HB Arnett’s

801 372 - 0819

hbarnett@fiber.net

1391 West 800 South – Orem, Utah 84058

 

Vol. 34, Issue 18 – December 2, 2013

 

Click Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions

 

 

BYU 85 USU 74

World Peace Starts in Provo and Logan

 

I believe in world peace and if I’m ever invited to participate in a beauty pageant, that will be my mantra and main answer in the interview portion of the contest.

 

Dave Rose and his Cougars didn’t do my World Peace cause any good last Saturday because peace begins at home. BYU’s 85-74 win over Utah State at Energy Solutions Arena, was good for the Cougars, but bad for parity and peace in the state of Utah.

 

BYU left Salt Lake City as the better basketball team. The Utah State student fan section simply left infuriated.

 

In an effort to calm the animosity between the two fan bases of BYU and Utah State, I am extending a peace offering to pacify the parties involved.

 

Here it is: Utah State has a fabulous coach in Stew Morrill. His record and resume speaks for itself. In a city and area that is renowned for its cheeses. Morrill is the Big Cheese. All he does is win. Cheddar and championships. Cheese and Morrill make Cache Valley proud.

 

The Aggie basketball team is also good. The USU team is aged cheese with four senior starters. This is a team that will win a lot of games this season and give Mountain West Conference opponents some serious Swiss that will be hard to swallow, especially in Logan in league play.

 

Curds and Nerds

 

While Morrill and his team are top caliber cheeses, the Aggie student fan base is more aptly described as curds (Or is it that other less than flattering word that rhymes with curds?)

 

In an effort to promote peace equally among the fan bases, the BYU student section also rhymes with curds and can frequently be described as nerds.

 

While peace and provolone are nice, points are better.

 

BYU got theirs from a variety of sources, but like most games this season, the leading point producers were from the perimeter in Tyler Haws and Matt Carlino. Haws led the Cougars 21 and Carlino added 18.

 

Eric Mika was the post points for Dave Rose. The freshman scored 15. Nate Austin had just two. The Cougars also had serious help off the bench.

 

Frank Bartley IV, was instant intravenous offense. The freshman scored 14 points in just 20 minutes of playing time while adding energy and excitement to the game for the Cougars. Skyler Halford also came off the bench and he and his 8 points made a big difference in the second half. The last 20 minutes was when BYU played their best basketball while overcoming a 5-point halftime deficit.

 

BYU, with the win, now has a good Roquefort record at 6-2. While Roquefort cheese is made from sheep’s milk, BYU’s current record has been manufactured not against ewes, but Stew’s team, Texas, Wichita State, Iowa State, Weber State and Stanford.

 

The Cougars will get a break and some soft brie on Tuesday when North Texas comes to Provo. That game will be televised live on BYUtv. The cheese and challenge gets harder on Saturday when BYU travels to Springfield, MA to take on No. 24 UMass. CBS Sports Network will televise that contest.

 

Is This New Offense Really Better Than the Old Offense?

 

Let me go on record as one that doesn’t like this new go fast, go hard BYU offense. Let me also go on record as one who absolutely hated this new offense in the first half of BYU’s 28-23 win over Nevada last Saturday in Reno.

 

That said, as Joe Friday, the fictional Los Angeles police department detective, used to say on the old TV series, Dragnet, “just the facts ma’am.”

 

So let’s dragnet up the statistical facts and compare the new offense of 2013 versus the offense of 2012.

 

These stats are after the 12 regular season games of both seasons and do not include any bowl action. Also not included is the fact that in 2012, BYU played with 3 quarterbacks and this year the Cougars went with just one guy.

 

And the key non statistical fact, but still a fact, is that in both seasons, the offensive lines weren’t’ very good.

 

Here we go.

 

Scoring…2012 – 350 points, 2013 – 376 points

Points per game…2012 – 29.2, 2013 – 31.3

First Downs…2012 – 283, 2013 – 297

Rushing 1st Downs…2012 – 109, 2013 – 149

Passing 1st Downs…2012 – 144, 2013 – 129

Rushing Yardage…2012 – 1939, 2013 - 3295

Rushing Attempts…2012 – 475, 2013 – 617

Average Per Rush…2012 – 4.0, 2013 – 5.3

Rushing Average Per Game…2012 – 161.6, 2013 – 274.6

Touchdowns Rushing…2012 – 21, 2013 – 23

Passing Yardage…2012 – 2970, 2013 – 2649

Comp-Att-Int…2012 – 273-454-14, 2013 – 212-397-13

Average Yards Per Pass…2012 – 5.9, 2013 – 6.7

Average Yards Per Catch…2012 – 10.9, 2013 – 12.5

Passing Average Per Game…2012 – 247.5, 2013 – 220.8

TDs Passing…2012 – 25, 2013 - 19

Total Offense…2012 – 4909, 2013 – 5944

Total Plays…2012 – 907, 2013 – 1014

Average Yards Per Play…2012 – 5.4, 2013 – 5.9

Average Yards Per Game…2012 – 409, 2013 – 495.3

Regular Season Record…2012 – 7-5, 2013 – 8-4

 

Nationally, here is how the 2013 BYU offense stacked up against other Division I (FBS) teams.

 

Rushing Yards Per Game…10th  274.6  1st Army 323.6

Passing Yards Per Game…74th  220.8  1st Fresno State 410.3

Total Offense Per Game…13th 495.3 1st Baylor 635.1

 

BYU’s 2013 Record against teams with winning records…6-2 (Losses to Wisconsin and ND) BYU’s 2013 Record against teams with losing records…2-2 (Losses to Virginia and Utah)

 

On paper and statistically, the 2013 BYU offense is better than the 2012 offense. I still don’t like it, but am willing to see if it is more palatable with an improved offensive line, which should be the case next season. The main reason I don’t like this new offense is because in my opinion, I don’t think it will be sustainable after Taysom Hill and Jamaal Williams graduate and are gone.

 

In my opinion, BYU’s recruiting base and history can’t produce a Hill and Williams on a continuing basis. It has proven over time, however, that it can produce a quarterback and a consistent and productive passing game.

 

Pragmatic

 

I am not a proponent of this offense, but am pragmatic. I will enjoy the success of Hill and Williams for the next two seasons, barring injury to either. Let’s face it, the offensive line has no place to go but up. It can’t get any worse.

 

And maybe by the middle of next season and into Hill’s senior campaign, he may have the green light to check out of some of the plays calls that are hard to understand but seem to be what the current offensive staff wants to run, come heck or high water.

 

So, after reading what I just wrote above, maybe my problem with this go fast, go hard offense is not with the scheme itself or the two very talented players in Hill and Williams responsible for the success of this season. My biggest problem is probably with the play calling and appropriate use or lack of use of those two premier player’s talents.

 

Maybe Bronco Mendenhall answered all my concerns for next season with his Nevada post game comments on the radio. Here is what he said about the offensive turnaround in the second half against the Wolf Pack. “Once we were focusing on delivering the ball quickly and accurately and then combining that with the run game for power and speed with Taysom and Jamaal that was a lethal combination. But we knew that going in. We just had to execute better.”

 

Mendenhall continued expounding on the offensive turnaround for the Cougar in the second half. “There were too many shots down field, too many routes that were designed to be later developing down field and that’s not who we are,” he said.

 

“We’re a precision and quick throw passing team with occasional shots to complement our run. That’s where we currently are. That doesn’t mean that’s where we’ll end up in the future. But in the first half the routes were taking longer, the defensive coverage was holding and our pass protection wasn’t and then Taysom was scrambling, forced to run rather than designed rushes and that’s really not what we want.”

 

Same Page

 

So maybe Mendenhall and I and other fans really are on the same page after all. I know I wonder plenty about the play calling of Robert Anae. Don’t know about you, but these post game comments sounded an awful lot like Mendenhall wasn’t too pleased with the play calling in the first half either.

 

When it comes to this new BYU offense there have been times this season that I admit to sometimes calling Mendenhall Befuddled Bronco and Anae No Answer Anae. But based on how the offense executed and changed its offensive strategy in the second half, maybe they do have the answers, but it just takes them longer than most coaches to understand the questions opposing defensive coordinators are asking and presenting.

 

Forget Mendenhall’s halftime speech against Nevada as being the turning point in this game. I’m betting that a student manager dialed up the internet and saw that Nevada was the worst FBS defense the Cougars faced this season. Nevada is the 117th defense in the nation and maybe BYU just decided to play accordingly in the second half. If you are counting, there are 123 FBS teams.

 

Here is the season ending total defense rankings of BYU’s FBS opponents this year.

 

Wisconsin…6th

Utah State…11th

Georgia Tech…22nd

Notre Dame…45th

Texas…54th

Utah…62nd

Virginia…65th

Middle Tennessee…66th

Boise State…72nd

Houston…85th

Nevada…117th

Idaho State…107th out of 122 FCS teams

BYU finished ranked 51st nationally in total defense

 

“Four more years” is what they chant at political conventions. I can’t wait that long to see how this BYU offense plays out. I might be dead by then.

 

I’m good to go with chanting “Two more years.” That’s when Taysom Hill and Jamaal Williams will say adios to the program and we will see if this offense is for real and sustainable. Two more years also will be plenty of time to find out what improved offensive line play will do for this offense. Also, in two years, I might be senile enough to forget the horrible first half against Nevada.

 

Football Fluff and Stuff

 

For the first time in BYU football history, the Cougars have two offensive players that rushed for more than 1000 yards. Both Jamaal Williams and Taysom Hill achieved that remarkable feat against Nevada last Saturday. Williams with his 219 yards on just 15 carries against UNR pushed the sophomore running back season rushing total to 1202 yards. Hill, with 154 yards on 26 carries ended the regular season with 1211 rushing yards.

 

BYU, with a regular season mark of 8-4, now awaits the announcement of its opponent for the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl to be played in San Francisco on December 27th. The most probable opponent for the Cougars will be Washington. The Huskies are coached by former BYU quarterback Steve Sarkisian and finished their regular season with an 8-4 mark. That was good enough for the sixth best record in the PAC 12 conference.

 

Bronco Mendenhall said that his team will begin practicing for the bowl game on December 19. Between then and now, the team will concentrate on academics, conditioning and strength training and recuperation from injuries.

 

There will be those who say that Mendenhall isn’t taking advantage of the 15 days of allotted practices by the NCAA. Just because the Cougars won’t start practicing until later in the month, that doesn’t mean that they won’t use all 15 practices. They likely will have practices for the team and practices at different times for the younger players to focus on their development and to find out just who can play and contribute next season and beyond.

 

Basketball Briefs

 

If you want to get a look at several high school prospects that have already signed with BYU and a couple prospects that have been offered by BYU, then you may want to check out the Great Western Shootout taking place this week in Orem. It features 3 days of games against Utah High Schools and other nationally prominent high schools from around the country.

 

You can get a look at BYU signees TJ Haws, Lone Peak; Dalton Nixon, Orem; and Ryan Andrus, American Fork. You can also get a glimpse of two younger players that BYU has already offered in Frank Jackson, Lone Peak and Brendan Bailey, American Fork.

 

While we are peeking at prospects, don’t look now, but the BYU women’s basketball team is off to a torrid start. The Cougars are currently 6-0 on the year with their latest victory coming in Provo last Saturday with a 64-56 win over Arizona.

 

We will find out if the Cougars are for real as they embark on a three-game road trip to face Nevada, Creighton and Weber State.

 

Volleyball Continues Play

 

Despite losing to San Diego 3-2 last Saturday in San Diego and finishing in second place in the WCC women’s volleyball standings, the Cougar Ladies will continue their season this week with an invite to the NCAA tournament.

The BYU women’s volleyball team received an at-large bid to the 2013 NCAA Tournament and will travel to Hawaii to take on Arizona State in the first round on

The Cougars (22-6, 15-3 West Coast Conference) will play against Arizona State in the first round and the winner will play the winner of the match between No. 11 Hawaii and Idaho State. BYU will play at 5 p.m. HST while Hawaii and Idaho State will face off at 7:30 p.m. HST. The winners will play Saturday at 7 p.m. HST in the second round of the tournament.

BYU, Arizona State, Hawaii and Idaho State are part of the Los Angeles Region. Saturday’s winner will advance to the region semifinals on Dec. 13 in Los Angeles.

BYU Television Timetable

 

BYU vs. North Texas

Tuesday, Dec 3 at Provo

Tipoff: 7 pm MST

TV: BYUtv

BYU vs. UMass

Saturday, Dec 7 at Springfield

Tipoff: 11:30 am MST

TV: CBS Sports Network

BYU vs. Prairie View

Wednesday, Dec 11 at Provo

Tipoff: 7 pm MST

TV: BYUtv

BYU vs. Utah

Saturday, Dec 14 at Salt Lake

Tipoff: 8 pm MST

TV: Pac 12 Network

BYU vs. Utah (Women’s BB)

Saturday, Dec 14 at Provo

Tipoff: 2 pm MST

TV: BYUtv

BYU vs. Oregon

Saturday, Dec 21 at Eugene

Tipoff: 8:30 pm MST

TV: Pac 12 Network

BYU vs. Utah State (Women’s BB)

Saturday, Dec 21 at Provo

Tipoff: 2 pm MST

TV: BYUtv