Are the Aggies BYU's greatest threat in 2018?

I want to assume that BYU's play against Wisconsin was no fluke. The fact that Kalani publically honored the strength and condition staff, and may players echoed this praise, is an important piece of evidence that BYU might actually have a sustainable advantage. This year feels different. It's like BYU doesn't have rely on outwitting the other team--they can win on strength! That has rarely, if ever, been true before.



If I look down the road and see what BYU's chances are for running the table and getting a better bowl than our standard contract, I gotta say, I like what I see!



Well, except for one thing.



It's not Utah or Washington. The uglyfest that was the Utah-Washington contest last week gives me a lot of hope for our chances this year against both teams.



It's not Boise State either. The OSU cowboys are not known for their defensive prowess. They win games by hitting the gas and outrunning people, yet they kept the Broncos to only 21 points. If BYU's defense can keep Wisconson to 21 points in Camp Randall, they can keep a lid on BSU. I think they are less of a threat than the PAC 12 teams.



So why should anyone worry about Utah State? Well, first off, the Aggies look good this year. Freakin good! Sure they lost to Michigan State, but they hung 31 points on them and still had a chance to win it going down to the wire. They have an explosive offense. They put up 60 points and 70 points against admittedly weak competition, but the biggest reason to fear the Aggie game is just how hungry they are going to be.



They have a bye week while BYU plays Washington and the game is on Friday. Suppose BYU beats Washington in Seattle. That's a big IF and it will be an even bigger win if it happens because it will likely be a close game with a lot of drama. Players will "empty the tank" even when they are running on fumes to win that game if it becomes necessary--and my guess is that it WILL become necessary.



I think it sets up a frightening scenario where a physically and emotionally battered team has to recoup in six short days and do battle against a team which has had this game on the radar deep into the off-season. Surely nobody predicts BYU will run the table, but if BYU is 5-1 after the conference weekend, I will feel doubly inspired to believe!

I don't like Utah State having a bye week before us at all. Or the short week we'll have after Washington.



That said, if BYU wants to show it is the team everyone watched against Wisconsin, they have to prove they can win consistently. Even with the above factors, we should still be able to beat a good Aggie team in Provo.

I just saw that Utah State's kicker had THREE 51-yard field goals against NMSU. Plus a 44-yarder. Wow.



They've also score touchdowns on defense and special teams - a 100-yard kickoff return, a 59-yard punt return and 40-yard and 75-yard INT returns. We will need to execute and play assignment-sound football when the Dairy Ewetes come to Provo.

Yzzzazz, I wouldnt get to carried away with Hubris from last week. If we play Wisc, they beat us 2 out of 3 more times.

Very few posters or pundits are talking about Match up factors vs Wisc and say Cal. Speed and spread kills us. Power game of Wisc, did not kill us. But Wisc did not have their edge vs BYu and we snuck up on them.Wash will be ready for BYU!! I think they have speed and power. And Utes at home being easier than Aggies at our house.....?

yes, we didn’t have “the edge” (Grimes) vs Cal, but saying Wash on the road is lesser of a threat than Aggies at home is not even close.

And yes we will need to have THe edge vs Aggies bc they are a serious threat. Boise at their house? Never easy.

Regardless it seems you are exagerating/generalizing a lot from BYUs results this past week as well as all these other games.

I am relieved to see Utah’s offense such a mess. But Wash D is not a pushover either. Utah has spread and speed, two things BYU doesnt do well with.

This goes against Holmoe scheduling well. Last year was a catastrophe in part because 4 teams had byes the week before they played BYU.



This year it is only USU, NM St, and NIU that have byes prior to playing BYU (and both BYU and NIU have byes the week before).



It should be part of any contract that no team can have a bye the week prior unless both teams have a bye.

Schools aren't going to agree to a no-bye contractual stipulation. Most of the later-season opponents (and their conferences) are making an accommodation to play BYU in the middle of their conference schedule.

Cougs_Rule wrote:

Yzzzazz, I wouldnt get to carried away with Hubris from last week. If we play Wisc, they beat us 2 out of 3 more times.

Very few posters or pundits are talking about Match up factors vs Wisc and say Cal. Speed and spread kills us. Power game of Wisc, did not kill us. But Wisc did not have their edge vs BYu and we snuck up on them.Wash will be ready for BYU!! I think they have speed and power. And Utes at home being easier than Aggies at our house.....?

yes, we didn’t have “the edge” (Grimes) vs Cal, but saying Wash on the road is lesser of a threat than Aggies at home is not even close.

And yes we will need to have THe edge vs Aggies bc they are a serious threat. Boise at their house? Never easy.

Regardless it seems you are exagerating/generalizing a lot from BYUs results this past week as well as all these other games.

I am relieved to see Utah’s offense such a mess. But Wash D is not a pushover either. Utah has spread and speed, two things BYU doesnt do well with.

Yeah, as great as the Wisconsin win was, BYU still has to prove it can win consistently.

jvquarterback wrote:

This goes against Holmoe scheduling well. Last year was a catastrophe in part because 4 teams had byes the week before they played BYU.



This year it is only USU, NM St, and NIU that have byes prior to playing BYU (and both BYU and NIU have byes the week before).



It should be part of any contract that no team can have a bye the week prior unless both teams have a bye.

Are you saying every team should make this a part of every contract? How well would that work? If you saying BYU should make this a part of every contract, who would agree to play BYU, especially given conference scheduling that is unknown at the time a contract is contemplated?

No one would agree to it. but if you had a financial clause like they had to pay us 100K. Maybe we would see less byes and they would agree to it. I don't know if they would or not but it would be more likely.

Yeah this game does scare me with all the factors you mentioned, but as long as the losing streak continues Utah is our greatest threat

scott715 wrote:

No one would agree to it. but if you had a financial clause like they had to pay us 100K. Maybe we would see less byes and they would agree to it. I don't know if they would or not but it would be more likely.

Why?

would be interesting to do another poll rating the difficulty of the remaining schedule now that we've seen 3 weeks of football. Heck, mcneese St doesn't look too bad this year.

scott715 wrote:

No one would agree to it. but if you had a financial clause like they had to pay us 100K. Maybe we would see less byes and they would agree to it. I don't know if they would or not but it would be more likely.

I think it should be part of G5 contracts. They'd take it. It should definitely be part of any USU contract. They were taking 2 for 1 just a couple years ago.

jvquarterback wrote:

This goes against Holmoe scheduling well. Last year was a catastrophe in part because 4 teams had byes the week before they played BYU.



This year it is only USU, NM St, and NIU that have byes prior to playing BYU (and both BYU and NIU have byes the week before).



It should be part of any contract that no team can have a bye the week prior unless both teams have a bye.

If BYU tried to pull something like that it would just reinforce all the negative stereotypes of BYU wanting special treatment and being difficult to work with.

The aggies are not the greatest threat remaining imo. I would put multiple teams in front of them still at this poit.

Jarhead wrote:

This goes against Holmoe scheduling well. Last year was a catastrophe in part because 4 teams had byes the week before they played BYU.



This year it is only USU, NM St, and NIU that have byes prior to playing BYU (and both BYU and NIU have byes the week before).



It should be part of any contract that no team can have a bye the week prior unless both teams have a bye.

If BYU tried to pull something like that it would just reinforce all the negative stereotypes of BYU wanting special treatment and being difficult to work with.

And, I doubt it would work in a contract negotiation. Otherwise, many game contracts would have such a clause.

This is all moot because BYU is not going to win against WA. They might expend a bunch of energy trying but they aren't going to win. Plus, I would trade a loss against USU over a win against the utes any day of the week. Best case is we win them both of course.