Another season in the books

[Topper]

No offense, but oh my whiny bitch! Seriously. This gets its own thread?? What Goatnapper said.

Do you define 2013 as successful?

[The_Douger]

Do you define 2013 as successful?

Yes. We had a signature win against a good Texas team. We overcame crapping the bed and bitchslapped Boise. We beat Georgia Tech again. We went on the road and beat a good Houston team.

You're too focused on these losses, especially since we were putting in a new offense at that time. The only unacceptable loss was the Virginia one. I hate losing to Utah as much as anyone, but they were the better team that day. We couldn't get in the end zone against them despite moving the ball well between the 20s.

I felt like our team progressed this year. It was a difficult schedule. Look how we performed in 2004 against a similarly difficult schedule.

[TripletDaddy]

At the beginning of this season nobody thought BYU was going to win 8-9 games.

[Topper]

Yes. We had a signature win against a good Texas team. We overcame crapping the bed and bitchslapped Boise. We beat Georgia Tech again. We went on the road and beat a good Houston team.

You're too focused on these losses, especially since we were putting in a new offense at that time. The only unacceptable loss was the Virginia one. I hate losing to Utah as much as anyone, but they were the better team that day. We couldn't get in the end zone against them despite moving the ball well between the 20s.

I felt like our team progressed this year. It was a difficult schedule. Look how we performed in 2004 against a similarly difficult schedule.

Do you feel the team progressed throughout the year, or more as it compared to last year? If it is the latter then I agree. If it is the former, not so sure. It progressed up to Wisconsin and has been playing somewhat poorly since then, IMHO.
I understand your arguments but find your argument about losing to Utah poor. Utah should not have been better that day. After three years of losing to them, Bronco yet again did not have the team prepared.

[Topper]

At the beginning of this season nobody thought BYU was going to win 8-9 games.

But that also expected Utah, Boise and Virginia to be better.

[Vic Vega]

I think 2013 showed BYU where it truly is in the grand scheme of college football. I think BYU proved if given a chance in a big conference, this team as it is would be better than average, but not great. The team is not near it's ceiling right now. That is HUGE in my book. Complaining is really missing the big picture.

BYU was not as good as ND or Wisky and the better team won those games. No shame there. BYU lost the UVa game, but that was the 1st game of the year across the country in horrible weather with a bad weather delay. Utah can continue to haunt our dreams, but we have a couple of years off.

All in all, this year was a big success in my book.

[TripletDaddy]

But that also expected Utah, Boise and Virginia to be better.

It also didn't anticipate injuries or suspensions to key starters nor did it factor in the difficulty of establishing an entirely new offensive scheme.

This BYU team is a good team, not a great team, but focusing on this season, to claim that 8-9 wins is a disappointment is simply misaligned with actual expectations going into the season. Again, ZERO people thought we would win that many games and nobody thought Virginia was going to be good, nor did they think that Utah was going to be good. I will give you Boise, but Houston being undefeated going into the BYU game? That was also unforeseen.

You know who had a disappointing season? A truly disappointing season, at least by my way of looking at things? Only one team in the country: Alabama. That is because everyone's expectations going into the season were aligned. Alabama was supposed to win it all again this season. Everyone felt that, everyone thought that, they had the talent on both sides of the ball to do it, and they came extremely close. Alabama had a disappointing season. Other teams probably hoped...Oregon hoped, Stanford hoped, even fsu hopes, but none of them expected, because none of them have any reason to expect.

I get the feeling your expectations are misaligned with the reality. In hindsight we dropped the ball against Virginia. But Utah, Wisconsin, Notre dame...they simply beat BYU. 8-9 wins this season isn't a disappointment. If anything, it is a pleasant surprise. At least it is to me.

[The_Douger]

Do you feel the team progressed throughout the year, or more as it compared to last year? If it is the latter then I agree. If it is the former, not so sure. It progressed up to Wisconsin and has been playing somewhat poorly since then, IMHO.
I understand your arguments but find your argument about losing to Utah poor. Utah should not have been better that day. After three years of losing to them, Bronco yet again did not have the team prepared.

Utah was a pretty good team when they were full strength. They are generally full strength at the start of the year.

I felt encouraged by the quarterback play. Taysom Hill improved as the year went on. He was able to develop chemistry with the WRs and run judiciously for the most part. I was nearly certain we'd see Ammon Olsen due to QB injury this year, and we didn't. Hill held up and was careful about the beating he took for the most part.

You think it's weird that we didn't play as well when we played a ranked team at their place in November? We lost by ten. We could have played better, I'd have liked to see us try to be more aggressive with scoring, attempt a 40 yard FG, not punt on fourth down from the 50 with 8 minutes left and down 3 score, etc. but a lot of that is coaching and the players can't control that.

Next year I hope we win more games and show improvement in the kicking game and on the offensive line. I'm to the point with the defense that I think it will always be a pretty solid unit. I'm not real worried about the WRs. I'd choose a great line and QB over great WRs. Hopefully we can get Matthews back, and Kurtz and Apo can give us some good play. We always seem to have some guys like Ridley and Falslev that make a difference. I hope we can improve our use of the TE. You give up something when you run a fast paced offense. The defense was good enough for us to win most of our games this year. If the offense keeps improving, we could be looking at a 10-12 win year next year.

[USUC]

It also didn't anticipate injuries or suspensions to key starters nor did it factor in the difficulty of establishing an entirely new offensive scheme.

This BYU team is a good team, not a great team, but focusing on this season, to claim that 8-9 wins is a disappointment is simply misaligned with actual expectations going into the season. Again, ZERO people thought we would win that many games and nobody thought Virginia was going to be good, nor did they think that Utah was going to be good. I will give you Boise, but Houston being undefeated going into the BYU game? That was also unforeseen.

You know who had a disappointing season? A truly disappointing season, at least by my way of looking at things? Only one team in the country: Alabama. That is because everyone's expectations going into the season were aligned. Alabama was supposed to win it all again this season. Everyone felt that, everyone thought that, they had the talent on both sides of the ball to do it, and they came extremely close. Alabama had a disappointing season. Other teams probably hoped...Oregon hoped, Stanford hoped, even fsu hopes, but none of them expected, because none of them have any reason to expect.

I get the feeling your expectations are misaligned with the reality. In hindsight we dropped the ball against Virginia. But Utah, Wisconsin, Notre dame...they simply beat BYU. 8-9 wins this season isn't a disappointment. If anything, it is a pleasant surprise. At least it is to me.

What DDD said.

[cougjunkie]

Utah was a pretty good team when they were full strength. They are generally full strength at the start of the year.

I felt encouraged by the quarterback play. Taysom Hill improved as the year went on. He was able to develop chemistry with the WRs and run judiciously for the most part. I was nearly certain we'd see Ammon Olsen due to QB injury this year, and we didn't. Hill held up and was careful about the beating he took for the most part.

You think it's weird that we didn't play as well when we played a ranked team at their place in November? We lost by ten. We could have played better, I'd have liked to see us try to be more aggressive with scoring, attempt a 40 yard FG, not punt on fourth down from the 50 with 8 minutes left and down 3 score, etc. but a lot of that is coaching and the players can't control that.

Next year I hope we win more games and show improvement in the kicking game and on the offensive line. I'm to the point with the defense that I think it will always be a pretty solid unit. I'm not real worried about the WRs. I'd choose a great line and QB over great WRs. Hopefully we can get Matthews back, and Kurtz and Apo can give us some good play. We always seem to have some guys like Ridley and Falslev that make a difference. I hope we can improve our use of the TE. You give up something when you run a fast paced offense. The defense was good enough for us to win most of our games this year. If the offense keeps improving, we could be looking at a 10-12 win year next year.

Kicking game? Sorensen was solid this year and we won't see any improvement next season.

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[The_Douger]

I thought 7 wins was an absolute best case scenario for this team at the start of the year. I expected losses to Utah, Texas, Boise, ND, and Wisconsin. I expected potential losses to Houston, USU, and possibly Georgia Tech.

After we lost to Virginia, I thought we might be heading for a 3 or 4 win year against this schedule.

8 wins with a chance at 9 in the bowl is a great year for this team and a building block for this group next year.

[The_Douger]

Kicking game? Sorensen was solid this year and we won't see any improvement next season.

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I'd like us to be more versatile in the kicking game instead of only trying very short FGs and punting or going for it otherwise. Sorensen only has good numbers because he wasn't ever put in a position to have to kick anything besides a chip shot. He still missed some of those and it likely cost us against Utah. He wasn't even given the opportunity against ND or Wisconsin to try 40 yarders. It's the same field position if you don't convert a fourth down or miss a kick.

[The_Douger]

That's rich.

He makes me look like Mary Poppins.

[SCcoug]

Coming into the season I feel in with most expecting somewhere between 7-6 to 10-3 type with 9-4 being likely. We still have our bowl game and with a win there I'd be pleased with the season. Given all the injuries, new scheme and tough schedule I think 8-4 is something to be proud of. Next year we can take a big step forward with better oline play and Taysom not having to rehab a knee injury in the offseason. Bronco will have a solid D and depending on who steps up in the linebacker corps it could be pretty good again.

[ERCougar]

Injuries are a part of the game. Yes, we were hurt more than anyone should expect at corner, but we were a little lucky to keep a running quarterback playing all year. And yeah, we were expecting a worse record, but Topper's right that a few games were easier than expected.

A big bowl win could change things, but at this point, there's no objective measure that would call this a better season, and most would call it a little worse. Massey has us at 34th this year--last year we ended at 26th. Sagarin has us at 28th now, ended last season at 26th. I think there is a little reason for hope, based purely on our O-line prospects, but it's still just a hope at this point. I do think we have a ceiling on what we can expect and I think Bronco's doing about all that we could ask of him, but really--this season was not any better than last.