BYU Football: Report-Card Grades for the Cougars' First Game

The Mississippi fans and media talked all week about how BYU would struggle with the size of the Ole Miss offensive line.

BYU allowed Ole Miss to gain a whole 64 yards rushing on 29 plays.

They said the humidity would expose the Cougars’ inferior conditioning.

Ole Miss players were on the ground injured all night, and when the game was on the line, the Cougars were the fresher, more energetic team.

And they argued that the physical SEC play would leave the Cougars withering in fear.

Instead, BYU dominated both lines of scrimmage and despite making terrible mistakes on offense and special teams, pounded the fearsome SEC member into submission in their own house.

Let’s grade the performance.

Quarterback: C+

On another team, in another year, this performance might have earned a B or higher. But the expectations for Jake Heaps are so high, and his skills are so great, that his showing against Ole Miss was only so-so.

24-38-225 isn’t a line BYU fans will get too excited about.

Heaps looked too amped early, and rusty in the middle. While he hit receivers, much of the offense early was dink-and-dunk style, and the running game was so good that it should have opened up more in the passing game.

Heaps missed many receivers, failed to complete anything downfield, and on many occasions failed to look off receivers to avoid telegraphing his passes.

And on the replay, it appeared he didn’t even try to stop the D-back who picked his pass and ran it back for a score.

That said, he turned it on at the end of the game and really showed how good this offense can be, and did so with the game on the line.

And there was little doubt that if the physical BYU defense hadn’t scored a touchdown, the offense would have marched right in.

Running Backs: B+

This group of backs was good Saturday. Credit the offensive line (later) but this group of backs looked to complement each other so well.

JJ Di Luigi was absolutely stellar, gaining close to 100 total yards and extending runs with shiftiness and speed. And he picked up 4.7 yards per carry.

While Brian Kariya and a headache-plagued Josh Quezada punished with their own runs, as well as opening huge holes for Di Luigi.

Were it not for the excruciatingly slow pace of play for the offense, this unit might have had an A day.

Receivers and Tight-Ends: C

The receiving corps only managed to haul in about 175 yards receiving for the night.

While Ole Miss certainly has speed, it was disappointing to see the lack of separation expected stars Cody Hoffman and Ross Apo got.

The routes weren’t quite as crisp as receivers coach Ben Cahoon would like, and while the tight ends grabbed a couple balls, there is still plenty of work to do with this group if BYU expects to compete against high-scoring offenses.

O-Line: A

The holes for the backs were perfect. The blocking schemes were executed flawlessly. And the only time the defense got to Jake Heaps was on a corner blitz which the back missed.

Right now, the strength of this team is this offensive line. It might prove to be the best in the country.

D-Line: B+

All we heard all week was how big and physical the offensive line of Ole Miss would be.

And the defensive line of the Cougars owned them. They forced a fumble and had the Rebels offense on its heels all game long.

Had this group picked up a sack, it would have earned an A.

Linebackers: A

We knew BYU had good linebackers. But Saturday we learned they might be great.

Jordan Pendleton pestered the O-line all day long, while Kyle Van Noy exploded through the blocks at the time it meant the most.

A this corps had a tougher job than you might think, and the whole of their success won’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet.

Ole Miss quarterback Barry Brunetti is considered mobile, and one of the jobs of the linebackers was to stay disciplined and make sure he didn’t pick up big yards on the ground. Mission accomplished...in every way.

Secondary: B?

It would be easy to give this group a good grade and move on, considering Ole Miss quarterbacks combined for just 144 yards.

But backup QB Zack Stout left plenty of questions in the secondary, finding success and open receivers against a defensive backfield that wasn’t challenged in the first half.

And every Cougar fan knows, in the back of their minds, that Ole Miss probably wins the game if an Ole Miss freshman receiver doesn’t drop a deep ball in the end zone.

So I give this group a B, but I don't know if it deserves it.

Special Teams: D

It started with a shanked punt. Then there was a huge kick return. And a missed field goal. And everything in between was mediocre to downright scary.

This group has a ton to work on. If not for a good point before the last two possessions for the Rebels, this group gets an F.

Coaching and Intangibles: C

First of all, to this point Bronco looks like he’s really an amazing defensive coach. The front seven was just plain awesome.

But the offense sputtered at times and the special teams was abysmal.

Brandon Doman showed us he still has a way to go to becoming a great play-caller. It was a bit predictable at times, and it was curious that repeated out-pattern passes were called at a time Jake Heaps was struggling with accuracy.

And the use of Riley Nelson was just plain bizarre. The timing was odd, the exchanges were awkward, and not surprisingly, the Wildcat plays failed to deliver.

While BYU fans want to see the ball in the air, the rushing game was clicking, but became a bit predictable, and was mostly limited to first down.

And beyond all that, the pace of play was just plain frustrating.

It’s well known by now that Bronco Mendenhall ended fall camp early due to progress by the team. The confusion and poor cadence of the offense Saturday made many wonder if that was a big mistake.

But on the plus side, the play calling on the Cougars' lone touchdown drive was near-perfect. Maybe Doman grew up as an OC right before our eyes.