that it was the team that put them in that position. Typically the O hasn't put up enough points, or the D gave up too many. I can't think of any instance in which both O and D played well, and it came down to a kick to save the game.



So, in answer to your question, the O-line did many things good this year. They had some key break-downs though ... penalties always hurt, and sometimes are crucial; giving up sacks kills drives; QB hurries (even when it is just that the QB feels some pressure and so doesn't check through all his progressions) hurt. Sometimes it is that the QB, the RB, the coach, doesn't have confidence in the line to do a certain job and that affects play calling, running, etc.



sometimes it is that the O-line doesn't have the confidence in the back, QB, coach, team, and that results in lack-luster play.



For whatever reason, this team hasn't been united all season. Talking to players, I have been bluntly told that they don't feel there is unity, there isn't a leader, etc. These things reflect differently on different position groups: receivers who aren't confident in the QB or the play-calling, run soft routes, and don't fight for the ball; O-line makes mistakes, don't hold a block as well, etc; QB's get happy feet, over/under throw, etc; etc.



I saw the O-line make some bad mistakes. I also saw them play some good ball. The biggest problem that I saw was that the TEAM wasn't ever "in synch" ... they lacked the leader who would/could guide them through the trouble spots and carry them home. D had Fred Warner ... and the D didn't gel around him ... too much turmoil. O never had a real leader.



And all that comes down to the head coach. I don't know what it was he did that lead to the dischord, but the team was not united.



I hope he can fix it next year.

I have suspected something like this was going on, so thanks for putting this on. It is a sad commentary and I too hope it can be fixed.

mtnradio wrote:

For whatever reason, this team hasn't been united all season. Talking to players, I have been bluntly told that they don't feel there is unity, there isn't a leader, etc. ...

And all that comes down to the head coach. I don't know what it was he did that lead to the dischord, but the team was not united.



I hope he can fix it next year.

Nailed it with what I emphasized. Sitake fomented discord among his coaching staff and it seeped into the culture. Players saw the coaches weren't united. Then you start losing games and small issues quickly become big issues. And big issues become catastrophic issues.

Outside of anonymous online posters, every person I know who knows football (either from playing collegiate and beyond or coaching) has praised the offensive line this season (other than the UMass cluster).



See, for example:


938182612945846272

snoscythe wrote:

Outside of anonymous online posters, every person I know who knows football (either from playing collegiate and beyond or coaching) has praised the offensive line this season (other than the UMass cluster).



See, for example:


938182612945846272

This was my first thought. I don't watch the trench battles enough to really know what's good technique or if one line is better than another besides which side is moving the ball more freely. But it seems there has been a lot of praise for the o-line play this season.