BYU Football: Grading the first half of the 2018 season
By Shaun Gordon
The 2018 BYU Football schedule is halfway done. At lest the regular season is, since the Cougars still have a good shot at making a bowl game.
It’s been a rollercoaster season so far, full of some pretty high highs (Arizona, Wisconsin) and some pretty low lows (Washington, Utah State).
Almost any Cougar fan would have been thrilled if you told them before the season started that BYU would sit at 3-3 at this point.
Unfortunately, back-to-back blowout losses, one of them to our neighbors from Ogden, have dampened fans’ mood.
Here are Lawless Republic’s grades for each of the four major groups: Special teams, offense, defense, and coaching.
Special Teams – B
The Cougars are middle-of-the-pack in most special teams categories, such as punt return average, kick return average, and field goals.
Skyler Southam has a huge leg and can become a weapon for the Cougars, but he’s still just a freshman and inconsistent. His missed kick against Washington was big at the time, and missing both a field goal and extra point kick against Utah State just added to the pain of that game.
He’ll get better and more consistent (hopefully), but we can’t grade him out as anything above average at this point.
BYU’s above-average grade here comes in the punting game. The Cougars sit at No. 29 in the nation in punt return defense (4.38 yards per return) and No. 30 in net punting (40.45 yards per punt).
The punting game has helped the Cougars stay competitive in the field position battle, but that hasn’t mattered much considering the next group to be graded…