Assuming Manase Tonga comes back ...

[Hazzard]

... and is ready to go, I wouldn't be surprised to see some old school two-back, two-TE, one-WR sets this year.

I'm a huge Scovil/Chow/Mumme/Leach guy. In other words, I love how the old BYU offense has evolved over the years into the 4-wide, screen-heavy offense of Mike Leach, but down at the B-Y-U, where the Pirate played rugby and where the average 40-time among the receivers doesn't always end up on the good side of 4.6, wide receiver screens often look more like a rugby scrum than a beautifully orchestrated football play. Considering our personnel, the combination of Unga/Tonga, Pitta/George, and Jacobson might be too tempting for the coaches to resist. I'm not saying our receiving corps totally sucks, but it's the weakest part of an otherwise nasty offense.

If Bronco has proven anything, it's that he's not afraid to tailor his systems to his talent. And if the Utah game has proven anything, it's that we should have kept running the freaking ball and playing to our strengths against their weaknesses. Then again, I'm just an armchair guy who hasn't been to a BYU practice in two years. For those of you who always get into closed practices, talk to Brandon Doman on a daily basis, have lunch with Talo once a week, and know every player's uncle, tell me where I'm wrong.

Incidentally, am I the only one who's not sold on O'Neill Chambers? I know all those 18-year old Mormon chicks from Vernal go ga-ga the first time they see a cut-up black kid from Florida, but he looked a little slow to me last year on kickoff returns. Ronnie Jenkins he was not. It looked like a classic case of throwing a guy a bone by letting him return kicks so he can feel like he's a part of the team even when there are 5 other guys who are better at it just so he won't transfer at the end of the year. I see him topping out at the Mike Reed level - solid, but not spectacular.

[Indy Coug]

I'd be shocked if Manase is anywhere near the player he used to be, given his absence and late arrival. Ultimately, I think BYU will be most successful if they are changing up their offensive looks a lot and not relying on some circa 1970s I-formation, double tight formation the majority of the time.

Now, if you're talking about putting Pitta and George mostly in the slot, rather than lined up as down linemen and having Hall in the shotgun with Tonga and Unga as split backs, I might be more inclined to agree with you.

BYU has never proven themselves to be a consistenly good power running team and for every Utah game (where Utah's defense by and large conceded the run), there are the Utah State and SDSU games where BYU had every reason to dominate in the run game and failed to.

[cougjunkie]

I'd be shocked if Manase is anywhere near the player he used to be, given his absence and late arrival. Ultimately, I think BYU will be most successful if they are changing up their offensive looks a lot and not relying on some circa 1970s I-formation, double tight formation the majority of the time.

Now, if you're talking about putting Pitta and George mostly in the slot, rather than lined up as down linemen and having Hall in the shotgun with Tonga and Unga as split backs, I might be more inclined to agree with you.

BYU has never proven themselves to be a consistenly good power running team and for every Utah game (where Utah's defense by and large conceded the run), there are the Utah State and SDSU games where BYU had every reason to dominate in the run game and failed to.

I thought the same thing about Manase not being ready, however in speaking with a player he said he is in fairly good shape right now and reminded me that Manase started a few months removed from his mission. He thinks he will be fine.

[Hazzard]

I'd be shocked if Manase is anywhere near the player he used to be, given his absence and late arrival. Ultimately, I think BYU will be most successful if they are changing up their offensive looks a lot and not relying on some circa 1970s I-formation, double tight formation the majority of the time.

Now, if you're talking about putting Pitta and George mostly in the slot, rather than lined up as down linemen and having Hall in the shotgun with Tonga and Unga as split backs, I might be more inclined to agree with you.

BYU has never proven themselves to be a consistenly good power running team and for every Utah game (where Utah's defense by and large conceded the run), there are the Utah State and SDSU games where BYU had every reason to dominate in the run game and failed to.

I don't think we'd go old school every play, but maybe a lot more frequently than we have in the past few years. And yes, I was thinking of Hall in the shotgun with Pitta and/or George perhaps flexed out a little as hybrid TE's/slots, but sometimes just in pure double-tight sets with Hall under center as well.

I don't expect us to be a consistently good power running team -- that's not what the offense is designed to do, and that's especially not what our TE's are trained to do -- but with our personnel I think we can do it more this year than we have in past years.

[Katy Lied]

but down at the B-Y-U, where the average 40-time among the receivers doesn't always end up on the good side of 4.6, wide receiver screens often look more like a rugby scrum than a beautifully orchestrated football play.

Not just speed; Utah's had plenty of speed at the wideout position, but if you're going to call laser screens with Ron McBride ubiquity, the LBs will eat that up for breakfast.

(Im assuming you remember MAFU since you're harkening back to Scovill)

O'Neill Chambers looked a little slow to me last year on kickoff returns.

His problem has never been with speed, it's with his head. I think he hesitates in committing to picking a path.

ALthough... it looks to me like ONC has good closing speed, not good bursting speed which I assume he needs when fielding kickoff returns.

[il Padrino Ute]

Not just speed; Utah's had plenty of speed at the wideout position, but if you're going to call laser screens with Ron McBride ubiquity, the LBs will eat that up for breakfast.

So true - nobody wasted speed like Mac. I love the guy, but he would never take advantage of the speed on his team. The prime example: Steve Smith.