You have to go back 13 years to find a BYU fanbase this pessimistic going into the annual rivalry game. Back in 2004 the Utes were undefeated and heavy favorites so when BYU tied things up 14-14 late in the second quarter few in red or blue could believe it. But then BYU ran what has since become their favorite offensive play against Utah, the ever reliable fumble/interception returned for a touchdown, and with that Utah was off to a blowout win. I remember distinctly thinking what a fluky play it was, that we would fumble right to an opposing player with a clear path to the endzone. In a million tries I never would have guessed that BYU would do that virtually 10 MORE TIMES11. The sad list reads as follows.
2008 – INT returned to 4-yard line
2011 – Fumbled returned for TD
2011 - Fumbled returned for TD
2011 – Fumble on own 3-yard line
2012 – Fumble returned for TD
2012 – Fumble in endzone (penalty)
2015 – INT returned for TD
2015 – INT returned for TD
2015 – INT returned to 1-yard line
2016 – INT returned for TD in the subsequent 12 games. (In case you've forgotten the rivalry has gotten weird lately)
Anyway I bring the ugly memory of 2004 up for two reasons. One, it brought us the greatest moment of Rod Wilkerson’s career, when he plowed over this Utah security guard.
Quick tangent. Do other schools allows their fans to come onto the field during games? Isn’t that a recipe for disaster? Couldn’t Wilkerson have been stabbed in that crowd? Do Utah officials care? Oh wait this is the fanbase that is known for rushing the field 3 times in one game and taking dumps in the middle of their stadium. My bad. Sorry for asking stupid questions.
The second reason I bring up 2004 is to remind myself and any BYU fan of low morale that things could be worse. In 2004 we were outmatched, going up against a top 10 coach of all-time and an innovative offense no team was equipped to defend. In 2017 we’re just … depressed. We don’t know how good or bad Utah is, but we sure know what we look like, a team that struggles to score against FCS teams and struggles to clear the 50-yard line against FBS teams. On top of that our starting safety is gone for a half. Our star linebacker is out for the season thanks to the squares at the Honor Code Office. Our best receiver has one reception on the season. Our favorite play is a 15-yard penalty. We have 6 running backs who fail to add up to 1 good running back. Things are dire. On the bright side our quarterback looks like Peyton Manning. Oh wait, you mean he looks like post-neck surgery, 40-year old noodle arm Manning? Ah crap. Things are really dire.
But things have looked worse before, and this time I’m not talking about 2004. Does anyone here recall the 2015 Las Vegas Bowl? Twenty minutes into the game it looked like we were going to lose 80 to 0. By turning the ball over five times in a row we had achieved something no team had done in over 7,000 college football games. Our coaches had completely checked out to the point that Bronco was researching Virginia house listings on the sideline (I'm not sure if this is true, but it certainly would explain how he didn’t anticipate Utah’s annual fake punt on 4th down later in the game). Our freshman QB had ran 15 plays. He’d fumbled once and tossed three picks in 4 of them. His running back had fumbled on another. He and the team could not have been more rattled.
And then in a shock for the ages that same quarterback led five scoring drives, four of which resulted in touchdowns and the other in a missed field goal, which would have been points if not for this absolutely horrendous no call.
Forgetting my anger about how often Utah gets away with PIs for a second, what I want to know is how the heck did Tanner bounce back? Why didn’t he and the team just give up?
I tried to answer this question a few weeks ago by film stripping every single offensive play BYU ran after falling behind 35 to 0. By my count BYU ran 62 offensive plays during that span where Mangum either ran or passed. Here’s how I charted the outcome of those plays, broken out by good decisions, bad decisions, and random happenings.
Tanner threw 31 accurate passes against a defense that knew he was passing on almost every down. He displayed superb pocket presence against a pass rush that again knew he was passing almost every down. These are encouraging signs! The five dangerous throws are not. Or wait ... are they? On the one hand it could show that Mangum continued to play recklessly even after the 5 turnover debacle and how dumb is that? On the other hand is that maybe a good thing? Would most quarterbacks have clammed up and stuck to throwing two yard tosses to their running backs after as disastrous a start as BYU had? Maybe this is a sign that Mangum has that all important trait of being able to forget and move on from prior blunders?
(One other note of interest. I marked one of these outcomes as a play design failure. Here's the link to the play. It was a 3rd and 1, and BYU called a pass play where every receiver ran at least 10 yards past the first down marker! Why? How? You don't even have one short route? That play call was as bad as any I’ve ever seen. Poor Virginia fans.)
But the thing I really want to focus on are those six successful scrambles. Utah’s defense against BYU has been nearly fool proof as of late. They’ve relied on a stout defensive line and extra defenders in the box to destroy our run game while daring us to throw against man coverage in the secondary. We haven’t had a deep threat or strong enough offensive line to exploit these tactics. But the one weakness of this defense is that it's susceptible to improvised quarterback scrambles. Unlike zone coverage which sees defenders drop back and watch the play unfold in front of them, man defenders often turn their body away from the quarterback while mirroring the path of the receiver they’re covering. If the quarterback can break through the initial pass rush against man defense they usually have gaping holes to run through. We saw this last year when Taysom ran in a score off a broken pass play and again the year before when Tanner scrambled out of a pass for a running touchdown as well.
But you know who truly knew how to take advantage of this principle? The last BYU quarterback to beat Utah.
2007 was Max Hall’s first game against the Utes and as far as running went he had one rush for 2 yards. Nothing to be impressed by right? But by the time 2008 rolled around Max had adapted and he rushed 7 times for 42 yards, picking up 2 first downs and 1 touchdown in the process. The following year in 2009 he again took off running 7 times, this time picking up 56 yards and again two key first downs.
Look, I try my best not to be the annoying Monday Morning Quarterback on this blog but for an offense that has been worthless through two games an emphasis on scrambling might be their best approach at grabbing yards. Scrambling does not require an accurate throw or a receiver to catch the ball. It doesn’t need a great playcall or a receiver to beat a defensive back. (which by the way these are all things BYU can't do right now) Scrambling doesn’t even require a QB with speed! Max Hall wasn’t Taysom Hill, but he still racked up a hundred yards over a couple Utah games by just taking advantage of defenders with their backs turned.
(One other note of interest. I marked one of these outcomes as a play design failure. Here's the link to the play. It was a 3rd and 1, and BYU called a pass play where every receiver ran at least 10 yards past the first down marker! Why? How? You don't even have one short route? That play call was as bad as any I’ve ever seen. Poor Virginia fans.)
But the thing I really want to focus on are those six successful scrambles. Utah’s defense against BYU has been nearly fool proof as of late. They’ve relied on a stout defensive line and extra defenders in the box to destroy our run game while daring us to throw against man coverage in the secondary. We haven’t had a deep threat or strong enough offensive line to exploit these tactics. But the one weakness of this defense is that it's susceptible to improvised quarterback scrambles. Unlike zone coverage which sees defenders drop back and watch the play unfold in front of them, man defenders often turn their body away from the quarterback while mirroring the path of the receiver they’re covering. If the quarterback can break through the initial pass rush against man defense they usually have gaping holes to run through. We saw this last year when Taysom ran in a score off a broken pass play and again the year before when Tanner scrambled out of a pass for a running touchdown as well.
But you know who truly knew how to take advantage of this principle? The last BYU quarterback to beat Utah.
2007 was Max Hall’s first game against the Utes and as far as running went he had one rush for 2 yards. Nothing to be impressed by right? But by the time 2008 rolled around Max had adapted and he rushed 7 times for 42 yards, picking up 2 first downs and 1 touchdown in the process. The following year in 2009 he again took off running 7 times, this time picking up 56 yards and again two key first downs.
Look, I try my best not to be the annoying Monday Morning Quarterback on this blog but for an offense that has been worthless through two games an emphasis on scrambling might be their best approach at grabbing yards. Scrambling does not require an accurate throw or a receiver to catch the ball. It doesn’t need a great playcall or a receiver to beat a defensive back. (which by the way these are all things BYU can't do right now) Scrambling doesn’t even require a QB with speed! Max Hall wasn’t Taysom Hill, but he still racked up a hundred yards over a couple Utah games by just taking advantage of defenders with their backs turned.
The scramble calls for a quarterback with presence and vision and I think Mangum has those tools. In the Vegas Bowl Mangum took off running 8 times for 23 yards and 1 touchdown. Not a ton of yards by any means but also not half bad for a first encounter. Consider these few clips of the man in action.
-- Mangum scrambles for a 3rd and 4 conversion
-- Mangum scrambles for a small gain (could have had more if no hesitation?)
-- Mangum avoids heavy pressure, scrambles for positive result
-- Mangum climbs the pocket like a stud on 4th and 12
-- Mangum scrambles for TD
-- Mangum scrambles for a 3rd and 4 conversion
-- Mangum scrambles for a small gain (could have had more if no hesitation?)
-- Mangum avoids heavy pressure, scrambles for positive result
-- Mangum climbs the pocket like a stud on 4th and 12
-- Mangum scrambles for TD
I know Mangum has looked terrible so far under the Ty Detmer regime. I know it seems like he's regressed in almost every aspect of quarterback play. But I'm hoping that at least in this one thing, the most natural of all sporting actions -- to take the ball and run -- he hasn't lost the touch. He looked pretty good improvising and maneuvering in the pocket against a stout Utah defense as a freshman. I believe he can do it again tomorrow and do it even better.
So how exactly did Tanner bounce back from 4 straight turnovers and a 35-0 deficit in the Vegas Bowl? I don’t know. Call it balls or guts or psyche or moxy or mental toughness or whatever, but somehow Tanner went from being a QB on pace to set the college record for turnovers in one game to one who was maybe one incredible pass break up away from rallying the greatest bowl comeback of all time. If he can flip the switch mid game, I believe he can flip it mid-week after taking a whooping from LSU.
So yeah I believe in Tanner. I believe it can happen. But if not I'm afraid BYU will have to incorporate a different meaning of the word scramble, the version that rose to prominence via my favorite TV show, Survivor. To scramble in the Survivor sense is to make a desperate, last ditch effort to save your own skin, to keep yourself in contention at the expense of others and by any means necessary. And what happens if the scramble fails? Well, then you get voted off the island ... or in our case lose for a seventh time in a row.
Which one is worse? I'm not sure and I hope I never find out.
So how exactly did Tanner bounce back from 4 straight turnovers and a 35-0 deficit in the Vegas Bowl? I don’t know. Call it balls or guts or psyche or moxy or mental toughness or whatever, but somehow Tanner went from being a QB on pace to set the college record for turnovers in one game to one who was maybe one incredible pass break up away from rallying the greatest bowl comeback of all time. If he can flip the switch mid game, I believe he can flip it mid-week after taking a whooping from LSU.
So yeah I believe in Tanner. I believe it can happen. But if not I'm afraid BYU will have to incorporate a different meaning of the word scramble, the version that rose to prominence via my favorite TV show, Survivor. To scramble in the Survivor sense is to make a desperate, last ditch effort to save your own skin, to keep yourself in contention at the expense of others and by any means necessary. And what happens if the scramble fails? Well, then you get voted off the island ... or in our case lose for a seventh time in a row.
Which one is worse? I'm not sure and I hope I never find out.
No comments:
Post a Comment