2024 BYU Football - Year 2 in the Big 12

[The_Tick]

BYU vs. KSU is announced at an 8:30 MST start time on ESPN. Oof.

Time to get the hotel.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Am I the only one who is happy with ARod’s play calling?

Generally his offense works. The only play I was really frustrated with was on the fourth and inches that was a disaster. Put the QB under center and sneak it.

This is nothing like the Detmer days where the offense just wasn’t working. ARod’s plays generally get yards and move the ball.

It seemed clear to me that the issue Friday night was the QB play. The turnovers and bad throws were the main problem. Last year the issue was the O-line, which seems much improved this year.

I think ARod probably is a bad recruiter, which may need to cost him his job, but I don’t think he is a bad play caller.

I'm happy with A-Rod as a player caller, recruiter, and offensive coordinator at BYU. Although, I do think that BYU should bring back Ty Detmer. Make him the head coach in waiting.

[Shaka]

I think he's hamstrung a bit by injuries and Retz limitations. Still, when you go 2/13 on third down you aren't calling a great game. I'll give grace on one of the interceptions but other than that Retz didn't have a good game and should be on a short leash. I'm not sure about Bohanon but he's the next man up and should probably get a shot if Retz can't make more progress. One thing I do know is that Hillstead is undersized but he can ball out.

[originalsocal]

I think he's hamstrung a bit by injuries and Retz limitations. Still, when you go 2/13 on third down you aren't calling a great game. I'll give grace on one of the interceptions but other than that Retz didn't have a good game and should be on a short leash. I'm not sure about Bohanon but he's the next man up and should probably get a shot if Retz can't make more progress. One thing I do know is that Hillstead is undersized but he can ball out.

The 2/13 on 3rd down is a big deal. For whatever reason we are not making enough progress on 1st and 2nd downs to make the 3rd down easy. We've gone for it on 4th quite a few times this year. Last year it was a line problem, this year it's a RB problem. We might have to go to the new young RBs that I heard were going to be so great. ARod has to be sweating bullets.

[Jeff Lebowski]

The 2/13 on 3rd down is a big deal. For whatever reason we are not making enough progress on 1st and 2nd downs to make the 3rd down easy. We've gone for it on 4th quite a few times this year. Last year it was a line problem, this year it's a RB problem. We might have to go to the new young RBs that I heard were going to be so great. ARod has to be sweating bullets.

LJ and Ropati are both out.

[BigPiney]

BYU vs. KSU is announced at an 8:30 MST start time on ESPN. Oof.

Time to get the hotel.

I was off by a 1/2 hour.

Looks like it will be a long day for me.

[Goatnapper'96]

Am I the only one who is happy with ARod’s play calling?

Generally his offense works. The only play I was really frustrated with was on the fourth and inches that was a disaster. Put the QB under center and sneak it.

This is nothing like the Detmer days where the offense just wasn’t working. ARod’s plays generally get yards and move the ball.

It seemed clear to me that the issue Friday night was the QB play. The turnovers and bad throws were the main problem. Last year the issue was the O-line, which seems much improved this year.

I think ARod probably is a bad recruiter, which may need to cost him his job, but I don’t think he is a bad play caller.

I don't know enough about football to complain about play calling of a college OC. Especially one who has enjoyed above average success until the last two seasons. I think reasonable people can be concerned about the cratering of the OL performance last year and the poor QB recruiting and development. Last year BYU failed to make a bowl game and IMO that means the program underachieved-IMO the causes are many but certainly poor qb play and poor OL play were a very big part of it. I think the OC bears some culpability for that.

But as far as play calling - he is 2-0 so so far so good. But as they say "the shit is gunna get real" after WYO.

[Pelado]

I don't typically like to harp on playcalling. It's easy to criticize in retrospect because we know that the called plays didn't work. But there can be lots of reasons that called plays don't work that have very little to do with the playcaller. And while there may have been other plays that would have worked better in any particular situation, alternative plays might have ended up even worse.

That said, there were at least a couple of times in the SMU game in which I felt the playcalling was a bit stale and/or predictable. On the first play of a possession starting deep in BYU's own territory, I was expecting the call would be a run up the middle and was hoping they'd run play action and take a shot over the top. SMU seemed to expect the same thing, so the run up the middle was stopped for little to no gain, iirc.

Of course, the result of my preferred play might have been even worse - a sack for a significant loss of yardage or even a safety, an interception, who knows what.

The announcers said at the beginning of the game that the plan was to get LJ Martin 20-ish touches. When LJ went out in the first quarter, I think they were slow in making adjustments to the game plan to spread the ball around to other playmakers who were still in the game.

[Omaha 680]

Kind of a silly metric after only week 2, but I'll take it.

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[Jeff Lebowski]

Kind of a silly metric after only week 2, but I'll take it.

Lol. What does that even mean?

[SteelBlue]

Lol. What does that even mean?

Wins based on strength of record (I had to google it).

[Sizzle]

I think he's hamstrung a bit by injuries and Retz limitations. Still, when you go 2/13 on third down you aren't calling a great game. I'll give grace on one of the interceptions but other than that Retz didn't have a good game and should be on a short leash. I'm not sure about Bohanon but he's the next man up and should probably get a shot if Retz can't make more progress. One thing I do know is that Hillstead is undersized but he can ball out.

I agree that ARod doesn't feel comfortable with Retz / fully trust him based on the play calling. Felt like he was calling a game to avoid mistakes, especially after the second INT (which, maybe that's what he had to do to get the win, something I'm grateful for).

However... if you're the Offensive Coordinator at the collegiate level, and you feel hamstrung by your Week 1 starting QB's limitations, I'm going to put that back on you as the Offensive Coordinator. You have to make sure your pipeline at the most important position is better stocked with options.

I'll also add, LJ's vision as a RB is so much better than Ropati's. It feels like LJ understands how to run in a zone scheme – stretch, feel, see the lane, cut and go. It feels like Ropati is trying to just run downhill always, picking where he wants the hole to be instead of seeing where it develops. Hopefully LJ isn't out long, because our offense moved much better with him in – and being a threat to run the ball consistently.

[Pelado]

I agree that ARod doesn't feel comfortable with Retz / fully trust him based on the play calling. Felt like he was calling a game to avoid mistakes, especially after the second INT (which, maybe that's what he had to do to get the win, something I'm grateful for).

However... if you're the Offensive Coordinator at the collegiate level, and you feel hamstrung by your Week 1 starting QB's limitations, I'm going to put that back on you as the Offensive Coordinator. You have to make sure your pipeline at the most important position is better stocked with options.

I'll also add, LJ's vision as a RB is so much better than Ropati's. It feels like LJ understands how to run in a zone scheme – stretch, feel, see the lane, cut and go. It feels like Ropati is trying to just run downhill always, picking where he wants the hole to be instead of seeing where it develops. Hopefully LJ isn't out long, because our offense moved much better with him in – and being a threat to run the ball consistently.

Yes.

[myboynoah]

There's a chance!

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[Applejack]

There's a chance!

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Dammit!! The rising injury cost us more than I thought!!