HB Arnett’s
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Vol. 35, Issue 14 – October 27, 2014
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They Owned BYU
Broncos (Plural) Beat Bronco (Singular) With a Possessive 55-30 Win
Verbs, nouns, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections are the basic eight parts of grammar.
Too bad grammar also rhymes with hammer because Boise State pounded BYU 55-30 last Friday night to extend the Cougars’ current losing streak to four games and counting.
There are a variety of hammers. The two most recognizable hammers are the ball peen and claw hammers. Boise State opted for a third option; the Sledge hammer. They used it to pound BYU into a dangling participle of a football team hanging by a thread trying to get through this season.
Bronco Mendenhall wasn’t wearing a hard hat to protect his head, but he did have on head sets and was running the defensive show for BYU for the first time this season.
It didn’t help. Boise State put up over 400 yards of total offense in just the first half. The Broncos ended with 637 yards of total offense. It would have been worse if the Broncos coach, Bryan Harsin, didn’t mercifully take his foot off the gas petal in the fourth quarter. BSU ended with 410 yards passing and 227 yards rushing against the Cougars.
This game was finished after the first quarter, but the Cougars finished statistically with 259 yards passing and 63 yards rushing. Take away an improvised 81-yard touchdown from Christian Stewart to Colby Pearson and the Cougars’ passing stats would have 170 yards through the air.
BYU’s football problems are obvious. Unfortunately, the solution to those problems aren’t…at least for the rest of this season.
Middle Tennessee State, the Cougars’ opponent this Saturday in Murfreesboro, should have been the perfect medicine to cure what ails the Cougars, but the Blue Raiders, just like all of the last four opponents BYU has faced, could very easily be another bitter pill to swallow.
I’m going Mary Poppins on this one. This game will go down a lot better with a little bit of sugar and scoring on offense and a whole lot more vinegar on defense.
If I can spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, MTSU just might be the team BYU needs to break their 4-game losing spell. I call it BYU 31 MTSU 24, which incidentally is the Las Vegas opening line on this game. Odds makers have BYU has a 7-point favorite.
Saved By the BYU Basketball Bell
BYU basketball has arrived just in time because all of those preseason dreams we had for Cougar football turned out to be just that…dreams.
That means it is time to turn up the Dave Rose and BYU basketball reverie until reality hits. Could this be the year BYU makes the elite 8? Is Chase Fischer the next Jimmer? Can BYU finally win a WCC championship? Is Corbin Kaufusi really the next Hakeem?
Until the first loss, letdown or leg injury, these are the dreams that fuel fans of BYU.
Count me in as a diehard dreamer, especially when we have been stoked with the whispers of another Hakeem Olajuwan on the roster and three point shooting galore and a revamped and rejuvenated Kyle Collinsworth knee and Tyler Haws projected by some to lead the nation in scoring.
Reverie or reality? We are about to find out beginning this week.
BYU will host its annual Cougar Tip Off this Wednesday at 7 pm in the Marriott Center. Admittance is free. It is the first chance to see the Cougars up close and personally as Dave Rose will divide his 18-man team to scrimmage against each other.
It gets a little more real on Saturday night, Nov 1, when the Cougars host Colorado School of Mines in an exhibition game beginning also at 7 pm. This contest will also be broadcast on BYUtv.
Today, Dave Rose and Tyler Haws will be in San Bruno, Calif. for the annual WCC Tip Off event. Here is BYU’s press release on the interactive meeting.
SAN BRUNO, Calif. -- The West Coast Conference will hold its fourth annual basketball tip-off event at Time Warner Cable Sports Studios on Monday, Oct. 27. The event will give West Coast Conference fans the ability to interact with all 10 WCC head men's and women's basketball coaches and student-athletes from each institution through a live stream on TheW.tv. BYU will be represented by coach Dave Rose and senior All-America candidate Tyler Haws from the men's team and coach Jeff Judkins and senior Morgan Bailey from the women's team.
The 2014-15 West Coast Conference men's and women's basketball preseason polls and all-conference teams will be announced that day as well.
Beginning at 10:30 a.m. PT, each WCC coach and student-athlete will take part in a live video interview in which fans can submit questions via Twitter and Facebook. The men's interview sessions will be hosted by Time Warner Cable SportsNet's Chris McGee and Dave Miller, and the women's sessions will be hosted by veteran WCC broadcaster George Devine. Both the men's and women's video interviews will be streamed live on TheW.tv and WCCsports.com.
Robert Frost Moment Has Arrived
BYU Has Been Down This Road Before
With the 55-30 loss to Boise State last Friday, BYU in general and Bronco Mendenhall in particular are rapidly retracing the same road that cost Gary Crowton his job at BYU a decade ago and Roger Reid his employment in Provo almost two decades ago.
BYU is now 4-4 on the year. The road signs are ominous for Mendenhall.
We all know the excuses for the free fall from 4-0 for the first third of the season to 0-4 for the second third of the season. Too many injuries, too many penalties, lack of execution, too much youth, not enough leadership among the players and the most currently popular excuse, poor coaching. Take your pick. The bottom line is that this team and this program is trending down at an alarming rate.
For BYU, maybe position mastery isn’t the answer. Maybe it’s time for a little poetry mastery. Let’s start with a little Robert Anae…oops I mean Robert Frost.
Here is the final and salient stanza of Frost’s The Road Not Taken.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
BYU football needs a different road, in my opinion. Tom Holmoe and new BYU President Kevin Worthen are at a football crossroads with current coach Bronco Mendenhall. They need to make a choice on where BYU football is headed with whom or how it is headed.
Here are some very less traveled roads from which BYU decision makers can choose. As Bronco stated after the Boise State beating, he was totally responsible for the loss. I am totally responsible with coming up with all but one of these rhetorical roads. They are definitely less traveled, so BYU will either find potholes or a pot of gold at the end of this journey.
Downgrade Drive
This road begins with a huge warning sign: BYU is not going to be invited to a P-5 conference. Get over it and get on with your football program and life for both BYU administrators and fans.
This road leads to embracing the Cougars’ current conference, the WCC, and emulating fellow member San Diego. That means dropping from FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) to FCS (Football Championship Subdivision).In old terms most of us still understand it is dropping from Division I football to Division I-AA football.
By dropping down a division, BYU can save the money they are spending on the current football program and spend that money on basketball. They could build a much needed practice facility for Dave Rose and downsize the Marriott Center and make it more attractive and fan friendly and most importantly, recruit friendly.
With more money, Rose may actually someday be able to get a WCC championship away from Gonzaga and make some Gonzaga type noise on the national stage.
By dropping down to FCS, Bronco Mendenhall could stay on in perpetuity, at a much lower salary, however. He could maintain and mentor his current coaching staff almost all of whom were hired without any previous coaching experience.
By dropping down a division in football, it means going from 85 scholarships to 63 grant in aids. That would also play into Mendenhall’s model of wanting and encouraging non-entitled walkons. At the FCS level, BYU wouldn’t have to go head to head with FBS powers for players. Walkons who currently play meaningful roles for BYU at the current level, could actually be recruited. Those players and Mendenhall would both be happy. Even at a lower level of football, guys like the Juergen twins, Colby Pearson, Kurt Henderson, Kyle Johnson, Nate Carter, Skye PoVey and Christian Stewart could all be recruited instead of walking on and make Mendenhall’s mantra of giving scholarships to players who want to be here a real deal for all involved. He could live his dream of coaching non entitled players.
BYUtv would still televise all the football games so the exposure factor would still be intact to a lesser degree. It doesn’t have to be big time football for me to watch. If I watch BYU baseball, women’s softball, volleyball, soccer and even women’s basketball on BYUtv, I for sure will watch BYU’s FCS football team.
Here are other positives. It only takes 2-3 quality basketball players a year to be good and competitive. It takes at least 30 quality football players to make any noise as has been proven this season. So concentrate on basketball instead of football. And with the reduction of scholarships, BYU could bring back some of the sports they were forced to cut because of Title IX restrictions.
What about LaVell Edwards Stadium? Check out Torero Stadium of USD in the WCC. Just add a couple of thousand more seats to South Field and BYU is in business. Turn LES back to the Church for either expansion of the MTC or high rise apartment buildings.
BYU would have natural rivals at this level of play. How about Weber State, SUU, Idaho State all within easy bus access. The Cougars could still hold firesides and travel the country by joining the same league that USD belongs to. That’s another option. The Toreros play games in Ohio, New York, Florida twice, Indiana, Tennessee and Iowa. It would meet Tom Holmoe’s goal of letting BYU fans across the country see their team play.
This road will take some getting used to, but it will work by letting BYU be a big fish in a little pond and letting BYU basketball use the money saved to make sure the 2-3 big time players they need annually to be a big time basketball program, can actually happen.
It also takes Mendenhall off the hot seat and allows him to continue his current style of coaching without anybody caring about the consequences.
Luau Lane
This road takes speed out of the equation for BYU. Following this path will make it so the Cougars don’t have to have the kind of speed football powers have.
Just a glancing guess from watching TV, but I would bet that at least 85-90 percent of starters on both side of the ball in the SEC are black athletes with speed. BYU is never going to get that kind of athlete in enough numbers to be a factor on the national stage.
Every team is looking for a perceived or real advantage in signing speed. In my opinion, that is why I expect to see more and more teams hire black head coaches. The reasoning being that it will give their program a leg up in signing those gifted black athletes.
BYU, in its current state, is not a viable player in the speed market. It just isn’t happening.
This road takes BYU back to its roots by focusing on LDS Polynesian players. Currently 3 assistant Polynesian coaches isn’t cutting it in attracting the premier Poly players to BYU.
BYU needs to hire a head Polynesian coach. The two most likely are Ken Niumatalolo, the head coach at Navy and Kalani Sitake, the defensive coordinator at Utah. Niumatalolo is my choice of the two.
He won’t be running the option at BYU. He already has an ecclesiastical endorsement from the Church based on the fact that he and his family was handpicked to be featured in the movie “Meet the Mormons”.
This route would take the Cougars right back to the main road of the Polynesian pipeline. Here is the rationale for that thinking.
If BYU isn’t going to have great speed, they should concentrate on controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The good LDS Polynesian players can do just that. BYU has missed on way too many of the premier LDS Polys who have made names and money for themselves at Utah and other Pac 12 schools and eventually the NFL.
BYU needs to get a Polynesian head coach that can drive the BYU bus back to all the old stops on the Poly pipeline and get dominance established again on the line of scrimmage.
With that dominance, you can get by with good and adequate players at other positions. Stanford has done this. By controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, when they had a great quarterback (Andrew Luck) they were national title contenders. With just a good quarterback and a dominating line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, they are Pac 12 contenders.
They don’t do it with Polynesian linemen, but BYU can and when a great QB drops by, watch out for the Cougars.
If you take this road and get aggressive recruiting the best Polynesian players, you not only have to recruit them, you have to accommodate their culture and history.
I’m not naïve here. BYU’s academics will be a roadblock. I’m not advocating the North Carolina model, but I’m am advocating some accommodation for the best of the LDS Poly market.
If you don’t think Utah has made itself a national brand by getting the best Poly players in the state and on the coast, you have your head in the sand.
Controlling the line of scrimmage is where this road takes BYU football. Control the line of scrimmage with big time NFL caliber players on both sides of the ball and you control your destiny.
That destiny starts with the road less traveled and with a Polynesian head coach. If BYU wants to get back in the recruiting game, then they need a Polynesian head coach. Niumatalolu is my choice. He would be great in the Polynesian community and he has been in coaching long enough that he has coaching contacts and wouldn’t have to rely on graduate assistants to be his position coaches.
Same Street
This is the current course BYU is traveling. BYU can choose to stay the course and hope they ultimately arrive at Bronco’s avowed destination…a national championship. This may take some major repairs to the engine and some work on the coaching chassis.
The key to this road taking BYU where it wants to go is Taysom Hill coming out of the shop fully repaired and tuned up. It also will require some modification of the coaching staff and tweaks to the current offense and defense.
Next year the offensive line looks to get better, Nick Kurtz gets back, Jamaal Williams will be back for a senior campaign, but the go fast go hard has to go.
Also back is Tanner Mangum to back up Hill or replace him if Hill can’t return for whatever reason. Mangum would be a QB that can air it out and aim BYU back in the right direction offensively.
Defensively, there will have to be some major improvements on the defensive line and at middle linebacker. Fred Warner should shine and Sione Takitaki should play well.
Bronco needs to learn that he is not a coaching statesman like LaVell, who knew he couldn’t coach a lick so went and hired guys that could.
Bronco can coach defense but he too needs to hire some guys that can coach and not be afraid of sharing with Bronco a thing or two they have learned at other schools.
This road will never lead to a national championship and it won’t get the Cougars into a P5 conference, but it is a road that Cougar fans are familiar and comfortable with and have learned to accept and always have hope in.
Players Parkway
This is a street that very few want to travel, including most of my readers, but it is currently a real street in college football.
This scenario and these thoughts were sent to me yesterday by a long time subscriber who has proven over the years that he sees beyond the fluff of football fandom. The street he describes meanders through some tough parts of town. But according to him, if BYU won’t go through this seedy part of town, eventually they will have to abort their avowed destination and trip to big time college football prominence and put the Cougar football car in the garage.
HB,
Robert Anae, when told after the Boise State loss that Bronco Mendenhall took the blame for the defeat said the following: "Every coach and every player was equally responsible for what you saw tonight."
Here’s what I say:
That's true, but remember that Mendenhall's #1 job is picking those coaches and recruiting those players. That's where he's fallen short, much more than in game strategy. He's not going to be able to win with this team. A few injuries exposed a frighteningly thin layer of talent over a wide base of mediocrity, and this is not something new. BYU's football recruiting has been mediocre under Mendenhall since Day One. His greatest successes have come with players whose arrival in Provo had nothing to do with him. I'm talking about people like John Beck, Max Hall, Ziggy Ansah, Taysom Hill, and dozens more.
The players are ordinary, and so is the coaching, once you get past Mendenhall's expertise on defense. Gary Crowton hired Mendenhall to be defensive coordinator. If only Mendenhall could hire someone as good to coach the QB, the receivers, the offensive line, and the recruiting, then perhaps BYU could get on the road to recovery.
But here's the ugly lesson that I don't think Mendenhall, BYU, or most of the fans have learned: college football at its highest level has nothing to do with student-athletes or with character development. It's a nasty business and it's all about money and politics. BYU was passed over by the Pac-12 because of ideology, and that was a $20 million decision. BYU faces a dilemma: If it wants to use football to promote the Church and its values--which are unpopular with the elites who dictate culture for most Americans--it's going to have to do it with players who are not always going to be exemplars of behavior or of Mormon standards. LaVell Edwards understood that. Gary Crowton understood that. Bronco Mendenhall thinks he can compete with nice guys, good LDS kids, good students. He can't. You need too many players to make a good football team and there aren't enough great athletes who also have those Albert Schweitzer credentials.
This isn't my opinion. The evidence is right there on the football field. If BYU can't figure out a way to compete with mid-tier institutions like the University of Utah and Oregon State and Washington State, then it should get out of the football business.
This season is particularly embarrassing. BYU has been shoved out of the ridiculously-named "Power 5" group, despite overwhelming credentials. So it's playing an easy independent schedule, and it's still getting beat. It's an existential event, and an existential season.
I would not fire Mendenhall. But what he's been doing for five years hasn't been good enough. This emphasis on "character" and "teaching" sounds wonderful, but BYU is not a Division II School. It needs nasty, pre-NFL quality football players who can somehow survive in the Provo environment. Someone will have to follow them around on campus to make sure they go to class and keep the Honor Code. (The keep the Honor Code phrase are my (HB’s) words. The writer’s words were much more descriptive and blunt.).
That's how it works, and finding players who can meet those standards, even with supervision, is pretty tough, because college these days is all about beer and sex. It's not a pretty picture, but the world isn't a pretty place, and the people who run BYU have got an unpleasant decision to make.
Name Withheld (No it is not Robert Frost.)
Frost did write a nice poem that nicely accompanies these thoughts and potential roads less traveled that are listed above. It is called Fire and Ice and I amended it just a bit.
Some say the world (BYU Football) will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire (Mendenhall).
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate (losing)
To say that for destruction ice (breaking new ground in coaching and recruiting)
Is also great
And would suffice.
TV Timetable
BYU vs. Middle Tennessee
Saturday, November 1 at Murfreesboro
Kickoff: 1:30 MDT
TV: CBS Sports Network
BYU vs. Colorado School of Mines (M-Basketball)
Saturday, November 1 at Provo
Tipoff: 7:00 pm MDT
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs Seattle Pacific (M-Basketball)
Saturday, November 8 at Provo
Tipoff: 7:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv
BYE (Football)
Saturday, November 8
BYU vs. Long Beach State (M-Basketball)
Friday, November 14 at Provo
Tipoff: 5:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs. UNLV
Saturday, November 15 at Provo
Kickoff: TBD
TV: TBD
BYU vs. Savannah State
Saturday, November 22 at Provo
Kickoff: 1:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs. Cal
Saturday, November 29 at Berkeley
Kickoff: TBD
TV: TBD
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