BYU Football: Is a pass-heavy offense really BYU’s DNA?

BYU Football needs to honor the past with victories, and that doesn’t necessarily come by trying to emulate how they did it in previous years.

Last Friday, BYU legend Steve Young stated that throwing the ball is in BYU Football’s “DNA,” and that BYU should aspire to “fulfill the measure” of its DNA by becoming a premiere passing offense.

Young’s message resonated with those in the BYU fanbase that yearn for the days of old, when BYU and a handful of other programs spurned the wishbone and the option in favor of a pass-heavy offensive attack.

Recent Struggles

After a brutal 2017 season, it is hard to fault those who bemoan Tanner Mangum’s meager 2018 passing stats. In BYU’s heyday (1976 to 1991), it had six All-American quarterbacks, one Heisman Trophy winner, and three Davey O’Brien award winners (Ty Detmer was an All-American and two-time O’Brien winner).

When BYU’s quarterbacks were raking in accolades, the passing attack was a relative novelty in the college game. BYU passed the ball because it didn’t have the athletes to beat national-level programs at their own ground-based game.

Through the 80s and 90s, high school programs incorporated the pass into their playbooks, resulting in more capable college quarterbacks and receivers who went on to play for college teams that recognized the value of a sound passing attack.

As passing plays found their way into college playbooks, awards and recognition for BYU quarterbacks slowed to a trickle, with only two All-American quarterbacks in the last 27 years. Perhaps this drop off is due to a lack of talent in the post-Detmer years.  It seems more likely that the level of quarterback play increased across the board, and pass defenses became more savvy as a result.

There is Still a Place for the Pass

Notwithstanding, no one disputes the importance of a sound passing attack in BYU’s current offense. BYU Offensive Coordinator Jeff Grimes admitted that he’s displeased with BYU’s passing woes. His frustration is reflected in the most recent shakeup of the wide receivers’ depth chart. Two exceptionally gifted athletes—Micah Simon and Akile Davis—are backing up less athletic receivers because Simon and Davis are struggling to catch passes thrown their way.

Since being hired, Grimes has preached a gospel of offensive balance in order to keep defenses on the ropes. So, the question isn’t whether BYU should pass the football, but the extent to which the passing attack is preeminent in Grimes’s offense.

Who’s your Daddy?

If we run with Young’s strained metaphor, each person inherits his or her parents’ DNA. In an all-male, asexual sport like college football, BYU’s offensive attack gets all of its genes from its daddy—Jeff Grimes. Like a new family moving into a rural Utah town, Grimes and his staff have invigorated BYU’s gene pool. In this way, Grime’s is staying true to BYU’s DNA because he’s its source.

Innovation Perpetuates LaVell’s Legacy

This is not to say that the past is irrelevant. When LaVell Edwards was promoted to BYU’s head coach from defensive coordinator in 1972, no one could have predicted the success that lay in store for BYU Football and “the forward pass” under his leadership.

Offensively, he was most familiar with the single wing offense, a run-based scheme. And yet, he and his assistants saw an opportunity by bucking convention and developing an offense that capitalized on BYU’s ability to recruit and develop large offensive linemen, pass-hungry quarterbacks (is there any other reason Jim McMahon came to BYU?), and smart, versatile (if not a half-step slow) receivers and backs.

In principle, isn’t this the same thing Kalani Sitake and Jeff Grimes are doing in 2018? In today’s game, there’s nothing novel about passing the football. Just as Edwards spurned the single wing for the air attack, BYU is again altering its offensive scheme to capitalize on the strengths of its talent pool.

If doing so means BYU Football has to break with one tradition (a pass-centric offense) to restore another (winning football games), then BYU is living up to its legacy, “genetic” or otherwise, by aspiring to victory and staying true to its innovative history.