Bleacher Report - Articles by Quinn Gooch

Battle At Boundary Corner: Bradley, Aguirre and Thomas

Quinn Gooch — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:38:40 -0400

Brandon Bradley 6-0 200

Brandon Bradley is a playmaker with good speed, great size and good instincts. His jam off of the LOS is good but overly aggressive at times. When he lunges and doesn’t get a hand on the WR he has trouble transitioning his hips into his sprint.

Despite this, he does have great make up speed, as we’ve seen in a few games where that long stride of his has ran down receivers. With another year under his belt his instinctive play will improve because hopefully, he will no longer have to think about the scheme. Instead he will be at the right place at the right time and make plays. He and Scottie Johnson were the only (play makers) in the secondary last year.

I was a little disappointed that he didn’t get a pick last year, but we must remember that he had limited reps through more than half of the season.

The two cringing thoughts I had of my boy Bradley last year, occurred during the Utah game before half and the quick slant in Vegas vs. UofA that he almost gave up for a touchdown.

His mistake was not physical so much as it was mental. Remember, college football is an emotional roller coaster driven by momentum. These are young kids that get their dobber down or up quickly. After a huge momentum shift, especially on the 40 yard line or so coming in, as a DB you must be thinking, fade or post…period!—He didn’t and got beat.

The biggest negative with Big B is that he is a top heavy corner. Meaning most of his weight is in his upper body. This makes it hard for his transitions and hip swivel to be quick and efficient. Your center of gravity is a bit thrown off, and your core has to work hard to stabilize your body throughout your breaks.

Many times as he is in a full speed back peddle and wants to plant to come forward he will step back into what we call (the bucket), and literally stop for a second before thrusting himself forward.

How do I know this? Other than the fact that I see it, I was also a top heavy corner and had to adjust my technique when coming out of breaks at certain times.

I expect him to start, but Lee will push him to become a better player and create some competition at the boundary spot.

Lee Aguirre 5-9 200

The first thing that pops out to me on film is that quite honestly, he understands that he is short and people want to take advantage of that. Now let me finish, when there is a bigger receiver lined up across from him, he knows they want to throw the fade route. He had numerous int’s due to under thrown balls on deep routes.

The second thing I noticed is that he also uses the Shuffle technique. He hardly ever back peddles in coverage. He puts his butt to the sideline and shuffles. Coach Hill hates this technique and will try to convert him to the back paddle. Justin Robinson tried to use the shuffle technique, as did G Pittman. The fact is, Coach Hill will not allow it. The reason why he hates it so much is because you will give up the post pattern every time with this technique.

As a corner back you must never give up the post or the fade….Period. In our scheme, many times we will double cover the post just to make sure the quarterbacks will go to their checkdowns.

Lee has good initial explosion. His first ten yards are impressive, but he lacks the 5^th gear that Brandon Bradley does have. He is not afraid to sacrifice the body, as seen as he sacrifices his body on punt, field goals blocks, and going helmet to helmet with opponents. He looked good on the LOS.

He was able to jam effectively without lunging towards the receiver. Even larger receivers were unable to push him back as they attempted to drive forward into their routes.

Physically, he carries a lot of his weight in his legs. This helps him keep a low center of gravity. He usually does a hop plant when breaking forward. What this means essentially is that he does a plyometric jump horizontally toward his target with both feet, as opposed to just planting with one foot and driving towards his target.

He sees field well. On a few occasions he came off his man to make tackles. His WR would run a steak or post while the #2 receiver to his side would run a deep out under it. As a boundary corner you have to do this effectively because of the zones we play.

Lee plays down hill. Fills well on the crack play and plays off cut blocks well.

This is important because its an inevitable reality: The WR’s in the MWC enjoy cut blocking. Lee constantly looks at the quarterback to get his reads and then reacts accordingly. He makes plays because of this, but at the next level he will be very susceptible to double moves.

I’m sure he’s already been beat on a few occasions in practice and has lost confidence in his technique. On top of that coach Hill has given him an earful.

In conclusion, you must understand that at the JC level your offensive lines are not as good and everyone is blitzing. Hence not as many double moves, and you have quick throws. If you’re a playmaker, you will have a lot of int’s, heck I had 5 int’s and I wasn’t even that good in JC.

This, coupled with mediocre qb’s Lee was able to use his skill set and make plays and he will continue to do so, but he will have some trouble transitioning to the speed of the game and locking onto a receiver for more than 2 seconds.

Great move to get him at boundary corner. He will need to get in shape, but will add good depth and talent at that position.

Steven Thomas 5-11 176

Thomas is a great athlete. He takes off his shirt and all you see is protruding strands and slabs of muscle. Steven has good feet, explosive at times, and he can tackle well. He initially came in as a safety.

But genetics have made him stagnate at 176 lbs, so I don’t see him moving back there anytime soon. I think his skill set and his “down hill” mentality is actually better suited for Free Safety though.

This kid isn’t afraid of contact and will readily stick his head in against larger opponents. Last year he saw most of his time on special teams, and faired decently. He would occasionally get beat as the DB on punt return, but showed promise. He also got some time in the CSU game. He made a great PBU on a dig route.

I was really proud of him until he gave up a post pattern, then over pursued, missed the tackle, which ultimately ended in a touchdown for the opposing team. He unfortunately didn’t get much PT after that.

The problem with Steven is not his ability to play football, but his hesitancy to trust what he sees. He worries that he’ll make the mistake instead of just making a decision and going with a full head of steam. He looked uncomfortable on film. I don’t think he’ll get much pt this year.

I told him before the off season started that if he didn’t put in the necessary time to get more athletic and to grasp the schemes better, he wouldn’t vie for the starting position at boundary corner. There is just too much competition and they have more game time experience.

I see them moving him to Free Safety permanently and hoping he can become a vocal leader if he does his homework.

BYU Cougars: Overseeing Summer Workouts

Quinn Gooch — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:44:22 -0400

This time of year is what players like to refer to as Mandatory Optional Workouts. According to NCAA rules you can’t force players to be at workouts during this period of the year. I believe you are not even allowed to take role. However, as a player you are mislead if you think that skipping out on these workouts won’t affect your playing.

Coaches are not allowed to be involved in the workouts, or even be in the weight room or on the field with players. So the question is who keeps track of guys and how do the coaches know what players are doing during the summer?

The supervisory job falls onto the shoulders of Coach Omer and his staff as well as the Leadership Council, which is comprised of one player from each position group. These are the guys the coaches will go to if they want to know how a particular player is doing during the summer.

As far as workouts go there are three workout sessions every weekday so the players can work it into their school/work schedules. Coach Omer and Justin McClure over see these workouts and chart players progress. In the evening the players come back for seven on seven, or Line Drills for the OL and DL. At this point Coach Omer can not be involved and must leave the field. The basic rule is that there is not allowed to be any footballs out when a coach is present.

During the seven on seven period the Leadership Council Member sets the depth chart for his position. These sessions are short and so we only run first and second team guys with a rare third team segment.

It is true that the coaches offices look out over the practice field, but a lot of times these throwing sessions are held in the Indoor Practice Facility (IPF). Even when they are held outside, coaches spend the spring recruiting and then they get some time off for family, then it’s time for fall camp. So they really don’t have the option of looking in on the guys.

In the end it is on the players to prepare. This is the most crucial part of the year. Players just spent the last three months busting their butt, and they will lose it all if they don’t train with the team during the summer. A lot of All-American potential has fallen by the way-side because guys take the summer off.

Bronco Mendenhall And His “Game Plan”

Quinn Gooch — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:18:15 -0400

I feel like this topic has been misconstrued from day one and my hope is that this will help everyone understand what BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall means when he says, “we don’t focus on the other team, we focus on ourselves.”

I wrote an entire post dedicated to the players preparation last season and I will not repeat it, but I do want to offer a few tid-bits from the coaches point-of-view.

It is impossible to approach a football game without having first scouted out your opponent to find out three very important things: what they like to do, what they are good at doing, and what they are not good at doing. It then becomes the job of the coaching staff to take that information and devise a GAME PLAN that will address those areas.

The problem for the fan is that there are two meanings for the term game plan. The first definition is, "Creating new plays or schemes designed specifically for one opponent and to be used exclusively in that game alone."

Examples of this type of game planning are when teams (BYU included in ‘04 and ‘05) will only put two defensive linemen in the game thinking “We can’t sack the QB so let’s play a ton of pass coverage so there is no where to throw the ball.

Another example is Tulsa’s game plan against BYU in ‘07. All the trick plays and shenanigans were designed specifically for us. They could not run their normal stuff against us and expect to win the game.

This kind of game planning is the kind that coach Mendenhall is not going to partake in. His stance is that he will not ruin the integrity of what we do by changing everything week to week to out smart the opponent.

The second kind of game planning is what our coaches preach to us as players and that is, "Take what you do best and adapt it to the opponent in order to neutralize their strengths and attack their weaknesses." Basically, find the plays within our system that will work best against what the other team does, and then spend the week of practice perfecting the execution of those plays.

Every week we tweak our alignments, coverage, routes, and blocking just a little in order to gain a competitive advantage over our opponent and to tighten up any perceived weaknesses.

To sum it up, our coaches get to the office around 6:00am each morning and are game planning until meetings start at 2:10pm. Then it is on the players to EXECUTE the game plan.

What's the BYU Football Team Been Up to?

Quinn Gooch — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:12:49 -0500

This is—in my opinion—the hardest part of the year. The only thing good about the months of January, February, and March were the mid-week Wednesday breaks. We always got Wednesdays off. Unfortunately—or fortunately—this is no longer the case, with this year's team lifting and running on every single day. Past teams had the comfort of a silver-lined—Wednesday—week. Who's to say what the silver lining is anymore?

Another benefit to this time of year was the players' opportunity to be in control and to decide, collectively, what their team identity could become. Coaches (aside from strength coaches) are not allowed to be present during these workouts. It’s up to the players to decide and declare.

If this part of the year was successful in building team chemistry, then the summer became that much more productive, and the season was a success. This is the time of year where you learn a lot about your individual teammates. You learn who is man enough to take on tremendously difficult physical tasks, who you can respect and expect to give their all.

Most of all, this is the time of year where you learn who you can trust to get the job done and NEVER EVER QUIT!

I have two vivid memories of winter conditioning.

The first is the RB stairs. The stairs are fun because you get some really weird looks from the students as they walk by to go to class. Occasionally while running the stairs a player will take off his shirt, mostly because it is suffocating, but also some dudes love to show off their freshly shaven man bumps—no specific names, but one rhymes with Hen Trittel.

This evokes three distinct responses: the looks from the intrigued co-eds; the looks from the Zoobies—“Why do football players not have to dress modest like the rest of us?”; and finally the look from coach Jay Omer—no phrase to go with it, just one ornery cuss giving you the scowl.

My other memory will be of gassers. I will never forget coach Bronco Mendenhall’s first day as a head coach when we went to the IPF and ran 24 gassers—one gasser is comprised of running the width of the field four times, or approximately 200 yards. We had to make them all under specified times, and there were guys puking all over the place. This was his first test as to who wanted to play for him or not.

Another gasser memory is that there are always sandbaggers—guys who just like to squeak in under time. They all thought, and probably still do to this day, that nobody really noticed, but everyone knew who the slackers were. These same guys are the ones that on the last gasser had all sorts of stored-up energy and “were in such good shape” that they always won the last gasser by like 15 yards.

Then Coach Mendenhall had a grand idea. The winner of each gasser was done for the day. Funny thing is, those sandbaggers couldn’t even win one at all, not even in the beginning. Ah, the memories!

I have been hearing good things from this group, and I hope they are taking full advantage of this time of year. I hope they are declaring right now as to what kind of championship team they will be. This is the start of the next season. This is the first step in accomplishing all the goals they have.

By Markell Staffieri

BYU Basketball Embarks on Critical Road Trip

Quinn Gooch — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:26:08 -0500

This is a huge road trip upcoming. It’s time we win at one of these arenas; Cox Arena and the Thomas and Mack have absolutely been brutal to us in the last four years.

We’ve won some pretty good road games in these years, so it’s not like we can’t play outside of Provo, but SDSU and UNLV have good game plans against us. Both teams usually double-team in the backcourt and make the point guard pass it up, getting us outside of our offensive rhythm and normal play calls.

They also double-team the posts hard on the catch, making our 5-man make good decisions and handle pressure. We have to be ready for this, and hopefully the experienced guys on the team will be ready.

By the way, Jonathan Tavernari has been great the last three games and looks like a different player posting up, passing, taking good shots, and playing defense. Let’s hope that keeps up; we absolutely need him to win the MWC tourney or get through a round or three in the NCAA. Without him playing well, we’re a pretty good team but not great. Jackson Emery played terrific last night as well.

Staff's Two Cents About Recruiting

Quinn Gooch — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:52:17 -0500

I had to chuckle a little bit when I read the post and comments on the new recruits coming into the program. When I was at BYU, people would always ask me what I thought about us recruiting this guy or that guy. Around 99 percent of the time, I didn’t have a clue who they were talking about. Mainly because I never followed who BYU was recruiting anyway.

The fact of the matter is—at best, recruits are a 50/50 proposition. Meaning 50 percent of the time they live up to the hype, and 50 percent of the time you never hear about them after they sign that ever coveted LOI.

I never get involved in recruiting talk because it really doesn’t matter what guys did in high school. College is a completely different level, and I feel, before I start hyping anyone up, they better be able to perform in their new surroundings.

Think about this for a minute. In college there are 85 guys on scholarship…85! Only 22 of those guys start and probably only 40 get game time at best. Interesting how that number 40 is approximately 50 percent of 85. That means coaches get the recruiting right about half the time.

There is a reason why the draft is on TV and LOI day is not. I bet the draft ratio of Success v Bust is more like 80/20. Why? Because NFL teams can’t afford to have the sideline littered with mistakes.

BYU Recruiting Roundup: Welcome—Now Get to Work

Quinn Gooch — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:14:44 -0500

Now that the dust is all settled and BYU has learned who they will be welcoming into the program, let’s look at who could be a possible impact player come August.

As a side note, I would like to address the absence of a few names on national letters of intent. To those out there thinking we didn’t get the players we needed—basically the “big three.” To those three players, I wish you all the best of luck; they made a tough decision with a lot of people breathing down their necks. Recruiting is a tough process, but having a good feeling about your decision after you’ve made up your mind is crucial.

Fans and players alike need to look towards the future and understand that one player doesn’t define a team or program—or faith, for that matter. BYU will thrive and continue to have success with the players that have a strong desire to play for a program that has been nationally ranked the past three years—only one of three or so schools to collect that accolade.

BYU’s program is among the top five in wins over the past four years since Bronco Mendenhall has taken over as head coach, and most importantly, our BYU Cougars haven’t lost at home in three years—that is truly amazing.

While some agonize about players lost, I prefer to applaud the way the current players have handled their business. To those players who made the decision to play for the Y, great choice and get in shape, because you get to play against some of the best programs in the nation next year, and the coaching staff isn’t going to settle for playing well or putting up a good fight. They are hard at work insuring that BYU will be ready to win. Dare I say a new quest has begun.

Here are the players that I think could have an immediate impact next August.

Richard Wilson

It will be tough for him to get playing time with both Dennis Pitta and Andrew George coming back, but this kid can play. He is smooth off the line and has soft hands and the ability to turn up the field after the catch and YAC it up. I would expect him to be a fixture on special teams and break into the rotation towards the middle of the season.

Kyle Van Noy

Like a few guys in this class, he has the body type that the BYU coaching staff loves. He has good height with the promise of gaining a few pounds and still maintaining his athleticism. I would expect him to gain some weight and break into the rotation at linebacker.

Remington Peck

Also has that great body type, which can add weight and help out in different ways. I think he’ll also end up on the defensive side. At 6′4” his body could develop in a way that would make him a defensive end or an outside linebacker.

One thing he needs to work on is playing lower. He doesn’t have a lot of bend in his knees, which limits his explosiveness. With proper coaching this can be corrected, and he’ll develop into a solid player with playmaking abilities.

Craig Bills

This kid can flat-out play! He’s explosive, loves contact, and has a nose for the ball. I would expect him to be a serious contender for a starting position—granted he can come in and understand the game mentally. He will definitely push Jordan Pendleton and Andrew Rich for a starting position.

One of his best qualities is his ability to break on a thrown ball and arrive in time to blow a receiver up. Seeing that type of “feel” from a high school player is promising. Craig also has great size to play the strong safety position. I have high, high hopes for the youngest Bills.

Peni Maka’afi

I think he could become a great inside linebacker. Honestly, we are set for a few years at the fullback position, and I think with Peni’s size and burst, he would make a great backer. I could also be a little biased in wanting all these players to be defensive guys.

Jray Galea’i

He is another Kuhuku product with great potential. He has a great burst and isn’t afraid of contact. He’ll add good depth to our secondary and be able to fill in when he’s needed. He’ll be a great special teams performer and will give the resident boundary corners some competition.

Cody Hoffman

Coming out of Sac-town, he has great speed and vision. He catches the ball with his hands—away from his body—and hits holes hard and fast. It will be interesting to see if he can break into the rotation and set himself apart from other “similar” players. Can he develop into another El Dorado Hills product, like the Collies?

BYU signed two corners out of the JC ranks who both have promise. Make no mistake, they were recruited to fill a need. Lee Aguirre and Brian Logan will get their shot. I am a little hesitant to say they’ll become starters—simply because I’m very skeptical of JC players who are All-World JC players, then show up at BYU and get lost in the mix. I’ve seen my fair share come and go.

Both players have some impressive highlights, and both have been highly productive on the defensive side of the ball. It will be an interesting battle between the Brandons and these two. I’m sure spring ball this year is going to be much more intense.

I’m sure there are other players that will come in and leave a lasting impression. Anyone else have any ideas of how will be the next BMOC?

BYU-Air Force: Cougars Victorious in Trap Game 71-50

Quinn Gooch — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:02:37 -0500

There’s nothing worse than playing a bad team on the road. They want to beat you so bad to turn their season around. You have to play to win and not play not to lose. There is a definite difference in your aggressiveness and overall mindset if you play this way.

Tonight we were a little tentative, and Air Force played like a team that is 0-7—loose and free. With seven minutes left it was 45-43 Air Force. Unfortunately for them they just weren’t talented enough to pull it out; they are a very poor basketball team right now. I believe we will double them up at the Marriott Center.

I was happy we didn’t panic tonight and pulled away at the end. We beat them 28-5 in the final seven minutes. So at the turn we are 5-3. We will need to have a good final eight games. 7-1 would be great.

I am disappointed in our zone defense once again; we just don’t get out to shooters. It’s like shooting practice out there. We need to extend that thing out and at least contest those shots better. You can’t just let someone shoot a wide-open jumper. It’s amazing Air Force only managed 50 points.

Against Air Force when you’re playing man, you have to get to shooters and just sit on the back-cut when your man is being dribbled at. If you do that they can’t score, but we still got back-cut tonight; we have to execute the game plan a little better.

BYU Basketball: Where Are They Now? Jimmy Balderson No. 23

Quinn Gooch — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:06:07 -0500

Intro from Mike Rose: Jimmy played on the team for four years and started three of those. He was one of the better scorers we’ve had in the program over the last decade. Scored like 40 a game in high school to give you an idea... Played on the Canadian Student National Team for a summer and led the team in scoring with 14.9 ppg. He was an asset for BYU because he was a rare player for us that can actually get right to the rim on penetration, so that really helped our team. Plus he’s a good guy.

Thanks to Mike and Quinn for asking me to share a few memories from my BYU career and what I am doing these days. First though, I would like to say good job to Quinn, for this site is definitely worth reading. I didn’t really know Quinn that well at BYU, but we did recognize him as the guy with the funny name that was always in the weight room.

I think that the football and basketball players have a certain respect for each other. Both Mendenhall and Rose’s programs require 100 percent effort and commitment with the ultimate goal to be a champion. So Quinn, I salute you for putting this together.

Second, thanks also to Mike Rose, who wasn’t much of a weight room star (except for curls—wow!) but has been able to provide some good insight into this season. Mike is one of my best friends as we played three seasons together and had some great experiences.

I am currently working in Palo Alto, California in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage. It is a great place to live, work, and enjoy life. The Silicon Valley moves at a fast pace; the days are intense and business is very competitive. I have learned to love this kind of environment from playing sports year round since I was just a little Canadian.

I am married, have an 18-month-old daughter, and have another baby girl on the way in April. The guys I work with can’t believe that I am married at 25, let alone will have two kids here soon. Lee Cummard used to bug me every day of my senior year, telling me how fast real life was going to hit me in the face once I graduated. Yeah, I guess he was right, but I feel blessed to have a good family, no lingering injuries, and a job.

It has been great to watch the football and basketball teams play this year. I have seen myself turn from a “too cool for school” player to a giddy BYU fan in just under two years. I even own a “Quest” t-shirt and have friends over to watch The Mountain.

I sympathize with the teams when they lose because I remember how they are feeling. Better yet, I remember the big road wins and the fun time on the bus/plane ride home (b-ball team will hopefully experience this soon).

When we beat Washington State my junior year, our first real road win, we were jumping up and down in the locker room celebrating as a team. Coach Rose came in after a minute or so and to our surprise joined right in the middle of the party (which has become a tradition).

There is not a better feeling than a victory for your team, your coach, and your school. This is what we worked so hard for and why the moments are so memorable.

Of all the things I miss, it’s my teammates I miss most. I always enjoyed showing up at the Marriott Center or weight room and joking around with the guys. We would spend at least 5-6 hours a day together about 11 months of the year.

We would battle it out on the court, but afterwards it was all good. I remember getting into an in your face pushing match with Sam Burgess one practice. Some PG-13 swear words were regrettably said (What the frick bro?), but afterwards we had an evening class together and were best of friends again.

There was never a dull moment or boring conversation on the bus or in the locker room. Austin Ainge even helped me break down the x’s and o’s on why I should marry my wife.

We all went through a lot together, and some great friendships were forged. Hopefully we will all be able to hang out again someday.

I was fortunate at BYU to be around some great people. I had some good administrators and advisors that believed in me as a ball player and as a person.

Most important to me was the influence from the coaches. I always felt that they cared about me being successful. Coach Wardenberg would hook me up with summer jobs or anything I needed, and I felt he sincerely cared that I was doing OK outside of basketball.

Coach Rose demanded a lot out of me, which I respected. He rode me pretty hard and made me into a better player. It wasn’t so much what I learned about the game as it was what I learned about myself. He pushed us hard in practice and required 100 percent effort and intensity at all times.

We always had three goals for the season: Beat Utah at Utah, win the Conference Championship, and go to the NCAA tourney. My senior year we accomplished all three goals, which I'll remember for the rest of my life. Not too many people get to celebrate a win at the Huntsman Center (I couldn’t resist including that). It is pretty clear that the basketball program is on the right track and improving.

Good luck to the Cougs in the remainder of the season. Win or lose, I will be watching.

Jim

BYU-Wyoming: Cougars Win 84-60 at Home

Quinn Gooch — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:06:52 -0500

OK, so Wyoming is not great outside of Laramie (probably the worst city in America), but this was a nice win for BYU to hopefully get some confidence going and propel us into the last half of conference play with some good vibes.

Jimmer must have seen the poll below because he made his case for MVP with 28 points tonight on 11-13 FG, and at halftime it was Jimmer 19, Wyoming 27. It was 19-20, but Wyoming pulled away in the last two minutes.

Lee Cummard wasn’t bad either though with 17 points, nine rebounds, and four assists. Those guys continue to carry us. We need JT to play better if we are going to do what we want this season; 2-8 FG, another struggle.

Wildcard: Noah Hartsock. I was really excited for this guy to play this year; he scored a bunch of points in high school and was the Oklahoma player of the year. So far, he hasn’t really gotten a chance and has mission legs still it appears.

I haven’t given up on him. I think he can still contribute this year and in the future, but so far he’s been less than expected. If he can provide some much needed bench scoring down low, this would be crucial, especially if Tavernari can’t get going consistently. Eleven points tonight was a good start; let’s see more of this Noah. C’mon bud!

Best case scenario: Noah works off his mission rust and begins to gain confidence and scoring consistently. He grows into a very nice 4-man for BYU, maybe even an all-league guy in three years. He uses craftiness and heart to overwhelm opponents.

Worst case: He was the player of the year in Oklahoma because, well, it’s Oklahoma. He never develops; the athleticism is simply not where it needs to be for a D-I player.

Next up, the Air Force Falcons; can we just get through that one please? Nothing worse than a trap game.

BYU-Utah Post-game: Good and Bad News from Cougars Loss

Quinn Gooch — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:11:03 -0500

Good news

- We played as hard as we have all season for 45 minutes. We were flying around and getting in passing lanes, diving on the floor, getting steals; we really battled tonight. I hope to see that every game; the effort was great.

- Lee Cummard was terrific. Lee had 23 big points and was aggressive as we need to him to be to win road games. He really hit big shots for us tonight.

- Jackson Emery was everywhere on defense; he’s fun to watch fly around.

- We shot 50.8 percent and scored 88 points on the road.

Bad News

- We couldn’t guard Luke Nevill. He had 32 points on 10-12 shooting, 12-14 FT, and nine rebounds. That is an amazing stat line. A few buckets were because of poor defense, as he was able to catch and lay it up easily. However, many of those points were tough eight-foot leaning hook shots; that is such a difficult shot I couldn’t believe he was throwing that in! You have to give him credit; that shot is not guardable if he can hit it consistently.

- JT takes a few quick shots every game that just kill us; it destroys our offensive momentum and rhythm.

- They were 31-40 on free throws, and we were 13-22. Free throws continue to hurt us.

- We lost. This puts us in a difficult position to win the MWC title, and if the season ended today, we’d be out of the big dance. Today we were the last team in according to Joe Lunardi, but obviously it’s early.

BYU-Utah: Previewing the Cougars' Quest for Five Straight

Quinn Gooch — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:07:43 -0500

We are attempting to beat Utah tomorrow for the fifth time in a row overall and third in a row in the Huntsman Center. This will not be an easy task, as crazy Jim Boylen will have the troops fired up and ready to run somebody over. He knows he can’t lose again or the fanbase will start to turn against him.

This is a huge game for them. We need to make sure it’s just as important to us. I think we will have no problem getting up for this game; we just need to make sure we come in with confidence. Our guards have to play excellent tomorrow as Utah has the advantage down low with 7′2″ Luke Nevill, who seems to kill us in this building.

The Huntsman Center has to be the darkest arena in all of college basketball, and they are the only team in the league to use the “Wilson Revolution” basketballs. This always seemed silly to me that we didn’t all decide on one ball for the league. They have the thickest seams I’ve played with, and the ball is really grippy. It’s not bad, just a little different. It’s the small things, you know.

These things and the fans create a nice advantage for the Utes, and they’ve been very good at home over the years.

The practice before the Utah game is intense. The coaches usually look tired from all night film, and you can tell how important this game is. There are so many reasons for them to win this game. Let me name one you might not think of: The coaches don’t want to deal with the boosters and all the people who surround the program after losing this game.

This is a win that makes all those people happy. They can talk trash to their cousin in Draper for another year, that type of thing. It builds support and momentum for a program when you beat your rival.

For the players, this is a great chance to come up big. This is why you practice; this is why you play the game.

Scouting Report

No. 50 Luke Nevill: 17.2 PPG 8.4 Reb

Push this guy out!!!! If he gets low post position early, I’m switching to American Idol because the game is over. The key is to keep him 10-15 feet away from the basket because then the guard on the same side can “dig down” and make him pick up his dribble, instead of having to double team with our 4 man and everyone scramble as the ball is passed out.

If we can guard him one on one and keep him under his average, we will win the game. If we have to double team all night, they will get wide-open three-pointers, and if they are shooting their average they win fairly easily. We need to make him run the floor as well to wear him out; our 5 man needs to run.

No. 21 Shaun Green: 10.4 PPG 5.2 Reb

Power Forward, shooter. We don’t want do have to double team off of him because he’s a knockdown three-point shooter. Double-teaming with our 4 man is called “monstering” the post. When he sets a ballscreen, we can just switch men because Tavernari can guard the guard coming off the screen, and our guards can handle Shaun Green, who is setting the screen. This is the easiest way to guard it. NO OPEN THREES!

No. 11 Lawrence Borha: 11.1 PPG 3.2 Reb

Good pump fake, stay down. He likes the pull up and shoot from 15 feet and occasionally will get all the way to the rack usually for a reverse lay-up.

No. 32 Tyler Kepkay: 10.2 PPG 1.2 assists

He’s a good player; he was a JC All-American. Likes to shoot coming off the ballscreen, and on the catch he will fire up threes. Second best shooter behind Shaun Green. No open threes!!!!

No. 15 Carlon Brown: 10.0 PPG 3.7 assists

Quickest player, best penetrator. Likes to drive and kick the ball out for the three-point shot from a teammate. Also he will pull up for that mid-range jumpshot. Don’t over-help when he is driving; make him make that floater in the lane rather than helping and he kicks it out for an open three.

No. 5 Luca Drca: 7.9 PPG 3.2 assists

Good player; off the ball screen he is dangerous. Loves to go behind his back when you cut him off on the penetration. He is a good post feeder and all-around passer. Also looks for the 15-foot jumper and will shoot threes off the catch.

Keys to win

* Keep Nevill away from the basket.

* Limit their three-point shots and makes.

* RUN!

BYU-San Diego State: Whew!

Quinn Gooch — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:06:53 -0500

What a relief!!! This is a big win for the Cougars to stay in the conference championship hunt. Coming off two straight losses, this was a real gut-check, and the team really responded.

You could tell they worked on the things we thought they might such as utilizing the ball screens, shot selection, and getting more off of the bench.

Big ups to Lamont Morgan who really gave that bench spark we’ve been waiting for tonight. 12 huge points, and several assists really made the difference in the game.

Lee Cummard was more assertive tonight, he tried to be aggressive from the beginning and Coach Rice ran some great sets to get him the ball in the low post, where he can be most effective.

Lee is averaging 11.7 PPG on 34 percent shooting in losses and 18.2 PPG with 60 percent shooting in wins, so we obviously need him to be “the man.”

Tavernari only had a couple poor shots(air ball) and made some nice passes, but I can tell his confidence is down, as I’m sure the coaches had a film session dedicated to him after that 7-22 last game.

He’s seems a little unsure of what to do now, but hopefully he will continue to penetrate hard and take open shots with his feet set.

To review how we did on the other end: Keys to win defensively:

1) Control Lorenzo Wade: He had 18 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist. If we can keep him under 20 points and 4 assists this is a success he usually kills us! Lee did a good job guarding without fouling tonight.

2) Keep Ryan Amoroso 15 feet or more away from the basket. Great job, Chris Miles. He was a nonfactor with only 4 points and 1 rebound. He actually didn’t play that much.

3) No offensive rebounds for SDSU! Not bad, only 6 for them. We can live with that.

Next up: Utes

BYU Basketball: It’s desperation time

Quinn Gooch — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:52:00 -0500

Game—Saturday vs. San Diego State

I don’t know if I’ve ever said that five games into conference play and the coaches always downplay this but this is truly a must-win situation. We can’t drop another home game if we want to win the championship.

But there’s some bad news: SDSU is a tough match-up and probably a better team than UNLV, who we couldn’t handle. We need to find an identity, we need to find someone to step up and be a leader.

Lee needs to be told that if he doesn’t take at least 15 shots a game for the rest of the year he’s being benched.

JT needs to be told to put his head down and get right to the basket, he can go by the power forwards guarding him we’ve seen him do it. Jimmer, just keep playing ball. And can we get some scoring down low or off the bench please?

BYU's Lack of Bench Scoring, Poor Low Post Play Cause Offensive Drought

Quinn Gooch — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:42:39 -0500

Against UNLV we scored one basket in the first 10 minutes of the second half after scoring 43 points in the first. What did we do at halftime, take a nap? One basket!!!!!!!!!!

UNLV guarded us the same way in the second, so it had nothing to do with any adjustments they made. It was an effort/execution issue. We also missed three lay-ups in this stretch and three wide-open three-pointers.

I think the lack of bench scoring is starting to hurt us. When we are struggling to score, who are you going to bring in?

Last year we had Jimmer coming in to score, as well as Collinsworth, and the year before that we had JT and myself, who were real scoring threats that could spark the team. Three years ago Balderson was probably our best scorer, and he was the sixth man, and Austin Ainge came off the pine too.

Look, we have some good players on the bench, including our best two perimeter defenders (Abuo, Morgan), but they are never going to go for 15-20 points, let’s be honest.

The other issue is that we’re getting few low-post scores. It didn’t hurt us earlier this year, but now is as we get into conference play; teams try to lock up Cummard and Tavernari and never have to double our post players.

Trent and Keena Young used to draw double teams. When our guys are being guarded one-on-one, they need to go score down low. We can’t rely so much on our “Big Three″ (Cummard, Tavernari, Fredette).

BYU-UNLV: Rebels Scouting Report

Quinn Gooch — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:51:15 -0500

This is a big game for the Cougars tonight because UNLV was picked to win the league, and a big game for me personally; living in Las Vegas right now, there’s no team I like to beat more than UNLV! Go Cougs! By the way, if the MWC tournament was in Provo, we’d win the thing every year too.

Scouting Report

Wink Adams No. 3

This is UNLV’s star guard and best player. We need to get to him on the three-point line, then control his penetration and make him hit difficult shots. He goes left to pull up and shoot and goes right to get to the rack. Don’t foul him! 13.3 PPG, 4 reb, 3 asst

Tre’Von Willis No. 11

Good athletic guard who transferred from Memphis. Keep him out of the lane and make him shoot contested shots, and we’ll be fine. Similar to Wink Adams, don’t foul him when he drives; make him shoot over the top and make shots. 11 PPG, 3 asst

René Rougeau No. 24

Engine of the team, their leader. KEEP HIM OFF THE OFFENSIVE GLASS! He loves to roam around and get his hands on a lot of balls, very active. Limit his catches, keep him out of the paint on penetration. Loves 15 ft. pull-up going left. 12 PPG, 8 reb

Joe Darger No. 45

NO OPEN THREES! Don’t help off him and make him drive. Catch and shoot player. 9.4 PPG, 4 Reb

Darris Santee No. 44

No low post catches; push him away from the basket to 12-15 feet and he can’t score. No offensive rebounds; keep him off of the glass. 7.3 PPG, 4 Reb

Bench

Oscar Bellfield: Play off of him and make him shoot; he wants to get right to the rim. If he hits his first couple, then get on him tighter.

Kendall Wallace: Good shooter, no help off of him.

X's and O’s

We will be guarding ballscreens all day and must do a good job of this if we want to win the game. There are four ways to guard this, and how we guard it is determined by the player coming off of the ballscreen and who’s guarding it, as well as the screener.

1) Trap until the pass: When the guard comes off of the ballscreen, the player guarding him and the player guarding the screener trap the player hard until he passes.

Why you’d do it: You have an extremely quick guard coming off a ballscreen; he’s a good scorer, but he’s not a good passer. The guy setting the screen is not a great player. You trap hoping to get a turnover forced or to ensure the guy coming off the screen doesn’t kill you.

2) Go under it: Easiest way to guard it because the post man is staying on his guy; the guard just slides under the ballscreen and cuts off penetration.

Why you’d do it: You have a guard coming off the ballscreen who’s not a great shooter or prefers to penetrate.

3) Go over it: No help from the post who’s guarding the man setting the screen; the guard has to get over the top.

Why you’d do it: You have a great defender who is strong enough to get over the top of the screen and stop penetration and defend the jumpshot, all without help from a post stepping out. This is hard to do if a good screen is set and the guard comes right off it rubbing shoulders. Mike Hall was the only one who could do this I’ve ever seen. You’d also do it if there’s a good post player rolling after he screens.

4) “Red” two dribbles: Stay with the guard coming off the screen for two dribbles so he can’t turn the corner before scrambling back to our men.

Why you’d do it: This is the way we usually guard ballscreens. It’s kind of a combination...so you stop the guard’s shot, his penetration, and then get back to your man. It’s difficult because it creates a scramble mode as people struggle to get back to their men and the other post or the weakside guard help on the screening post rolling down the lane while the post and guard are “redding” the man for two dribbles.

We will “red” Wink Adams and Willis and probably go under on Bellfield.

BYU Basketball: The Day After a Loss

Quinn Gooch — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:06:43 -0500

You don’t really sleep well the night of a loss. You just lie awake and think about all the plays that could’ve changed the game. You think about how behind you are in classes, and how brutal film room and practice will be the next day. You wake up, your body is sore, and it’s usually freezing outside, but you go to class.

Film room is at 2 PM sharp. This is no fun after a loss. The plays you thought about the night before are shown in front of the team.

People who are late on screens and don’t keep the player they’re guarding out of the middle of the floor and out of the paint are hammered. Players who don’t cut hard on offense or take bad shots are also shown. Players who don’t run the play correctly are exposed. There’s nowhere to hide in film room.

After the New Mexico game Saturday, the guys will have lots of clips to look at of poor defense and just lackluster offense. We took forever to get into our offense for some reason.

After film, we hit the floor and hit it hard. We usually start with defensive drills like guarding screens, close-out drills, 4-on-4 shell drill, etc.

4-on-4 shell drill is intense. We split into three teams of four, and the way to win the game is for a team to get seven stops. This drill is usually very physical; the point is just to compete like crazy and guard your guy. If we are not competing hard, everyone gets on the baseline and we run.

After each drill, the losers run, so you definitely are motivated to win every drill, and it encourages toughness and competitiveness.

During practice after a loss, it’s not unusual for tempers to flare and for scuffles to break out, for balls to get kicked to the rafters by coaches, for a box out drill to turn into somewhat of a tackle drill. You better come ready to play on these days.

This could be the reason we’ve never lost two regular season games in a row under this regime, because of the bounce-back competitive spirit that comes from the coaching staff and the team follows suit.

I guarantee the effort will be great against UNLV Wednesday; I hope I didn’t jinx them with that stat there about never losing two in a row...

New Mexico Lobos "Pit": A Great Home Arena

Quinn Gooch — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:04:13 -0500

“The Pit”, home of the New Mexico Lobos, is easily a top five arena in college basketball, and it is proven to be the loudest. We’ve won three in a row here, so we’ve had some great success.

I won three out of four years there, so I have great memories in this place. I believe BYU has the best student section in the MWC, but the Lobos have the best overall fans. The place is sold out all the time—even in down years!

When they have 15,000 seats that they can fill up constantly, that is impressive. If you ever find yourself in Albuquerque during the winter, you have to see a game. "The Pit” is built underground, and I think this adds to the acoustics of it.

New Mexico has an older guy who leads the student section. He is called “The Snake,” because he hisses at opposing teams. ”The Snake” is small, but tattooed from head to toe. He sits by the visitors bench, and is relentless. He calls out things about families, religion, and other topics.

It feels great to win, look right at “The Snake,” and smile. We are classy, and wish him better luck next year!

Keys to the game:

-Get out on the three point shot, especially on Toppert

-Control Tony Dandridge’s penetration. No layups!

BYU-Oklahoma: D is the Most Important Letter in Dallas

Quinn Gooch — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:06:55 -0500

OK DSB readers…you have been looking for something interesting to talk about this off-season, and boy do I have one for you.

Oklahoma has announced that QB Sam Bradford, TE Jermaine Gresham and Trent Williams will play for OU next season.

Are you kidding me? That game in Dallas just got a whole lot tougher. At the end of the year Oklahoma had the most efficient offense going and now they are all coming back.

They weren’t the most effective (couldn’t finish drives), I’d give that prize to USC, but if we don’t get it together on D, we could be in trouble.

The one thing that worries me about the game is that it is a Non-Conference Road game and it is the first game of the year.

Historically we have not done well on the road out of conference and I know that was a point of emphasis this year.

We also can’t afford to have the opening day jitters, because this OU team is a well oiled machine.

By Markell Staffieri

Jonathan Tavernari Pulls an Ian Johnson after Beating TCU

Quinn Gooch — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:42:44 -0500

We don’t need to talk about the game; it was a predictable blow out. TCU should have stayed in Texas. Sometimes I wonder why these teams even make the trip—for the frequent flyer miles, I guess.

The most entertaining part of the game was the MTN post-game show where JT (Tavernari) took advantage of the chance to propose to his girl on camera. This is so “JT” of him...trust me on this.

Anyway, congrats to an old teammate. I hope the wedding is great. Judging by the proposal, this will not be a simple, quiet wedding with just a few friends and family.

My theory: JT planned to propose after the Wake Forest game, in front of a packed house and with all the emotions flowing after a huge win. Then we lost at the end in a heartbreaker.

He didn't want to do it after Western Oregon and couldn’t wait for UNLV next weekend, therefore TCU it was.

This will probably not be quite as memorable as Ian Johnson’s proposal after the Fiesta Bowl, arguably the greatest game ever!

Don’t sleep on the Horned Frogs

Quinn Gooch — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:49:50 -0500

Player pts rebs assists
Kevin Langford F 13.2 5.1 0.9
Zvonko Buljan C 12.4 7.0 1.5
Edvinas Ruzgas F 11.8 3.6 0.8

We play TCU tonight at home and while I think we should handle them, they have played very well on the road this year with big wins at Texas Tech and at Colorado against the old Air Force coach.

They also beat UNLV who was favored to win the league. Unfortunately for them, we have their number and the Horned Frogs tire down the stretch, Cougs by 20 tonight. See above stats, these are the three players we need to stop, the two foreign kids can play. I think the return game in Ft. Worth will be a battle.

BYU Basketball Midterm Report Card

Quinn Gooch — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:22:54 -0500

As Quinn said, I’m Mike Rose. I’m originally from Houston, where growing up in the city I was the only white boy playing ball among a band of brothas...but anyways, I live in Las Vegas now with my wife and will have a son in two months... I look forward to some good and spirited discussion as the Cougs go down the stretch to a hopefully successful year.

Anyways, there’s a lot to catch up on, so I’m going to dive in. I want to post about what the team has done so far, then in later posts we will get more into where we are headed, as well as an individual report card for each player, so look for that soon.

I’d love to read any questions or comments with your thoughts. Quinn assured me that we’ve got some down-to-earth and informed posters on the site, and not the guys who think BYU football should win the national title every year because we’re God’s team...I can’t deal with that.

Overall grade: B+

We’re 13-2 overall, which is great, but really 3-2 in games that matter (Boise State, Utah State, at Tulsa, Wake Forest, ASU). We missed amazing opportunities at ASU and then to host Wake Forest in the Marriott Center, and those two losses could come back to bite us come Selection Sunday.

Utah State was a good win, Boise a pretty good win, with an amazing second half (we outscored them like 50-2), and at Tulsa was a really good win against a big athletic team who had won 28 straight at home.

I’d even throw in the Idaho State win as a good win because that was the biggest game they’ll play, and we handled them at their place. (That coach was hot—did you see him cursing my uncle?)

We’ve really only played eight bad minutes of basketball this season in my opinion (slight exaggeration, but you get it), but unfortunately they were the last five minutes of the ASU game and the last three minutes against Wake Forest.

That’s where we need to have a go-to guy. We need to get Lee Cummard in the post or Jimmer Fredette off the pick and roll. No Jonathan Tavernari fadeaway three-pointers...although he had a great look when it was 84-84 with about two minutes that could’ve turned the game for us. I don’t mind those shots, but the next one with like a minute left was a terrible, forced shot.

All in all though, this is a fun team to watch, and we have some real talent. (They really miss that redheaded shooter off the bench though, don’t they—jk.)

Offense: A

The team really shares the ball well. We shoot a high percentage, we’re taking good shots, and a lot of our scores are the result of an assist...this is always the case when we have winning teams because we don’t dribble into a lot of shots. We try to drive to create a good look for another guy, because most guys we recruit can stroke.

Chris Miles is doing a great job passing out of the low block. You’ll notice when the ball goes in, it usually comes out to a guy who’s in a good position to shoot or drive to the basket. This is another key component to the offense, inside-out passing; we work hard on this every day.

A lot of teams throw it into the post knowing it’s a black hole and not coming out...and when I first started playing with Chris he was a black hole, but he has really improved on not taking forced hook shots. The kid is crazy though, I’m telling you.

Offensive studs have been Jimmer and JT (Tavernari). Lee (Cummard) rounds out the “Big Three,″ and it amazes me how he floats around and gets his points somehow, but you never really know how or where he’s going to score and can be tough to plan on for big games. When I used to guard him, my real work started when the ball went up trying to keep him off the offensive boards.

Don’t get me wrong—he’s done a great job and can really shoot the three and 15-foot pull-up. One thing about Lee that is both good and bad is he’s not going to force it—he lets the game come to him. Lee is most productive in the post; we need to get him catches there more often!

We will talk more about the love-hate relationship with JT and the emergence of Jimmer in individual report cards later this week...

Defense: B

We had to play a lot of zone defense against ASU and Wake because we couldn’t guard without fouling. Dave (Rose) hates to play zone! He knows when we go to it we have a hard time rebounding because it’s difficult to box out, and they will usually get an semi-open three that we just have to hope they miss. It’s harder to control the possession and the type of shot they will get in zone.

In zone we need to do a better job contesting shots and then blocking out to go get the rebound. That’s always our struggle in zone (see the Xavier game, where we had to play zone and they out-rebounded us).

I love Coach Wardenburg (second assistant coach), but he struggles teaching this defense. I always wanted to bring my high school coach from Texas into practice; he’s one of the great coaches of this matchup zone defense. (Long/short slide anyone?) Another guy we could bring in is the ASU coach—they run a nice 1-3-1.

When we’ve been able to play man-to-man defense, we’ve been good. We have good athletes in Emery, Morgan, Cummard, Abuo, and Miles who can really lock-up. We really get a lot of steals this year. Though they are not great defenders, Fredette and JT get their hands on a lot of balls, as do Jackson Emery and Cummard.

Jackson Emery is a great defensive player, but asking him to guard James Harden (ASU) and Jeff Teague (Wake Forest)—no one can guard those guys...I am convinced that we have played the two best offensive players in the country in these two guys. (Did you see Teague go for 30 against UNC last night? Incredible!)

This fact, however, doesn’t justify some of those foul calls on Harden down the stretch. They really missed some calls where he was untouched and they whistled, or charged right through our guy for a no-call!

Individual report cards to come...go Cougs.

Season in “Short Review”: Offensive Line

Quinn Gooch — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:13:27 -0500

Let’s start this off where the game starts, and that’s with the Big ‘Ol Boys up front. Like every other position on Offense this veteran group came into the season riding a roller-coaster of hype.

So how did they deliver?

Aside from the trip to Ft. Worth, the O-Line played well all year. They were consistent in the run game and gave Max a great pocket. The only let down for me this year was that in 2005 and 2006, we had an OL that would get the two to three yards WHENEVER we needed it.

This group got it most of the time, but there were a couple times we really needed it, and couldn’t get it. Overall I would say on the year that these guys lived up to the expectations that were placed on them.

So What’s Next?

Travis, Dallas, Ray, and Oswald are all headed to greener pastures so what do we have in the cupboard in the form of a dominant O-Line? Great news for Cougar fans is that the QB protector (a.k.a. Left Tackle) is an outstanding freshmen named Matt Reynolds and we get him back.

The news gets better…we have two RM Guards in the form of Terrance Brown and RJ Willing who have plenty of starting experience that will also be back in the lineup. I believe that Ryan Freeman will also be back off his mission and if that is the case he will be a strong candidate for the starting Center job. Or possibly look for Coach Weber to move Terrance to tackle and let Freeman play guard.

By Markell Staffieri

I Tip My Hat to the Utes…

Quinn Gooch — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:01:57 -0500

BJ and company reduced Nick Saban to a babbling dunce in the post-game interviews. I’m sorry…sniffle sniffle…you just have to understand that we lost two of our starting linemen…sniffle sniffle…I should have kept my mouth shut.

If your team and program are so powerful, put in a backup (who was probably All-World coming out of High School) and they should have been able to hold their own.

Don’t give excuses because your star lineman would rather roll in a Benz than play for your team.

The Sabanator is no more, he will be known as Little Nicky until he bucks up and says he got beat by a better team.

The Utes did a phenomenal job of spreading the field, pushing the tempo, and stopping the run. Alabama had no answer for the Utah rush, with the Tide standing wide-eyed and dumbfounded on the sidelines the Utes pounced, creating a point margin that couldn’t be closed.

I will admit it, it was fun to watch. Some of the best TV shots of the night were of Little Nicky pacing the sideline, wondering where Utah is located on a map.

With the Utes winning there will be a huge discussion about where they should end up in the final rankings. I think that they’ll end up around No. 4, with the winner and loser of the NC game No. 1 and No. 2, and the winner of tonight’s Fiesta bowl No. 3.

It will be hard for Utah to demand a No. 1 ranking with the current system; hopefully the Coaches will vote their consciences and put the Utes in the top slot.

Next year could be their year, if they can put together an identical season. I think a non-BCS school will get their shot for a NC is they have two consecutive undefeated seasons and a BCS bowl win already on their resume, excluding Boise State. They’ll need to get out of the WAC.

When those requirements have been met, then and only then can they be thought of as a possible National Championship hopeful.

Or am I off base?

Recruiting…BYU just lost a lot of ground on Utah. If you were a impressionable 18-year-old, would you want to play for a team that has been to two different BCS games (winning both) or a team that should soon have the Las Vegas Bowl renamed in their honor; it hurt to say, but I have to be honest.

Bronco has a tough sell. Yes, he does have some very promising things to present kids coming out of high school; yet top recruits, from good high school programs want to win on the biggest stage possible.

Being a religious institution is one thing, but I wouldn’t bank on LDS kids coming to BYU simply because of their religious preferences. There are a couple things BYU has that no other school can offer, and those “competitive advantages” need to be paramount when recruiting quality players and personalities.

BYU has won the in-state recruiting war for the past couple of years, but this year could be different.

Bronco has strung together some good classes in the past three years (who should be coming home from missions) and will be ready to contribute in 2009-10.

That’s one of the tricky things with BYU. The Y has to plan for a mission which can open up recruiting needs or present challenges when guys are returning home after two years.

It is an extremely difficult balancing act the coaching staff walks as they plan to win games next year and in the future.

I don’t envy how difficult recruiting is at BYU.

Doug Jolley Dishes on His Super Bowl Experience

Quinn Gooch — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:02:43 -0500

This is an account written by Doug Jolley, a former TE. Doug actually came to BYU as a QB, I believe out of St. George, but ended up being an All-MWC TE and was drafted in the second round by the Raiders. Doug went on to play for the Raiders, Jets, and Buccaneers.

I have to preface this article by saying that Doug Jolley is one Cougar that I will always look up to. When I walked on in 2001, I was a complete nobody, and Doug always went out of his way to make sure I was taken care of. In our summer workouts before school started he let me use his locker so my stuff wouldn’t get stolen, and he and Justin Ena always made sure I had someone to lift with.

I have a lot of respect for Doug Jolley, probably more than anyone else I played with. He deserved to be in the Super Bowl, and I think you will enjoy his story. — Markell Staffieri

“Thank you, Markell Staffieri, for asking me to participate in this blog. I enjoy reading about the Cougs and getting the inside scoop of the goings-on in Provo and with the current and former players. Thank you, Quinn. You are doing a great job for all of us to keep up with our favorite football team. I was asked to write about playing in the Super Bowl, so I will do my best to express my experience.

"I played in Super Bowl XXXVII with the Oakland Raiders against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We had a great season, went 11-5, and won the AFC West. Our quarterback, Rich Gannon, had an incredible year and won league MVP.

"I loved playing for Rich. He took care of me, taught me how to run routes, and got me the ball. He knew what it took to win. It was a long, grueling season, but we were rewarded with a first round bye in the playoffs. We beat the Jets in the second round and the Titans in the AFC championship.

"The Super Bowl was held in San Diego that year. We went to SD the day after the AFC championship. I tried to treat the game like any other game and prepare the same way. That was nearly impossible, and our practices that week proved it. They were not as crisp as in the previous weeks.

"Tuesday was media day. We went to the stadium to meet the press and take pics. It was a mad house. There were celebrities everywhere. I sat in the stands and took it all in. Every day after during lunch we had press conferences. I hate talking to the media and think it is a distraction. There were amazing parties every night we were invited to, but I didn’t go. I would just go out to dinner and then try to get some sleep.

"At all hours of the day and night, there would be hundreds of fans trying to get pics and autographs. Raiders fans are amazing. They are very loyal, even during losing seasons.

"I have never gotten more phone calls than during that season. I had so many people calling for tickets that I put on my voicemail recording the phone number to call for tickets. During Super Bowl week, I had to turn my phone off. Each player was allotted 15 tickets. I could have used about 1,500. Face value of the tickets was $400. Scalpers were getting about $3,000 apiece for them.

"I remember calling my dad and asking him if he’d rather take the family to the game or have a new car. My family went to the game.

"One thing a lot of people will remember about that Super Bowl was that our All-Pro center went AWOL two days before the game. He was a good guy, but was an alcoholic and had bipolar disorder. The pressure got to him, and he ended up in the hospital and missed the game.

"The atmosphere at the game was definitely different. You could feel the tension in the air. During the game, it was hard not to think about how many people worldwide were watching. Because of all the festivities, we were in the locker room a lot longer than normal before kickoff. It was very quiet, guys were nervous, and we couldn’t wait for the game to start. It hurt us having so much time before kickoff, and we came out flat.

"Once the game started, though, it didn’t feel much different than a normal game. We got behind big and never recovered. We tried to make it close in the third with a couple touchdowns, but never got close and ended up losing 48-21.

"What I remember most about the game was Tampa’s defensive speed. After every catch I made, I got hit hard by about five guys. They were all over the ball. When they made interceptions, it was amazing how fast they were. I was at a loss trying to tackle them. I ended up playing with the Bucs in 2006, and Derrick Brooks is hands down the best defensive player I’ve ever played with.

"It was Bill Callahan’s first year as head coach of the Raiders and we were playing against the Raiders' previous year's head coach, Jon Gruden. This was a definite advantage for the Bucs. We were using Gruden’s offense, and he knew us (and our quarterback) inside and out. Often, we would get to the line of scrimmage, and John Lynch would call out the play we were running before the ball was snapped.

"I believe that if it weren’t for the Gruden advantage, we would have beaten the Bucs and been Super Bowl champs.

"Playing in the Super Bowl was an amazing experience, one I will cherish forever. It seems like a long time ago and I don’t remember all of the details, but I hope this recap suffices.” — Doug Jolley

Looking at BYU's Coaches: Lance Reynolds Sr.

Quinn Gooch — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:57:22 -0500

If you want the facts about the coach, they are always in the Media Guide. Here are the details that are always left out.

I knew Lance Reynolds from day one of the college football experience. Coach Reynolds is the recruiting coordinator for San Diego and was the first coach to pay me a visit. I really enjoyed the subsequent meetings with him, but what made me really like Coach Reynolds was his honesty with me. He never let me believe anything other than the reality of my situation.

He told me one day that I just didn’t fit the type of defense BYU ran (I was about 195 in high school, and BYU's LBs were about 245), but that I would be able to be a preferred walk-on. I played my senior year and went on my recruiting trip to BYU (with my future brother-in-law, John), and LaVell told me the same story.

Well, since that day Coach Reynolds and I have developed quite a relationship. My redshirt year I became really good friends with his son, Lance Jr. and I spent most of the year in their living room hanging out and eating their food.

Through every year at BYU Coach Reynolds remained someone that I could talk to about anything. If I had to give him a nickname as a coach, it would be “Old Faithful”—not just for what he did for me, but also what he means to BYU’s football team.

Coach Reynolds has been there from the start. He knows and has experienced more BYU football history and tradition than anyone else in the program. More than anyone, he knows what it is to be a Cougar. When the coaches thought BYU was a “Passing” school, it was Coach Reynolds who reminded them that BYU ran the ball in the “Glory Days.”

I would also have to say that he is the unsung hero of BYU right now. He is not the Head Coach or the OC, but he does more behind the scenes than the fans know. He may not have installed our new offense three years ago, but he installed all the blocking for it. He is a football genius in his own right and deserves more credit than he gets.

The great thing about Coach Reynolds, though, is that he is more interested in prolonging the legacy of BYU than starting the legacy of Lance Reynolds.

Aside from his constant presence, I always enjoy Coach Reynolds' constant demeanor. Whether he is coaching or just in casual conversation, Coach Reynolds is Mr. Cool. Everything is slow and methodical, and when you are around him, it is impossible to be worked up or frustrated. He just has that feel around him that really calms players down and gives them that quiet confidence.

Among players, Coach Reynolds is also known as the one coach that will really baby his stars. By this I mean that Manase, Curtis, Harvey, Fui, etc., they all have their one day a week that they don’t have to practice so that they can be rested for the game or the next practice. He rarely lets them do the really physical drills, maybe one rep, and that’s it.

We all give the RBs a hard time about this, but inside we are all a little jealous, because while our bodies feel like garbage, they seem to always be a little more fresh.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Reynolds. He is more than just a coach at BYU. He is a mentor and a father figure to young men who often are far from home and family.

Looking at BYU's Coaches: Paul Tidwell

Quinn Gooch — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:56:22 -0500

Coach Paul Tidwell became the inside linebackers coach my sophomore year, so I was able to be under his tutelage for three years. I would say that is enough time to get to know a man.

The thing we liked most about Coach Tidwell was that he didn’t always have to be right. When we were in meetings and he said something wrong, if we corrected him he would admit it (he wasn’t wrong very often), or if he didn’t know the answer to a question he would admit that too, and ask Coach Mendenhall and let us know right away.

Other coaches I have had would dance around a question or rationalize a mistake. Coach Tidwell did a great job of having us all on the same page.

Coach’s meetings were great. We had a lot of fun in that LB room. Every now and again in the middle of an explanation or teaching point we would look up at the screen that had some scout film on that was paused, and you would see that while Coach T was talking he also had a major tendency to doodle with the tele-strator pen.

Coach T is a lot like Coach Mendenhall in that he likes to use outside references and relate them to football. He loves history and is always reading some historic book. Every week he would have a quote from his latest read and would use it to motivate us to do great things.

My junior year we went through the book The Traveler's Gift, and every week he would have a quote sheet prepared along with our scouting report. I still have those and I love looking at them. They are full of great life lessons.

Finally, Coach T is a beast. He played fullback at Utah State (and he’ll be sure to remind you that was when USU beat BYU all the time) and is just an overall thick human being. I have mentioned before the stories about the third floor at Ogden High School, and I am sure that not too many guys messed with Coach T up there.

BYU Bowl Review and Offseason Teaser

Quinn Gooch — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:18:49 -0500

Wow—that’s all I have to say. I would break that game down, but the problems were obvious, and the Wildcats took advantage early and often.

The defense couldn’t find any answers for the short passing game, and when they did run complicated downfield route combinations, our defensive backs didn’t communicate and the ball went over their heads. It was a frustrating game to watch.

The offense...I really don’t have an explanation. Our offensive line continues to struggle with speed, and we could count on the long ball to Collie this game. Like I said earlier in the year, when you live and die by the long ball, your offense become too one-dimensional. When we couldn’t find anyone deep, we couldn’t move the ball.

It’s time to add some swirls to that vanilla bean ice cream.

Coming up towards the end of the month and the New Year:

Position by position breakdown.

Interesting look at each coach.

Looking towards the future, players etc.

Spring ball preview.

I’ll try to get some more about Bryan Kehl and other players, including Doug Jolley’s experience in the Super Bowl.

It will be good—football for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Enjoy!

Where Are They Now? Zac Collie

Quinn Gooch — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:20:51 -0500

First and foremost I would like to thank Quinn for giving me the opportunity to write my first and last blog entry. Seriously though…great job Quinn. This is the only Cougar Football website I will ever take seriously. I have to admit that since the end of my football career I have wandered over to a few different websites just to take a peek and WOW!! My two year old knows more about the game than most these people.

To answer the question of “Where are they now?” I am currently living in God’s Country…El Dorado Hills, California. Living in California is worth every ridiculous tax dollar I pay…well almost. Now, due to the financial Armageddon Governor Schwarzenegger declared last week it looks as if more of my tax dollars will go to making California what it is today (woo-hoo, thank you sir may I have another).

I am currently working as a Commercial Real Estate Broker for Cornish and Carey, a Commercial Real Estate firm based in Northern California. The hours are long and the work is hard but I love it. I am hoping to one day sport a sweet comb over and have my own realty show where I can coin an equally cool catch phrase.

My wife and I welcomed our second daughter into the world this summer (Ben Cahoon, it looks as if your theory is proving correct). They are perfect angels now, I am just crossing my fingers that they continue to be angels through high school. Two girls in High School at the same time…

Of my fondest memories at BYU none of them happened on the field. The countless hours spent in the weight room, field, and locker room helped to build long lasting friendships that I will take with me for the rest of my life. It was with these friends that my memories were built.

A few memories include; Curtis Brown lending an ear and some sound advice when I wanted to quit my junior year, Sunday dinners with Matt Berry and family, playing golf and training with Jake Kuresa, watching “24″ with John Beck, Matt Allen assisting me with a blessing for my wife who was about to give birth to our premature child and last but not least hanging with Quinn (the man behind this website) watching TV while our wives talked for hours on end without coming up for air. These are the memories that I have taken with me.

My current tie to the program is my brother Austin. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching him perform on a weekly basis. He has done more with four routes then other receivers have done with an assortment of routes to run. The year he has had has been a direct result of hard work. He has reached most all goals he set for himself as a youngster on Del Grande Court. Except for being a finalist for the Bilitnikoff Award (he didn’t have to win it, but you could have at least invited the guy…Jeremy Maclin??).

In regards to the state of the program, I believe this week’s bowl game will play a very big part in the Cougars future. We all know they can beat Colorado State, Air Force, UNLV, and San Diego State but can the cougars match up toe to toe with a team who has equal or superior talent. The past has proved otherwise. The Cougs are great in the Mountain West, however the Quest for Perfection, the dreams of going to a BCS game will be all-for-not if they do not start beating the teams with equal or superior talent.

Especially now that TCU and Utah have finally figured out the BYU offense (this will make things interesting in the future). I did see however, some sprinkles on that vanilla offense a couple weeks ago verse Utah. That was great to see!!

Being that this is Arizona’s first bowl appearance in years, I am very interested to see how they have prepared. I am hoping they get wrapped up in all that Vegas has to offer (and it’s a lot) and forget they actually have to play a football game. This is a regular home game for the Cougs…I hope they play like it. Rise and Shout!

Nate Meikle Reports on His Career As a Punt Returner

Quinn Gooch — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:08:59 -0500

Most everyone remember Nate Meikle getting smashed in Tucson, as he stood, helplessly gazing toward the desert sky, awaiting a punt. Here are a few of his experiences as a punt returner.

1999: Ricks College
Rexburg, ID
Grayshirt Season

“I’ll just keep hiding out on the sideline,” I tell myself as the players on the field are trying out for punt returner. The irony of the situation sinks in as I find myself wishing there were a way I could return punts without having to actually catch the ball. No doubt I could make some defenders miss once the ball was in my hands.

But looking up to the sky, utterly vulnerable, as 11 defenders with a 40-yard head start and combined weight of 2,200 pounds come sprinting toward me with the sole purpose of knocking me out...Yeah that’s why I’m still standing on the sideline.

Even more deflating is the headline I imagine showing up in the Post Register the next day, “Meikle Muffs Punt - Costs Vikings the Game!” I realize my style of play is great for returning punts but it’s dropping the punt and costing our team the game, the season, the national championship, that doesn’t really mesh with me. Yeah, I’ll just hang out on the sideline and sip some water.

“Meikle! Meikle! Nate Meikle! Get out here!”
“Busted,” I lament as I strap on my helmet and run onto the field.
“You only get once chance Meikle. Don’t screw it up!”
“One chance?” I repeat to myself. “I only have to drop one before they kick me out? This will be much less painful than I thought. I don’t think I could ever intentionally drop the ball, but since I’ve never figured out how to intentionally catch it either, I like my odds.

The butterflies in my stomach take flight as the punter kicks the ball into the air. I console myself by thinking this will all be over in about four seconds, the average hang time for a punt. I look up. The ball is coming straight down. It hits my chest, my hands…

“Meikle get out of here!”

I trot to the sideline smothering a grin that can’t even begin to express the relief I feel inside. No punt return for me this year.

2002: Snow College
Ephraim, Utah
Freshman Season

“So you’re the Snow College quarterback?” I ask.
“Blah blah blah blah.”
What does the receiving core look like this year?”
“Blah blah blah blah.”
“One of those guys is probably the punt returner, right?” This time I actually listen to the response.
“Yeah, it’s James Fontaine. He’s a solid punt returner and will back for his sophomore season.”

A sigh of relief and no need to smother the grin this time.

2003: Snow College
Sophomore Season

“So this guy Romney that’s coming back off his mission is a pretty good receiver and punt returner?” I ask offensive coordinator, Coach Trimble.
“Yeah he was a stud receiver and will also take over Fontaine’s spot at punt return.”
“Can’t wait ‘till he gets back”, I say. “More than you’ll ever know”, I think.

2004: BYU
Provo, Utah
Redshirt Junior Season

“Bryce sure has some guts, doesn’t he? The guy’s only a freshman and has nerves of steel out there catching those punts”, I tell the player standing next to me on the sideline.

I take a sip of water and do some quick math in my head… “2005, I’ll be a junior, Bryce will be a sophomore; 2006, I’ll be a senior, Bryce will be a junior. I’m covered.” Another grin.

2005: BYU
Junior Season

“Meikle! Meikle! Go catch punts.”
“Here I go again” I tell myself as I gasp for air and run toward the end of the field where punt returner try outs are being held.

“Drop one and you might be done, drop two and you’re out”, says a straight faced Coach Mendenhall.

As I wait for my turn, my mind and nerves are racing. If I ever wanted to drop a punt it’s now. To drop a punt in high school or even in junior college is one thing, but to muff a punt in front of 65,000 fans is an entirely different matter.

“Just drop it intentionally and it’ll all be over,” I think to myself. “Then I’ll never have to cost our team the game, especially a game televised on ESPN.”

“No, I can’t drop it intentionally, not with Coach Mendenhall standing right next to me. I’ve spent the last year of my life trying to do anything and everything to please him. If there is one person on this field that expects me to catch the punt it’s certainly not me—it’s him.”

I suddenly realize I’ve never played for a coach that has been so involved in punt return, especially not the head coach. He’s standing right next to us, fully aware of the added pressure his presence places on us.

I’ve always been able to give the full effort he requires but it’s the perfect execution he demands that’s the real challenge. He expects me to catch every punt. “Why does he trust me to do something I don’t trust myself to do?” “But I can’t break that trust.” “I can’t let him down.” “I have to catch it.”

The butterflies return as the ball is kicked high in the air, but my attention is somewhat diverted. I’m thinking more about not disappointing Coach Mendenhall than about how bad I am at catching punts. The ball is coming straight down. It hits my chest, my hands…
I jog to the back of the line. “I caught it! Thank goodness I caught it! I haven’t let him down.” “Ah crap, I caught it!”

After the first run through the line, there are still four guys left. My turn again. I want to drop it, but I want even more to meet Coach’s expectations. I cannot let him down. The ball is kicked, it turns over, it starts coming down, hits my hands… another catch!

I review the situation, “Ok, there are three of us left but one is Bryce and the job is his anyway.” “Just keep trying your hardest and you have nothing to worry about.” “I’ve never seen Bryce drop a punt and he won’t drop one now.”

The ball is kicked and I catch it again. Another kick and another catch. Another kick and another catch. Suddenly it is just Bryce and me. The drill goes for another few minutes, and neither of us drops a ball.

The horn blows signaling the start of the next practice period. “Next time we do punt return I want both of you guys back here,” Coach Mendenhall says.

“How did I do that?” I think to myself. “I’ve never caught so many consecutive punts in my life!” But I already know the answer—I’ve never tried so hard, never focused so much, and most importantly, never expected so much of myself. And then a more difficult question, “How did he get me to do that?”

As I start jogging to the next drill I glance over at Coach and he says, “Good job”. There’s nothing I want more than to get that approval. Coach doesn’t say much but when he does say something you know he means it.

For the moment I feel like I’m one of his guys, a guy he can trust to do what he asks. He can trust me today anyway, realizing I’m being tested every single day. I begin to think about how many days we will repeat the same drill – the pressure to catch every punt, at every single practice, for the next two years, with Coach standing right next me.

Will he really be here every day? Then I think back to the team meeting when Coach was chastising the entire team saying, “You can keep testing me, but just know this: I WONT GET TIRED! If you think I’m going to change…I WONT.”

A new pressure begins to overtake me. If he won’t get tired, if he won’t change, I will have to live up to his expectations every day. If I came through today I can come through tomorrow. “One day at a time,” I tell myself repeating one of Coach Mendenhall’s mantras. “Every day your best. One day at a time.”