BYU football: Rivalry loss casts doubt on season, coaching

BYU football lost 19-13 to the Utah Utes, plunging their fans into a seventh straight year of being face-planted by their rival. They might have lost much more than a game.

Saturday night, BYU football did exactly what they couldn’t afford to do. They dropped the rivalry game.

‘Dropped’ being the operative term.

Despite numerous mistakes, turnovers, miscues, and head-scratching coaching decisions, the Cougars had the ball, down by 6, with about a minute and a half left to win the game.

But like an old game controller where a random button sticks at the worst time, the Cougars’ receivers suddenly developed an epidemic case of stone hands. And this at just when QB Tanner Mangum seemed to figure out how to throw a football again.

In the end, the Cougars trudged off the field, having submitted a seventh straight time to the Utes. And the price of that failure will not only be extracted from the fans, players, and coaches, but from the entirety of BYU athletics.

Yes, it’s that big of deal.

For recruiting, prestige, funding, attendance, fan loyalty, and especially confidence as a program, this game was important. And they lost. They lost far more badly than the score would indicate.

Did BYU improve?

Well, sure. But it’s not too hard in improve from a 27-0 black hole that never crossed the 50 yard line. There were lucid moments in the Cougars’ early season fever dream where drives happened, and the defense still looks very capable.

But some improvement didn’t stop every portion of the offense, at one point in the game or another, from screwing the pooch.

Bad protection here, a bad throw there, dunderheaded running everywhere. Clearly, the Cougars don’t yet have a back who can do something when the hole isn’t as wide as a castle portcullis.

The possibility of Ula Tolutau was dangled out there like dollar on a string. But after a successful series on a short field, he somehow saw very little time the rest of the game.

All in all, something was almost always wrong somewhere for the BYU offense. And when there wasn’t, it was too little, too late.

Offensive questions need answering

Needless to say, the offense has taken a step back from last year. And the year before that. And… well, this is among the worst a BYU football offense has performed in the last decade or more.

The question is: why?

Why can’t a veteran offensive line give consistent protection and open holes?

Why does no one in the Cougar’s stable of running backs display more than elementary field vision?

And why is it that receivers seem so passive and underachieving?

But some of the biggest questions center around the quarterback.

How is it that Tanner Mangum, the most prolific freshman QB in BYU football history, is no longer able to make routine passes without turning the ball over multiple times a game?

How did the man who was a bold gunslinger as a freshman in 2015, who passed for Hail Mary’s in his first two games, become a hesitant, average-to-bad QB who can’t diagnose a free safety blitz? Or read defenses much at all, really?

The most accurate answer is likely it’s a number of factors. That’s also the answer coaches are almost sure to give, too.

That, in and of itself, is telling.

Time for coaches to reevaluate

When it’s not just one guy or group or opponent, then obviously the problem is with the organization. Specifically, the offense as organized by Ty Detmer, Kalani Sitake, and staff.

It’s doubtful that something is wrong with the pro set offense itself. It obviously works in the NFL, and for Stanford, and for Wisconsin, and a number of other successful teams.

But it’s becoming increasingly obvious that that the BYU personnel as currently constituted are not able to execute it. At least, not how Detmer and Sitake have taylored it.

It doesn’t matter how great a play you call if your team can’t run it.

And that responsibility lies heavily on the ones designing the offense. Players have to make plays, but it might be time for this young coaching staff to take a long look in the mirror.

Season outlook—what’s left?

It’s hard to see many bright spots ahead of the Cougars this season. By losing to Utah, they’ve taken the thorny path.

A miracle win against Wisconsin this week might shine a little light ahead. But barring that nigh impossibility, the Cougars will slog through every game against a worthy opponent this season.

Heck, the way they’re headed, they’ll slog against everyone.

Maybe Utah fans are right. When one team continues to beat the other nonstop, without response, with barely a fight, well… it may not be much of a rivalry after all. Not anymore.

BYU football has fallen. And fans have to cling to the hope that somehow, they’ll get back up.

That’s the nature a true fan.