Bronco on Heaps: He is 100% correct

In the Press Conference today, Bronco said Jake is having to carry too much of a load right now, and talked about biggest concern being the poor run game. And I agree with Bronco 100% for several reasons.



1) jake is not ready to throw 50 times for 350 yards+ every game to win it for us. He just isn't.

2) BYU wants better balance on offense, and when you struggle to run it, it takes away play-action and takes away ability to possess the ball. We have no Unga, Brown type back this year. No back runs it more than 10-12 times, and that committee is struggling. Which means the O-line is as well with power run blocking. They do pass protect well, though.

3) Bronco is a defense coach, and that means he likes to win with defense. This is not something BYU fans are used to at all. Also means that being crazy aggressive on offense is not in the cards because we will play pro-style ball and try to minimize mistakes, win with field position, and grind out wins. That means the QB should not have to win games for the team.



If BYU wants to be truly elite, our run game has to improve. Questions is, do we throw it to set up the run, or are we running it to set up the pass? That is still unclear with this team. This O lacks an identity so far.

Lawboy wrote:
In the Press Conference today, Bronco said Jake is having to carry too much of a load right now, and talked about biggest concern being the poor run game. And I agree with Bronco 100% for several reasons.



1) jake is not ready to throw 50 times for 350 yards+ every game to win it for us. He just isn't.

2) BYU wants better balance on offense, and when you struggle to run it, it takes away play-action and takes away ability to possess the ball. We have no Unga, Brown type back this year. No back runs it more than 10-12 times, and that committee is struggling. Which means the O-line is as well with power run blocking. They do pass protect well, though.

3) Bronco is a defense coach, and that means he likes to win with defense. This is not something BYU fans are used to at all. Also means that being crazy aggressive on offense is not in the cards because we will play pro-style ball and try to minimize mistakes, win with field position, and grind out wins. That means the QB should not have to win games for the team.



If BYU wants to be truly elite, our run game has to improve. Questions is, do we throw it to set up the run, or are we running it to set up the pass? That is still unclear with this team. This O lacks an identity so far.

You left out Bronco's agreement that the offense does need to get it down field more and the goal is to get to 25% of throws being made down field. According to Bronco, targets need to emerge. Run game does need to be established, which will open up things down field.



Is Bronco a "defensive" guy? Yes, but I highly doubt Bronco is relying on the defense to score points, and in the same press conference you reference Bronco speaks of maintaining an aggressive nature on offense. Furthermore, we put up a lot of points during Hall's tenure (Sophmore year included) and wouldn't describe those years as "grind it out," no pressure on the QB type seasons.

How healthy is Q and Kariya? I can't believe they are at full health....Leaving things to JJ is tough--he has his great strengths, but he is no Unga.....

Hall struggled to put up points on the road vs. BCS defenses as well. As a soph, see the 2 UCLA games where we scored 17 in both. i win, 1 loss. With a different offense.



Not saying we will grind it out, saying we are not trying to simply outscore teams anymore. Old BYU tried to just outscore teams because our D usually stunk. Exceptions for 1984 and 1996. But even the 1996 D gave up points. Not sure this D will, unless we turn it over too often. Just saying this team is trying to play to strength. And that means possess the ball, grind it out more than a typical BYU team does. Still gotta take shots down the field. And by down the field, I mean passes of 10+ yards.

BoiseBYU wrote:
How healthy is Q and Kariya? I can't believe they are at full health....Leaving things to JJ is tough--he has his great strengths, but he is no Unga.....

Q is still coming off an ankle injury, apparently. Bronco said Q is just starting to get his legs back. I don't remember anything said about Kariya.

I agree also. I think Heaps has a couple of problems.



1. He's being asked to do too much on offense. There was no reason we shouldn't have kept running around the edge in the 2nd half on Saturday. Our best (and only) run game was to the edge, until it was completely abandoned.



2. He's afraid of getting plastered. Both Texas and Ole Miss(now I'm not sure if I'm remembering right?) gave up 15 yard penalties to get late hits on Jake Heaps. It's a smart play because it rattles him. I expect Utah will also take a late hit penalty (or 2) early on to rattle Heaps. He needs to show that he can stand in the pocket and wait until the last second to deliver a strike and take the hit. Ultimately, he's not being given enough time, and he's not using the time he is being given.



3. After getting rattled Heaps, telegraphs his passes by locking onto his receiver he intends to throw to from snap to throw. In the 2nd half against Texas it was pretty clear that Heaps never even looked down field or over the middle but his sole focus was on the flats. The one exception to this was the rushed pass on 3rd and long that ended up being picked off.



Hopefully we see some of these issues start to be fixed this week.

It's odd, and I don't understand it. BYU has a history of starting slow, this year is no exception. Neither the win nor the loss this year contradicts this truth. Why? Utah State with a freshman QB, goes on the road and scores nearly 50 on the defending national champ--they certainly didn't start slow. I don't understand it, the offense was supposedly way ahead of the defense on the this team, then we get into a game, and the offense nearly disappears.



Unfortunately, I was unable to watch either game this year, but those who did thought Heaps was way off target against Ole Miss...why? Yes, I expect Heaps to be a QB, and to hit his receivers--whether we have a run game or not. Detmer never had a run game either.

Gunk wrote:

How healthy is Q and Kariya? I can't believe they are at full health....Leaving things to JJ is tough--he has his great strengths, but he is no Unga.....

Q is still coming off an ankle injury, apparently. Bronco said Q is just starting to get his legs back. I don't remember anything said about Kariya.

Speaking of Kariya...too bad they didn't use him more in the TX game. He was the key to the running game against OU a couple of years ago.

birdie702 wrote:

BoiseBYU wrote:
How healthy is Q and Kariya? I can't believe they are at full health....Leaving things to JJ is tough--he has his great strengths, but he is no Unga.....

Q is still coming off an ankle injury, apparently. Bronco said Q is just starting to get his legs back. I don't remember anything said about Kariya.

Speaking of Kariya...too bad they didn't use him more in the TX game. He was the key to the running game against OU a couple of years ago.

We didn't have a running game against OU. He was the key to the screen plays we had. He had pretty close to 100 yds receiving and only about 30 yds running, if I remember correctly.

Seeing that BYU is averaging 67 rushing ypg through 2 games is pretty pathetic. Our O-line has really struggled. Houston Reynolds had a really tough time, and we put Marco Thorson is a bit, and he got pile driven back on a series. Point being that our experienced O-line is once again not as awesome as we hoped. They get it done pass blocking, but run blocking is a weakness once again. Makes me wish we would recruit some run maulers like Lutui.

BlueIsBetter wrote:
We didn't have a running game against OU. He was the key to the screen plays we had. He had pretty close to 100 yds receiving and only about 30 yds running, if I remember correctly.

Kariya had 42 yards rushing and 76 yards receiving. He had 17 attempts and 4 catches.



Hall's PER that game was 147.99. Hall had four career games of PER below 100 (three of them were against Utah). Heaps already has five such games.

SpiffCoug wrote:

We didn't have a running game against OU. He was the key to the screen plays we had. He had pretty close to 100 yds receiving and only about 30 yds running, if I remember correctly.

Kariya had 42 yards rushing and 76 yards receiving. He had 17 attempts and 4 catches.



Hall's PER that game was 147.99. Hall had four career games of PER below 100 (three of them were against Utah). Heaps already has five such games.

Which is weird, because he has all the talent that Max Hall did around him, and he's already a Senior!!! ;)



(thanks for looking up the Kariya stuff!)

BlueIsBetter wrote:

BlueIsBetter wrote:
We didn't have a running game against OU. He was the key to the screen plays we had. He had pretty close to 100 yds receiving and only about 30 yds running, if I remember correctly.

Kariya had 42 yards rushing and 76 yards receiving. He had 17 attempts and 4 catches.



Hall's PER that game was 147.99. Hall had four career games of PER below 100 (three of them were against Utah). Heaps already has five such games.

Which is weird, because he has all the talent that Max Hall did around him, and he's already a Senior!!! ;)



(thanks for looking up the Kariya stuff!)

Although I agree with the surrounding talent point, remember that Jake and all of his potential is surrounded by all of the other "potential" guys from that recruiting class that were supposed to take us to the next level with the snap of a finger - but have not. Potential is great, but you win games on the field where experience counts. This team still lacks experience, and some highly touted players, that are probably pretty good when they gain experience, are less God-like than BYU fans try to make them. And expectations ran way past reality.



I will go on record again, though, "this team is considerably better than the 2010 BYU team."



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Cougarbib2 wrote:

I will go on record again, though, "this team is considerably better than the 2010 BYU team."

I agree with this completely. Bronco has improved the team. We are better than 2010. We just won at an SEC venue, and lost by 1 pt @ Texas, 1 of the best programs of the last decade. We are not a finished article yet, but we are improving and moving in the right direction. Just need more experience--positive experience--to gain the confidence we lack on offense.

Lawboy wrote:

I will go on record again, though, "this team is considerably better than the 2010 BYU team."

I agree with this completely. Bronco has improved the team. We are better than 2010. We just won at an SEC venue, and lost by 1 pt @ Texas, 1 of the best programs of the last decade. We are not a finished article yet, but we are improving and moving in the right direction. Just need more experience--positive experience--to gain the confidence we lack on offense.

That's definitely a half-glass full view. Nothing wrong with that of course.



I think we should have put 21 points on Texas in the first half and at least 7 more in the 2nd half. Props of course to Texas for getting the stops, but BYU needed more teeth and claws and less growling. Same goes for the ole Miss game. Of course it's just a matter of time before everything starts clicking, but even then we could see some ups and downs.

Lawboy wrote:
In the Press Conference today, Bronco said Jake is having to carry too much of a load right now, and talked about biggest concern being the poor run game. And I agree with Bronco 100% for several reasons.



1) jake is not ready to throw 50 times for 350 yards+ every game to win it for us. He just isn't.

2) BYU wants better balance on offense, and when you struggle to run it, it takes away play-action and takes away ability to possess the ball. We have no Unga, Brown type back this year. No back runs it more than 10-12 times, and that committee is struggling. Which means the O-line is as well with power run blocking. They do pass protect well, though.

3) Bronco is a defense coach, and that means he likes to win with defense. This is not something BYU fans are used to at all. Also means that being crazy aggressive on offense is not in the cards because we will play pro-style ball and try to minimize mistakes, win with field position, and grind out wins. That means the QB should not have to win games for the team.



If BYU wants to be truly elite, our run game has to improve. Questions is, do we throw it to set up the run, or are we running it to set up the pass? That is still unclear with this team. This O lacks an identity so far.

IMO teams like BYU (with our level of recruits) cannot win with a grind it out style of play. Low risk offense = low reward. First of all we're not going to consistently have the D to play that way. Yeah we'll dominate the line of scrimmage against NMSU, Wyoming, and USU, but upper tier teams like TX will make us look INEPT. The BSUs and BYUs (1980s) of the world upset good teams by playing with bigger cojones on offense... not by I formation cloud of dust field position football. Ugh

Lawboy wrote:
Hall struggled to put up points on the road vs. BCS defenses as well. As a soph, see the 2 UCLA games where we scored 17 in both. i win, 1 loss. With a different offense.

Though through 2 starts, Hall had led the offense to 5 TDs with 4 TD passes. Unlike Beck in his first two starts under Anae and Heaps under his first two starts under Doman, Hall was much more willing to throw downfield, sometimes to a fault. I was at the game in LA, and I remember Hall throwing from his own end zone, which takes a lot of trust in a QB in just his second start. It's hard to say if the vanilla playcalling is from a lack of trust in Heaps or simple just being overly conservative on a lead.

Lawboy wrote:
Not saying we will grind it out, saying we are not trying to simply outscore teams anymore. Old BYU tried to just outscore teams because our D usually stunk. Exceptions for 1984 and 1996.

Should mention the 1985 defense who allowed on 13.5 points per game compared to 13.8 by the 1984 team. And the 1985 defense played a much tougher schedule, including that year's Rose Bowl champs UCLA (#7 in final AP poll), defending Orange Bowl champs Washington, defending Cotton Bowl champs BC, 12-1 Air Force (#8 in final AP poll), and a tough Ohio State (#14 in final AP poll).



If that team would have had a stronger offense, they would have easily repeated as national champs. Instead, its three losses came by a combined 13 points. It's hard to imagine a 3 loss BYU team losing it's bowl game and still finishing #16 in the AP poll, but the '85 team still had a lot of media respect.

Lawboy wrote:
Still gotta take shots down the field. And by down the field, I mean passes of 10+ yards.

Completely agree. I'm can't tell if the receivers aren't open because Heaps' throws are so short that I can't ever see the rest of the field on the TV screen. One think missing from this offense compared to a traditional West Coast offense is timed throws to receivers going over the middle. Looking back at old film, BYU often had multiple receivers crossing the field at different levels (e.g., 7 yards and 17 yards downfield), and the QB taking a five-step drop and throwing on his plant step to which crossing route was open. They also seem to be missing 3-step slant patterns from the repertoire. I was expecting more of that kind of play when Doman said BYU was returning to their West Coast roots. I like the added play action stuff, but that only works when your run game is a threat.

Mingjai wrote:

Hall struggled to put up points on the road vs. BCS defenses as well. As a soph, see the 2 UCLA games where we scored 17 in both. i win, 1 loss. With a different offense.

Though through 2 starts, Hall had led the offense to 5 TDs with 4 TD passes. Unlike Beck in his first two starts under Anae and Heaps under his first two starts under Doman, Hall was much more willing to throw downfield, sometimes to a fault. I was at the game in LA, and I remember Hall throwing from his own end zone, which takes a lot of trust in a QB in just his second start. It's hard to say if the vanilla playcalling is from a lack of trust in Heaps or simple just being overly conservative on a lead.

Max Hall was just a straight up gutsy gunslinger and he did half decent. He had some serious swagger.

Bosco played injured in 1985 and it was never announced. Not sure if he knew or didn't tell the team or the coaches knew. Result was that he floated long passes and that led to interceptions that cost us three games. Iirc, one was bs lowly UTEP when we were ranked #7. Only game UTEP won that year. Rumors of BYU headphones being bugged.



Packers drafted Bosco who ended up on injured reserve a couple of years and then was cut.



Kozlowski and Mark Bellini were both held out of that game due to injury - but probably could have played - we looked past UTEP and thought we could rest them.



Stuff Happens.



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