5 Things BYU needs to have a successful season

[TheSizzle36]

1) 3 Dlinemen emerge as contributers
I don't care who they are, but 3 guys need to step up and be players. The way that Bronco rotates in up to 6 or 8 bodies along the dline, it could be higher, but as long as he has 3 guys who can be serviceable and occupy a lineman or two long enough to let the LBs roam free, our defense should be able to stop the run without committing safety help. That is HUGE, because our DBs were very shaky last season, so the safeties need to be able to play up top in case of play action passes, which our defense has been succeptable to in the past.


2) At least 5 wins at home
LES used to be a tough place to come in and play, and come away with a "W". However, the last few years the Cougs have struggled posting a winnig record at home. You CANNOT expect to have a winning record for the season if you don't have one at home.

This year's schedule is certainly doable: Tulsa, Utah State, UNLV, Wyoming, New Mexico and SDSU are all certainly winnable. Winning 5 games at home this season is a must to help establish LES as a tough place to play again, and for BYU to "return to glory". Of those games, New Mexico and Tulsa should be the only ones that give BYU a hard time, although anything can happen. SDSU might be tough under their new coach, but that's been the story for the last 15 years. Wyoming struggles to win in Provo and UNLV is bad. So is Utah State. If BYU wins less than 5 at home, it could be ugly.


3) John Beck stays healthy
For all the alleged heat that Beck takes, he really is head and shoulders above any QB on BYU's roster this season. Ideally, Beck would get BYU out early and often and allow some of the more unexperienced signal callers a chance to see the field and get used to the game speed so that if an injury does occur BYU will be prepared this season, or, more hopefully just be in better shape for next season. I think this point is very realistic, but in Football anything can happen.


4) Control the ball
For as good as BYU's offense could be, there are a lot of question marks on the defensive side of the ball. BYU really needs to control the ball, and not have the D playing 40 minutes a game. Quick scores are nice (esepcially if you're behind) but what is going to be best is for BYU to get 3 or 4 or 5 first downs a drive to keep the ball moving and the offense on the field.


5) Win the turnover battle
Last season BYU did better having only 20 TOs per game. While that is MUCH better than the 30 TOs in 2004, I'd like to see them cut them down a little bit more. Additionally, in 2005 BYU was only +.17 on average turnover margin for the entire season. While being in the positive is good, the team that lead the NCAA was TCU, with USC being second. Both of those teams won a lot of games last season. If BYU wants to be successful this season they need to improve upon a) not giving the ball away and b) doing a better job of taking the ball away. Turnovers are HUGE momentum boosts.


And, since I feel like it, and because 4 and 5 somewhat go together, I'll give a bonus point:

Bonus: Improve upon Special Teams Problems
Over the past few seasons, BYU has outright lost a few games because of special teams errors. Think Matt Payne's miss v. BSU. Think of the TCU game in 2005 with the Kickoff returned for a TD that brought life back to TCU as well as the missed PAT in OT. BYU hasn't had anything that resembled a return game since James Dye. Special Teams really is a HUGE part of the game. Having solid special teams will improve a teams record by at least a game or two every season. This is one area that BYU could also improve upon.

[El Guapo]

Originally Posted by TheSizzle36

1) 3 Dlinemen emerge as contributers
I don't care who they are, but 3 guys need to step up and be players. The way that Bronco rotates in up to 6 or 8 bodies along the dline, it could be higher, but as long as he has 3 guys who can be serviceable and occupy a lineman or two long enough to let the LBs roam free, our defense should be able to stop the run without committing safety help. That is HUGE, because our DBs were very shaky last season, so the safeties need to be able to play up top in case of play action passes, which our defense has been succeptable to in the past.


2) At least 5 wins at home
LES used to be a tough place to come in and play, and come away with a "W". However, the last few years the Cougs have struggled posting a winnig record at home. You CANNOT expect to have a winning record for the season if you don't have one at home.

This year's schedule is certainly doable: Tulsa, Utah State, UNLV, Wyoming, New Mexico and SDSU are all certainly winnable. Winning 5 games at home this season is a must to help establish LES as a tough place to play again, and for BYU to "return to glory". Of those games, New Mexico and Tulsa should be the only ones that give BYU a hard time, although anything can happen. SDSU might be tough under their new coach, but that's been the story for the last 15 years. Wyoming struggles to win in Provo and UNLV is bad. So is Utah State. If BYU wins less than 5 at home, it could be ugly.


3) John Beck stays healthy
For all the alleged heat that Beck takes, he really is head and shoulders above any QB on BYU's roster this season. Ideally, Beck would get BYU out early and often and allow some of the more unexperienced signal callers a chance to see the field and get used to the game speed so that if an injury does occur BYU will be prepared this season, or, more hopefully just be in better shape for next season. I think this point is very realistic, but in Football anything can happen.


4) Control the ball
For as good as BYU's offense could be, there are a lot of question marks on the defensive side of the ball. BYU really needs to control the ball, and not have the D playing 40 minutes a game. Quick scores are nice (esepcially if you're behind) but what is going to be best is for BYU to get 3 or 4 or 5 first downs a drive to keep the ball moving and the offense on the field.


5) Win the turnover battle
Last season BYU did better having only 20 TOs per game. While that is MUCH better than the 30 TOs in 2004, I'd like to see them cut them down a little bit more. Additionally, in 2005 BYU was only +.17 on average turnover margin for the entire season. While being in the positive is good, the team that lead the NCAA was TCU, with USC being second. Both of those teams won a lot of games last season. If BYU wants to be successful this season they need to improve upon a) not giving the ball away and b) doing a better job of taking the ball away. Turnovers are HUGE momentum boosts.


And, since I feel like it, and because 4 and 5 somewhat go together, I'll give a bonus point:

Bonus: Improve upon Special Teams Problems
Over the past few seasons, BYU has outright lost a few games because of special teams errors. Think Matt Payne's miss v. BSU. Think of the TCU game in 2005 with the Kickoff returned for a TD that brought life back to TCU as well as the missed PAT in OT. BYU hasn't had anything that resembled a return game since James Dye. Special Teams really is a HUGE part of the game. Having solid special teams will improve a teams record by at least a game or two every season. This is one area that BYU could also improve upon.

I would actually replace your number 2 with the special teams improvement. If they do the things you list plus special teams, they will win 5 games at home.

For BYU to have a successful season, I don't even know that they need all 3 D linemen to emerge. Their offense is going to be pretty potent. My guess is that they will put up a lot of points. The difficulty will be if they score too quickly, since that will leave the defense on the field for a lot of the game (which will probably yield points to the other team unless the D is better than expected). Even with last year's defense, BYU put up enough points to win a lot of games and be competitive in many others. I expect this year's offense AND defense to be better than last year's (with the biggest improvement being at corner and safety). If they are both marginally better, you could see 3 additional wins this year.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by TheSizzle36

5) Win the turnover battle
Last season BYU did better having only 20 TOs per game.

Twenty turnovers per game? That's like 5 turnovers per quarter. BYU did a heckuva job going 6-6 with those kind of TO numbers.