A Bye-Week Retrospective

Thought it was funny to revisit some of the prognostications going on during the Fall--something to read during the slow week.



http://cougarcorner.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2948&start=10#p22658" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mars wrote:
I don't think Heaps will go undefeated his freshman year, in or out of conference. I don't think he'll win a conference championship. But I DO think he has a chance to go 11-2, get the team a Top 15 ranking, and be the BEST freshman quarterback BYU has ever seen.



It might not go down that way, but the potential is clear and people are excited. There's a train rolling through Provo right now, and you can hear the rumblings beginning through the media. There's no point standing on the tracks and trying to slow this puppy down, because it ain't slowin' any time soon...

Yeah, that train didn't slow down, it flat out derailed.



Or there's this thread where 8 posters think the 2 QB system is a great idea, and only three come out and oppose it (note that some of those who thought it was a great idea now swear up and down that the 2 QB system is to blame for all our offensive woes....) http://cougarcorner.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4364" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Here's a fun thread that starts with byutx laying his case for why BYU will go 11-2 this season. Later Craigo gets ripped for predicting a "bad" season after saying he would be happy with 8 wins. Funny to see how many blue-gogglers agreed, and to read people whose only concern was our running game on offense... http://cougarcorner.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4085&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Here's a thread where posters talk about how much the receivers/Oline love Heaps. http://cougarcorner.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3849" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Nowadays, posters are opining that the receivers and Oline hate Heaps and are surreptitiously plotting his demise!



The correct answer to this poll was 1-1 for Nelson as a starter, 1-2 for Heaps. http://cougarcorner.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3784&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One man's funny is another man's painful!

Wow, that's embarrassing stuff right there. I guess I never officially weighed in on the 2 QB thread, but my win projections were pathetically off. Wow. Don't do this again...

Memories! When we thought this BYU team had a chance.

I think we were all off, and I think the coaches are surprised as much as we are. So are the players. I thought we could win 9 with a bowl win, and now our best shot is with 8, mostly likely 7. The shocking thing is still the home loss to Nevada, and the dreadful showings at USU and AFA. QB issues are no surprise, but how big those issues have been is a big surprise. And the lack of production at the TE position still baffles me.

Lawboy wrote:
I think we were all off, and I think the coaches are surprised as much as we are. So are the players. I thought we could win 9 with a bowl win, and now our best shot is with 8, mostly likely 7. The shocking thing is still the home loss to Nevada, and the dreadful showings at USU and AFA. QB issues are no surprise, but how big those issues have been is a big surprise. And the lack of production at the TE position still baffles me.

Good point. We talk about Heaps being in shock. I think the coaches to a degree are in shock as well. They are probably thinking, that we have talented players, we've had success for half a decade running these same plays, why are they not working? Five years ago, we turned over our entire offense to another group of inexperienced QBs, RBs, TEs and WRs and hardly skipped a beat, what is going on?

i was slamming the two qb system then. that was an easy one. i was way off on the oline and receivers being our strength our my worry was mainly our running game. wow, way off. bizarre how things have panned out.



i can tell you why we couldn't implement our system like we did in the previous years. this is my opinion only. its because instead of picking starters at key positions and getting them all the reps possible in that system, we decided to implement two completely different and separate offenses thus cutting the practice time to get it down in half all the way through spring and fall camp and into the first handful of games. on top of that you have different people sharing the reps in those two systems and it gets evne more apparent that our the learning curve for our inexperience is going to be all year. its on the coaches and inexperience, not lack of talent.



maybe not the only reason but a big one. with inexperience being your issue you don't decide you are going to run two different offenses and then on top of that not pick starters and give them more practice reps. its absolutely insane. i pointed it out then because its obvious. how coaches couldn't foresee that is beyond me. i have no trust that the coaches we have now will ever get us to a bcs bowl.

Across the board at multiple position groups, NONE of the coaches made any decisions when it came time to deciding on starters. None of these coaches felt pressure from the head coach to make these decisions. As a result, I think the players lost confidence in the coaches ability to make any decision. Couple that with awkward and/or unsuccessful play-calling and more confidence is lost.



The simple lack of coaching decisions has brought to where we are: an inexperienced team with no confidence that is still behind the curve when it comes to experience and as such is simply unable to sustain offensive production.



This year has been an epic failure from coaching to play production to team unity. Maybe the bye week will remedy some of this, but I'm starting to agree with Jonny's last sentence:



[

jonnylingo wrote:
i have no trust that the coaches we have now will ever get us to a bcs bowl.

I'm sorry to see such pessimism. I still think we have a coaching staff that could take us to a bcs bowl. Admittedly, there are issues. But, I've been pleased to see Bronco add intensity and emotion back to the team. The offensive staff is good enough (imo), but they've got to make some changes too. The play calling seems to either reflect not enough confidence in Heaps, or at times too much. The receivers have REALLY been the fly in the ointment. I believe that if they had been hanging onto even half the passes they have dropped the play calling would have been better ... Anae seems very uncomfortable with "smash-mouth" football, and that has been our bread and butter this year. A few changes could make a world of difference ... and I'm not advocating firing Anae ... But maybe taking game-time play-calling from him for now ...

I guess my blue goggles are still there ... If the team continues to improve and gain confidence, the Cougs could win the last regular season game of the year!



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Fortunately I am (secondarily to being a BYU fan) also a San Francisco Giants fan, and my BYU football doldrums have been assuaged by quite an unexpected World Series run. Because of that, I may skip football entirely this year, and go straight from baseball to hoops.



I say this here because those of you who feel that BYU will never get to a BCS bowl under the current coaching régime may be right; and I may have – in a different time, joined you in that downcast appraisal; but as it stands, I'm on cloud 9 in baseball - which takes a huge sting out of this season. And because of that I can easily dismiss the pessimism by saying "next year"



Apparently diversity is the key to happiness, unless all of your teams are sucking at the same time

;)

I didn't make my prediction on the 2 QB thread because at that time I was so sick of all the Heaps is so great and Riley sucks monkey muffins, and if you don't agree with it you are a moron threads, that I stopped reading any threads at all about the QB's. That being said I did kind of approach the dual QB situation in a different fashion, and I feel really bad because I think I jinxed the team! http://cougarcorner.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4426" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ABYUFAN wrote:
Fortunately I am (secondarily to being a BYU fan) also a San Francisco Giants fan, and my BYU football doldrums have been assuaged by quite an unexpected World Series run. Because of that, I may skip football entirely this year, and go straight from baseball to hoops.

I'm right there with you. I grew up going to games at Candlestick. The Giants are providing me a glimmer of light in an otherwise depressing fall.

The're still playing baseball? ;) :whistle:

Lawboy wrote:
I think we were all off, and I think the coaches are surprised as much as we are. So are the players. I thought we could win 9 with a bowl win, and now our best shot is with 8, mostly likely 7. The shocking thing is still the home loss to Nevada, and the dreadful showings at USU and AFA. QB issues are no surprise, but how big those issues have been is a big surprise. And the lack of production at the TE position still baffles me.

We weren't all off ;)

Actually, I don't think anyone on here advocated the two QB system as it was implemented. I think everyone on here that advocated for a two QB situation thought Heaps would be the main QB and Lark as Back up, with Nelson running the wild cat in the red zone or when the offense needed a shot in the arm--not the horrible, let's trade every other series, garbage. Had it been run the way we all expected, no one could rely on the excuses about Heaps not getting enough reps since he would have gotten the majority of the snaps with Nelson getting a few each practice to run the wildcat. Now we'll always wonder what might have been.



Many are predicting the same two QB system we were hoping for this year will be implemented next year. After this year, I don't care what QB system we go with as long as there is a clear starter outplaying everyone else...whoever that is. I am not related to any QB, none of them went to my high school, and all of them play for my Alma Mater. So whoever wins out will have my support. Unless it's Nelson.



;) Just kidding.

hypercoug wrote:

Fortunately I am (secondarily to being a BYU fan) also a San Francisco Giants fan, and my BYU football doldrums have been assuaged by quite an unexpected World Series run. Because of that, I may skip football entirely this year, and go straight from baseball to hoops.

I'm right there with you. I grew up going to games at Candlestick. The Giants are providing me a glimmer of light in an otherwise depressing fall.

Yeah, my postseason started that way too, until the Giants declawed and deantlered my Rangers the past two nights. I've been a die hard Rangers fan since 92, and when we lived in Dallas/Waco we had season tickets.