BYU Football: Report Card Grades for the Cougars' Game at Texas

Last week, the grades for the Cougars against Ole Miss were decent, and improvement was expected.

Although the score wasn't all that different this week, the grades are.

Poor, poor coaching left all facets of the game down this week, and a ton of work for the Cougars to do to prepare for Utah in Week 3.

Here are the grades by position.

Quarterback: C-

Jake Heaps looked great at times, and downright average at others. While he made a few big throws, the sharpness we’ve heard so much about wasn’t there.

He finished 22-of-38 for 192 yards and a touchdown. But with two bad interceptions and a measly 5.1 yards per pass, it was an all-around mediocre-at-best performance.

But in Heaps’ defense, offensive coordinator Brandon Doman gave him almost zero chance to shine in the second half, calling nothing but a steady stream of dink-and-dunk passes to the outside, which receivers had no chance of gaining yards on.

Running Game: D

The backs fell victim to poor play-calling, similarly to Jake Heaps.

Doman consistently called runs to the inside when the Longhorns had that part of the line stuffed, leaving few plays for the outside where they had some success.

But overall the Cougars couldn’t even get to three yards per carry.

But it’s hard to blame the backs themselves for a lack of holes to run through, as well as a lack of any misdirection to try to open things up.

Receivers: D

Once again, vaunted receivers Ross Apo and Cody Hoffman failed to get any separation from defenders and left the passing game completely underneath.

This is sounding like a broken record, but the play-calling in the second half didn’t give them much chance to make plays, as the entire passing game was short—literally and figuratively.

O-Line: C-

After a stellar performance last week against Ole Miss, the big guys up front struggled mightily against the defensive front of the Longhorns.

Holes were small or non-existent for running backs, and Heaps was rushed on many occasions.

D-Line and Linebackers: C+

This unit showed excellent strength in the first half, leaving the Longhorns offense stymied.

The group showed well to start the second half, but were on the field an astounding amount due to the lack of any sustained offensive drives.

In the end, the lack of offensive productivity left the D on the field the majority of the time, and the defense just couldn’t hold up.

And in the fourth quarter, the bottom fell out, as the Longhorns weren’t pressured in the running or passing game.

Secondary: C

The secondary looked good in the first half. But in the latter half of the second stanza, the group looked fatigued and gave up huge plays, which led to a Texas touchdown, as well as a trick play to put the game away.

In their defense, like the backers and D-line, they were on the field a horrific amount of time in that half due to lack of offensive production.

Special Teams: B

Justin Sorenson showed us nice consistency in nailing three field goals in the 30-yard range.

But the coaching staff’s complete meltdown in play-calling and clock management before the half prevented us from seeing just how far he can kick.

The coverage on kicks remains a concern as the Cougars continue to give up chunks of yards on returns.

On the other side of the ball, Jordan Johnson nearly gave the game away much earlier with a fumble on a kick return, which BYU was lucky to recover.

Coaching and Intangibles: F

I’m not one to throw around F's willy-nilly—you have to really earn it. And the BYU coaching staff did just that Saturday.

It started with awful play-calling in the red zone in the first half, where the Cougars could have put the game away early.

Then came the complete meltdown before the half, which left the Cougars with no chance to score.

Then there was the packing up of the offense in the second half and uber-conservative play-calling that even Robert Anae would have been ashamed of.

And finally, was the complete lack of discipline and coordination on the final Cougar possession which, after two penalties from horrible snap delays, left them with a 3^rd-and-21 they had no chance to convert on.

I said repeatedly in my columns that a major unknown for the Cougars is Brandon Doman’s ability to call plays. Right now, he’s in a major hole.