BYU football: The Cougars may be close to an offensive breakthrough

Motion

If there was one big improvement that I saw watching the Utah game, it was the fact that the BYU football didn’t look so predictable every play. Instead of having everyone set fifteen seconds before the snap, players were motioning and moving positions before the snap. This kept the Utah defense moving and did not allow much time for them to analyze the Cougar offense.

One motion that I consistently saw was the wide receivers motioning either into the offensive line or running either a sweep play or a fake sweep play. The Utah defense struggled to read this motion by the Cougars, and it led to quite a few good plays.

LSU did this a lot to BYU in week two of the season. The Cougar defense looked lost and confused all game. Motion worked extremely well for the Tigers and the Cougars adapted that into their own offense. If the Cougars are able to use some more shifts before the snap, they should continue to find success in this area.

Bringing it all together

BYU football is starting to get it figured out.

Although I’m certainly no coach, I believe that running a faster paced offense will give Mangum the confidence he needs to throw for 250 yards or more. Giving the ball to Tolutau to wear out defenses and mixing in Squally Canada and Kavika Fonua will give the Cougars a running game, which in return will open up the passing game. Finally, when the Cougars are getting ready to snap the ball, having two or three players motioning and changing positions will not allow defenses to analyze the offense.

I really believe that combining these three things should get the Cougars close to the expectations we had in the preseason.