And that's what happens when....

Average coaches come up against Chris Peterson. I had hoped that things would be different, I was wrong. My biggest fear was that since the 3 man rush worked against USC that it would go to Tuiaki's head and he would try it against Washington and that is exactly what happened. Someone correct me if I am wrong but Washington's first punt happened at 11:11 left in the 4th quarter. I am so sick of Tuiaki's defense. I know the offense had their struggles and they share some blame but for crying out loud, you can't put your offense in a 7 point hole after 2 minutes has passed in the freaking game. Our defense is a paper tiger and has been for 4 1/2 years. Last year was a mirage because the low points allowed was a direct result of teams being able to drive the whole field in 9 minutes and then only getting fg's out of it.

Agreed. I am so sick of this defense. I want a cleansing of the entire defensive staff. If he gets some real defensive coordinators then we can talk extension.

byufan4ever wrote:

Agreed. I am so sick of this defense. I want a cleansing of the entire defensive staff. If he gets some real defensive coordinators then we can talk extension.

Sitake will go down with the ship before he lets Tuiaki go. Tuiaki is his "little brother", grew up on the same house (but not actually brothers). There is no way he gets fired unless Sitake gets fired.

frdbtr wrote:

Agreed. I am so sick of this defense. I want a cleansing of the entire defensive staff. If he gets some real defensive coordinators then we can talk extension.

Sitake will go down with the ship before he lets Tuiaki go. Tuiaki is his "little brother", grew up on the same house (but not actually brothers). There is no way he gets fired unless Sitake gets fired.

And that is Sitake's greatest fault. Friendship and loyalty CAN be great qualities but as a HC he has to be able to assess his staff's performance and be willing to make some hard decisions. Isn't there a saying about how family and business don't mix?

byufan4ever wrote:

byufan4ever wrote:

Agreed. I am so sick of this defense. I want a cleansing of the entire defensive staff. If he gets some real defensive coordinators then we can talk extension.

Sitake will go down with the ship before he lets Tuiaki go. Tuiaki is his "little brother", grew up on the same house (but not actually brothers). There is no way he gets fired unless Sitake gets fired.

And that is Sitake's greatest fault. Friendship and loyalty CAN be great qualities but as a HC he has to be able to assess his staff's performance and be willing to make some hard decisions. Isn't there a saying about how family and business don't mix?

I thought the defensive staff should have been fired along with the offensive staff in 2017 but family loyalty made Ty Detmer the only scapegoat. The defense hasn't really improved, the offense is better because of Wilson alone.

What about the fact that our players and coaches just got beat? That doesn't make our coaches horrible.



It sure seemed to me that the UW oline just dominated the line of scrimmage. All. Day. And, we knew that our linebackers corps was depleted....our back-up RB Allgier was on the field...at linebacker and recorded 2 tackles (and the forced-fumble!). But, we were clearly out-manned and a scheme that did anything other than keep the playmakers in front of us was not going to work.



And, our receivers played soft and scared. And Wilson's decision-making left a lot to be desired. Sorry, I still think this team has loads of potential, but it was a bad day for more than just the coaching staff.



Although, I do have to admit that at least one of the few blitz plays we did run was junior high level coaching. The one play where a blitz coming was obvious from the stands, where Eason did a check down - our defense did not react to the audible or do their own adjustment or check out. The result was a simple slant route that went to the house. That was bad coaching, both in the preparation of the players for that scenario and allowing it to happen.

YNot wrote:



Although, I do have to admit that at least one of the few blitz plays we did run was junior high level coaching. The one play where a blitz coming was obvious from the stands, where Eason did a check down - our defense did not react to the audible or do their own adjustment or check out. The result was a simple slant route that went to the house. That was bad coaching, both in the preparation of the players for that scenario and allowing it to happen.

And that one blitz will have Tuiaki so scared that he won't blitz again for the rest of the season!

I was just thinking today that you can probably predict the general outcomes of BYU football games these days by looking at the HC matchups.



-Whittingham or Sitake? Definitely Whittingham

-Pruitt or Sitake? Toss-up

-Helton or Sitake? Helton, but a 1st year OC with backup QB is a mitigating factor for USC.

-Peterson or Sitake? Definitely Peterson.

-Candle or Sitake? Toss-up this week.

Of course we got out manned. That is why we need coaches who innovate instead of try to coach schemes where he puts inferior talent in 1 on 1 situations.

snoscythe wrote:

I was just thinking today that you can probably predict the general outcomes of BYU football games these days by looking at the HC matchups.



-Whittingham or Sitake? Definitely Whittingham

-Pruitt or Sitake? Toss-up

-Helton or Sitake? Helton, but a 1st year OC with backup QB is a mitigating factor for USC.

-Peterson or Sitake? Definitely Peterson.

-Candle or Sitake? Toss-up this week.

-Mendenhall or Sitake?



Yeah, I'm stirring the pot here.

Mendenhall. Is this even a debate?



Sitake is barely at .500.

byufan4ever wrote:

Although, I do have to admit that at least one of the few blitz plays we did run was junior high level coaching. The one play where a blitz coming was obvious from the stands, where Eason did a check down - our defense did not react to the audible or do their own adjustment or check out. The result was a simple slant route that went to the house. That was bad coaching, both in the preparation of the players for that scenario and allowing it to happen.

And that one blitz will have Tuiaki so scared that he won't blitz again for the rest of the season!

This this this! It was obvious what BYU was doing on that play, and it was obvious the other team saw it coming.

I'm only an arm chair coach, but when I hear a lot of individuals who have played and covered the game talk of how un-dynamic the defense is, how can I not turn my head to listen. As noted, Tuiaki's lack of variety in what he calls defensively diminished our ability to have a chance against Washington. To be so man-handled was embarassing because it looked like our coaches only see in one-dimension. Yes, Tuiaki, your call of the USC game was spot on, but you CANNOT use the same package on every team. It's like he has no vision. I don't see him as the worse-case scenario for his position, but I don't see him as the person I want in charge of my defense. I guess having had Bronco around and seeing KW working I know you can do wonders without the top talent, but that means variation and coming up with ways of tricking the teams you are playing. Having them understand exactly what we are going to do is not the answer.

EM_Puma wrote:

I'm only an arm chair coach, but when I hear a lot of individuals who have played and covered the game talk of how un-dynamic the defense is, how can I not turn my head to listen. As noted, Tuiaki's lack of variety in what he calls defensively diminished our ability to have a chance against Washington. To be so man-handled was embarassing because it looked like our coaches only see in one-dimension. Yes, Tuiaki, your call of the USC game was spot on, but you CANNOT use the same package on every team. It's like he has no vision. I don't see him as the worse-case scenario for his position, but I don't see him as the person I want in charge of my defense. I guess having had Bronco around and seeing KW working I know you can do wonders without the top talent, but that means variation and coming up with ways of tricking the teams you are playing. Having them understand exactly what we are going to do is not the answer.

I postulate that Tuiaki and Sitake have picked their poison. They know that we have been outmatched in our first four games. We don't have enough talent, depth, and consistency on the dline and in the linebacker corps to put pressure on teams with quality olines (which all four of our opponents have had). And, they know that our four opponents have athletes and playmakers, against which we run a high risk to give up chunk-yard and huge scoring plays that would put the game out of reach.



So, they have opted for a pretty vanilla bend, don't break defensive approach.



So far, this approach has worked twice and kept us in games where our personnel doesn't matchup. It would have kept us close against Utah and Washington, but our untimely turnovers and giving up takeaway scores have been a bigger factor to contribute to the blow-out losses. Our defense only gave up 16 points on 368 yards to Utah (would have been 23 points, but for Utah's classy, take-a-knee-in-sight-of-the-goal-line finish). That's similar to what the defense did against both Tennessee (16 points in regulation, and 26 points on 418 yards total) and USC (27 points on 452 yards).



I believe we will have the ability to create better pressure against Toledo, but the game will still very much depend on our offense's ability to avoid miscues and gifting scores.

I don't buy the talent gap. no one gave Bronco any lee way on talent gap when he was coach even though he lost 8 players from 1 recruiting class in 2004 off his defense. He was playing walk ons in his entire secondary in 05-08 and no one gave him credit for how good those defenses were, or excuses if they struggled with a team. In 2011 we went up against Ole Miss who was supposed to have pro level players in every position on their offensive line. All summer long everyone questioned how BYU was going to compete with that level of talent....we gave up 13 points and won the game, sacked their QB multiple times. The talent isn't the problem.



Second, it isn't just Tuiaki's vanilla play calling. The players are constantly out of position and missing assignments. That 30 yard pass to the back of the end zone by WA, Dayan (whatever his last name is) was 20 yards out of position on that play and that was their best receiver. How does that happen? How do you lose the best receiver? Happens every game. Watch AFR, every week they talk about assignment errors and errors in position by the defensive players. They don't even know how to "collision" a receiver and throw him off his route, so receivers get to run free in our secondary with a 3 man rush. Receivers running free, no pressure on a pro level QB, anyone can predict what result we are going to get?



Third, our defense is allowing a long scoring drive to open the game every week putting our offense in a hole. This causes the offense to try more risky things and is part of the reason we are seeing turnovers on the offense. Tuiaki is a horrible d coordinator, is over matched and needs to go. Ed Lamb should have been the d coordinator if anyone, in this coaching group but Sitake's "little brother" got it.



Washington took their foot off the gas in this game or it would have been much worse, along with the utes. BYU beat Tenn because they are a bad team, BYU beat USC because they actually did some confusing things in coverage and took advantage of a freshman QB along with, somehow, getting pressure with a 3 man rush. Toledo is not going be be confused by our defense and this year we don't have Taysom Hill and Jamaal williams to put up 55 points on them for a win. Boise State has had no problems with this defense and neither has USU. I'm sick of Tuiaki's defense I can hardly even watch it.

frdbtr wrote:
BYU beat USC because they actually did some confusing things in coverage and took advantage of a freshman QB along with, somehow, getting pressure with a 3 man rush.

As I said before, I think you can chalk up the USC win to Khyiris Tonga being uniquely qualified to take advantage of the Air Raid's wide-gap OLine formations. I honestly think it's that simple.

snoscythe wrote:

BYU beat USC because they actually did some confusing things in coverage and took advantage of a freshman QB along with, somehow, getting pressure with a 3 man rush.

As I said before, I think you can chalk up the USC win to Khyiris Tonga being uniquely qualified to take advantage of the Air Raid's wide-gap OLine formations. I honestly think it's that simple.

I don't doubt you. Tonga was a beast in that game.

It's amazing how everyone around here keeps forgetting about Broncos approach to defense. The bend don't break mentality. How can everyone not remember being frustrated with the DB's playing 10 yards off the receivers. Or how teams went up and down the field between the 20's, only to somehow stiffen up in the red zone. Broncos defensive philosophy wasn't much different then what we currently have. It's not like Bronco's defense was blitz city. I remember plenty of 3 man pass rushes. The difference is the execution from the players. And yes that is on the coaches.

frdbtr wrote:

Of course we got out manned. That is why we need coaches who innovate instead of try to coach schemes where he puts inferior talent in 1 on 1 situations.

THIS is what makes Chris Peterson one of the best coaches in College Football. At BSU (and to a lesser degree at UW) he got more out of less than any other coach I can think of.



BYU, on the other hand ...

a1247 wrote:

It's amazing how everyone around here keeps forgetting about Broncos approach to defense. The bend don't break mentality. How can everyone not remember being frustrated with the DB's playing 10 yards off the receivers. Or how teams went up and down the field between the 20's, only to somehow stiffen up in the red zone. Broncos defensive philosophy wasn't much different then what we currently have. It's not like Bronco's defense was blitz city. I remember plenty of 3 man pass rushes. The difference is the execution from the players. And yes that is on the coaches.

I think the difference is VARIETY. Bronco DID play with blitzes, twists and so on ... this team does not.