The Case for Kalani Sitake

[SeattleUte]

Actually not very interesting. those voting in the polls generally don't give credit for lucky wins. #sjbh

Utah is ranked no. 18 notwithstanding losing at home to WA State. The Pac 12 is like the NFL; anyone cam beat anybody and each week is a war. See, e.g., last night in Dallas.

[MarkGrace]

Yep. That's mostly true for college football programs in general. Big time programs such as Tennessee, Texas, Michigan, Florida - they haven't had good QBs, they've sucked and coaches have been and/or will be fired.

Yeah, I was going to say that, but a lot of programs can get away with mediocre QB play because they can compensate in other ways. Top-notch running back, big-time D, etc. At BYU we've just never been any good unless we were really good at QB.

[wapiti]

Utah is ranked no. 18 notwithstanding losing at home to WA State. The Pac 12 is like the NFL; anyone cam beat anybody and each week is a war. See, e.g., last night in Dallas.

The Pac 12 is mediocre with no outstanding teams.

[The_Douger]

Bronco was doing better because we had consecutive really good QBs. That really hasn't happened often in the last 25 or so years of Cougar football. But generally when we've had really good QB's we've been good, and when we haven't we've been meh. We had a really good QB to start this year and could have had another one of those years like the early Bronco seasons, but then he went and broke his leg.

The step back in the defense and Bronco continually promoting people who seem to be over their head concerns me. I get the injury thing this year. I've been really surprised by the secondary. They were pretty solid last year, and we were supposed to have a lot of depth back there and they've been as poor as I can remember. I thought we'd see some different coverages this year, but it's been the same 10 yard drops. I don't remember getting beat over the top as often as we have. Nobody can get off their blocks on the line. Very few LBs can pressure the QB. The only ones that can seem to be younger players like Warner or Takitaki.

This! ^^^

Is this coaching? Over-valuation? I think coaching.

Guys that seem to be good players are not developing at BYU, so I'd blame coaching. Look at how many decently rated QBs have been through the program and we chose to play Riley Nelson, while Brad Sorensen went elsewhere. Lark and Munns were both 4 star guys, iirc. Everyone misses on some guys. Those are just off the top of my head. The youngest Reynolds seemed to play more poorly as time went on. A lot of people were unhappy with Weber and the development of the line. We used to put a lot of offensive lineman in the NFL, we haven't done that in some time.

[MarkGrace]

Bronco was doing really well with a QB he didn't recruit.

For some reason I thought he didn't recruit either, but maybe Max came over after Bronco was already there.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Utah is ranked no. 18 notwithstanding losing at home to WA State. The Pac 12 is like the NFL; anyone cam beat anybody and each week is a war. See, e.g., last night in Dallas.

The P12 is a fantastic conference and I am jealous that Utah is a member, but it seems far weaker this year than we expected prior to the season.

[smokymountainrain]

Yeah, I was going to say that, but a lot of programs can get away with mediocre QB play because they can compensate in other ways. Top-notch running back, big-time D, etc. At BYU we've just never been any good unless we were really good at QB.

I'm nitpicking because I really think we mostly agree, but I don't that that's true - hence the reason I picked the kind of programs that should be able to overcome poor QB play for the reasons you mentioned, but ultimately couldn't.

You can even go the other direction - SEC programs such as Ole Miss and Miss St are finally really good because they have really good QBs.

[USUC]

The step back in the defense and Bronco continually promoting people who seem to be over their head concerns me. I get the injury thing this year. I've been really surprised by the secondary. They were pretty solid last year, and we were supposed to have a lot of depth back there and they've been as poor as I can remember. I thought we'd see some different coverages this year, but it's been the same 10 yard drops. I don't remember getting beat over the top as often as we have. Nobody can get off their blocks on the line. Very few LBs can pressure the QB. The only ones that can seem to be younger players like Warner or Takitaki.



Guys that seem to be good players are not developing at BYU, so I'd blame coaching. Look at how many decently rated QBs have been through the program and we chose to play Riley Nelson, while Brad Sorensen went elsewhere. Lark and Munns were both 4 star guys, iirc. Everyone misses on some guys. Those are just off the top of my head. The youngest Reynolds seemed to play more poorly as time went on. A lot of people were unhappy with Weber and the development of the line. We used to put a lot of offensive lineman in the NFL, we haven't done that in some time.

Again, I think player development is a glaring weakness of Bronco. But maybe he just doesn't have the time and resources to devote to a lot of this stuff. Maybe after the Crowton years, the university (and the bosses in SLC) require more churchiness from the head coach than they did before, Maybe firesides are not his decision, etc. Its a private institution associated with an organization that is not an open book. Who knows what the hell is really going on.

[byu71]

Bronco was doing better because we had consecutive really good QBs. That really hasn't happened often in the last 25 or so years of Cougar football. But generally when we've had really good QB's we've been good, and when we haven't we've been meh. We had a really good QB to start this year and could have had another one of those years like the early Bronco seasons, but then he went and broke his leg.

He went 10-3 with a pretty average QB in 2011. Gutsy, hard working, smart, but average. 8 of those wins were against the like of New Mexico St., Idaho St., Hawaii, San Jose St., but two really good wins Ole Miss and Oregon St.

[All-American]

Bronco was doing really well with a QB he didn't recruit.

He didn't recruit any of his players. They recruited him.

[smokymountainrain]

He went 10-3 with a pretty average QB in 2011. Gutsy, hard working, smart, but average. 8 of those wins were against the like of New Mexico St., Idaho St., Hawaii, San Jose St., but two really good wins Ole Miss and Oregon St.

lol. you're kidding, right?

[TripletDaddy]

Let me explain it to you this way, if SU were a BYU opponent you would buy 25 tickets and all of your kids would want to go.

and BYU would lose

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

The P12 is a fantastic conference and I am jealous that Utah is a member, but it seems far weaker this year than we expected prior to the season.

It is interesting that if the 12 teams from the P12 were located below the Mason-Dixon it would be called deep. Instead it is weaker than expected. Stanford losing is bad for the P12, South Carolina and Texas A&M being awful is proof of depth.

[byu71]

lol. you're kidding, right?

I try to be positive and give the benefit of the doubt whenever I can. Many cougar fans call 10 win seasons great.

Well, to have a great season, you have to beat two really good teams and those were the two best wins I saw on our schedule that year.

[Blueintheface]

It is interesting that if the 12 teams from the P12 were located below the Mason-Dixon it would be called deep. Instead it is weaker than expected. Stanford losing is bad for the P12, South Carolina and Texas A&M being awful is proof of depth.

Stop trying to be objective, Quacker McQuackerson!