BYU Football: Lessons Learned from the Holy War heartbreak

BYU Football outplayed Utah throughout the majority of Saturday’s rivalry game, but in key moments the Cougar coaching let the game slip away.

BYU Football has made a habit of pulling defeat from the jaws of victory in the Holy War.

In six of the Cougars’ eight consecutive losses to Utah, they’ve had at least one opportunity to win the game late, but failed every singe time.

And Saturday’s collapse may be the most painful of all, since BYU dominated both sides of the ball for a majority of the game. But the playcalling became too conservative too early, allowing the Utes to storm back and pull out another Holy War win 35-27.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the loss:

Credit Corbin

Corbin Kaufusi is all that’s right with sports.

In an era where we see players sit out bowl games to protect their draft status, Kaufusi put off surgery to have one more chance to help his team take down Utah.

He’ll undergo three surgeries and miss the bowl game, so we’ve seen the last of Corbin in a BYU uniform, but we wish him nothing but the best going forward.

The Hadley Effect

Last week we tipped our cap to Matt Hadley, who seamlessly switched from defense to offense and become the most reliable rusher for BYU.

He and Zach Wilson kept the rushing game alive against Utah’s stout run defense, and losing him in the second half to injury certainly didn’t help when the Utes came roaring back.

Not-So-Special Teams

BYU’s special teams unit certainly didn’t help the Cougars much. Their lone bright spot came early in the game when Dayan Ghanwoloku recovered a fumble on a BYU punt.

Shortly after that Skyler Southam missed a PAT that would prove very costly at the end of the game, and Rhett Almond struggled mightily with his punting, with kicks of just 32, 30, 32, 15, and 38 yards.

Brilliant Game Plan

Give credit to BYU’s coaches on both sides of the ball. Their game planning was spot on.

On offense the Cougars attacked the mid-range passing game, keeping Utah from stacking the box. That opened up running lanes, giving BYU their most balanced offensive performance against a top-tier opponent this season.

Defensively the Cougars attacked the line of scrimmage, shutting down the running game and aggressively hounding the ball.

That’s how BYU got out to a 27-7 lead.

Abandoning the Brilliant Game Plan

Once the Cougars reached that 27-7 lead with 20 minutes of game time left to play, BYU’s coaches went away from the plan that worked. The Cougars played conservatively on both sides of the ball, and that gave the Utes their window to storm back.

On defense BYU slipped into a prevent defense, which failed to prevent anything. Utah scored four straight touchdowns against the softer Cougar coverage after BYU completely shut the Utes out in their first eight possessions.

And on offense the Cougars abandoned that mid-range passing game. In their two possessions following their final touchdown, BYU never threw a pass more than five yards down the field. It wasn’t until Utah took the lead that the offense tried to open up the field again.

That’s how BYU lost their 27-7 lead.

Learning Lessons

So far, this young coaching staff has been able to recognize mistakes and make the necessary corrections.

After back-to-back defensive nightmares against Utah State and Washington, the defensive coaches ramped up the aggression.
After the offensive no-show against Northern Illinois, the offensive coaches began using the pass game to open up the run game.
After the field goal fest in Boise, the offensive coaches changed their approach in the red zone, and the Cougars found the end zone with regularity.

Now the coaches have another lesson to learn – play to win, even when you’re winning comfortably.

Once you start playing not to lose, that’s exactly what happens.

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