BYU bowl prep

[Art Vandelay]

It was a lot harder to make a bowl in Lavell's day and I'd argue that competition has generally not been similar. Maybe in the mid to late 90's but not before.

Excellent point.

I think there are two different arguments to be made. a) Is Bronco doing enough to prepare for the bowls, regardless of competition (he doesn't get much of a choice as to who BYU plays)? I think the data would suggest yes. b) Is Bronco wasting practice time and how does this affect the following season? Much harder to prove correlation or causation. Much anecdotal accounts exist of coach's talking about how "valuable" this time is for younger players. However, I have a hard time seeing how 4 or 5 extra practices in December translates much to next August. I could see how it might help some of the players and coaches be better prepared for spring ball, since they got more reps or looks at different positions. However, I think spring time as a team and summer individually have a much bigger impact on how prepared a team is to start the year.

[pellegrino]

Yeah, I think at this point everyone knows this is par for the course with Bronco. I could have swore we have had discussions the previous years about Bronco not using all of his practices. I think the issue this year is highlighted because it's a later date for a bowl game than we usually see.

In years past he had the excuse of playing several days before Xmas, so while we were frustrated that not all the practices were being used, we let it go because it seemed there wasn't enough time. That's clearly not the case this year, as we aren't starting our prep until about the time we would have been playing in the Vegas Bowl.

I read about this, and like Lebowski I was too pissed to do say about it. I'm tired of Bronco's big talk (NC for BYU, return to glory) and then being frustrated when his actions clearly don't match up. I've tuned out. I may not even watch the bowl game this year.

[pellegrino]

This isn't nearly as big of a deal as people are making it out to be.

The team has mandatory workouts for most of these days. Letting the players concentrate on finals makes a lot of sense when you consider the difficulty of keeping some of them academically eligible. Also this gives time to get as healthy as possible. The team will get more prep than they usually get prior to a game.

While I can't point to examples other than Tulsa this year I've always understood that it is fairly common not to use all the alloted practices when prepping for bowls.

Personally I'd probably mix in a couple more practices than Bronco. With that said Bronco has a pretty good bowl record so I'll defer to his judgement.

The real benefit of going to a bowl game is that you have extra time to develop players. We clearly don't use that. Now I feel that I have to research how good and exceptional programs approach bowl prep and see where Bronco fits in on that scale.

[Blueintheface]

If BYU can't get ready to play Tulsa with 8-10 practices, I'm not sure what difference anyone thinks another 5 practices will provide. The team has already had thousands of practice reps over the past 5 months and the coaches know better now than in August what plays will work and how to use their personnel. 1.5 weeks is more than enough time.

You missed the point entirely but that is par for the course.

[MarkGrace]

Bronco thinks you get bonus points for making things harder on yourself. Playing more walkons, going home early, fewer practices, etc.

[Blueintheface]

Bronco thinks you get bonus points for making things harder on yourself. Playing more walkons, going home early, fewer practices, etc.

We don't worry about what the opponent is doing, we worry about, that is to say, the most emphasis we place upon our preparation, as it relates to our opponent, is to what schemes we are running and what we need to do to prepare to win the position battle on each side of the ball. We take our preperation time, the 3 minutes we have a full contact each practice, and run our sets at full speed anticapting that the leverage we achieve will emphasis the hard work and determination that we demonstrate each and every game. In your opinion does this incoherent rambling make me more appealing to the Quorum of the Twelve?

[Indy Coug]

You missed the point entirely but that is par for the course.

No I get the overblown (which is par for your course) point you are trying to make.

[Blueintheface]

No I get the overblown (which is par for your course) point you are trying to make.

Do you? Than why at least tiwice in this thread have you made mention of the Tulsa prep? We could spend 5 or we could spend 12 practices preparing for Tulsa and it wouldn't matter. We are going to win or lose that game based on how interested or disinterested the players are. Yes, they'll prepare for whatever they watched on film and implement a few things but that game isn't what this practice season is for. If you don't think it should matter to the FOOTBALL COACH what he has in store for spring practice than you're a bigger BYU apologist than I had previously given you credit for.

Incidentally, BYU finals ended for 90% of the student body before the first allowed practice day. What? Bronco's full of shit? I for one am shocked.

[Jarid in Cedar]

[jay santos]

It seems like a big deal to me.

Our offense was clearly not ready this fall. OL jumping offsides constantly, problems getting plays in, guys not knowing the formations. We have the anecdote from the ESPN practice video where Reynolds wants to go over a play that wasn't looking sharp and Doman says "no we don't have time". Meanwhile Bronco says we're way ahead of schedule and cancels a practice in fall camp.

Further, we have a team full of QB's that all need practice. Nelson has never in his career taken starter reps in a spring or fall camp. We have backups that haven't done a thing. Might be a good time to get them some more reps? How about a freshman scrimmage?

I'm not leading a lynch mob or anything on this, I just don't get it. Programs across the country are constantly investigated for practicing too much. Here, we don't use the practice we have available.

[jay santos]

Incidentally, BYU finals ended for 90% of the student body before the first allowed practice day. What? Bronco's full of shit? I for one am shocked.

Even if they were in the middle of finals, something tells me most of the guys on this team are not spending every waking hour studying for finals. I think they could all spare a couple hours.

[Indy Coug]

Incidentally, BYU finals ended for 90% of the student body before the first allowed practice day. What? Bronco's full of shit? I for one am shocked.

Exams do not end until tomorrow.

http://saas.byu.edu/classSchedule/finals/fall.php

Nope. Not overblown. Not at all.

[Blueintheface]

Even if they were in the middle of finals, something tells me most of the guys on this team are not spending every waking hour studying for finals. I think they could all spare a couple hours.

Yet we're all subjected to his ramblings whenever a microphone is stuck in his face. Just once I'd like to see the media members interrupt him by saying "Wrap it up coach, WE'D like to get back to our families, too!"

[Blueintheface]

Nope, not overblown. Not at all.

You forgot the white flag.

[byu71]

Just once I'd like to see the media members interrupt him by saying "Wrap it up coach, WE'D like to get back to our families, too!"

That was pretty funny.