-- Covering Week 11 through the off-season
Week 11 #12 BYU at SMU
We travel to SMU hoping this will be a chance for our guys to play a weaker opponent while gearing up for Hawaii and Utah to end the season. We coast to a 45 to 31 win to improve to 8-2.
All season long Gates has yielded touches to his less heralded sidekick Tom Miller and they combine again nicely with each player carrying 13 times for a combined 153 yards. In fact if Gates and Miller were molded into one player their combined stats for the season would be an absurd 1,700 yards rushing, 200 yards receiving, and 21 touchdowns. Their willingness to share reminds me of the Jamal Willis and Kalin Hall days.
Week 12 #8 BYU vs Hawaii
Chaos is a ladder. A number of teams ahead of us lost and as a result we’ve reached the top 10. Unfortunately Hawaii, who once was having a great season, lost two in a row and has tumbled from the top 25. Washington of course is still ranked ahead of me. Between that and the fact that my coaching prestige is still a D+, despite having one of the top-5 offenses in the country, is enough to make me want to run up the score something fierce in these next couple of games.
Instead we lose 28 to 13 to the rainbow.
What in the FFFFFUUUUU?!?!?!?
My offense is rated a 95 out of 100. BYU is rated a 97 overall. Hawaii is not.
It’s like 2001 all over again except this time I have no injury excuses to fall back on. I’m in shock. This makes no sense. We scored 1 TD the whole game. Only three people caught passes - 1 WR, 1 RB, and 1 FB. Our star tight end Gary Lucas has zero catches. We only had one receiver catch the ball? That has to be some sort of record.
We get a few key signings, including the other half of our projected superstar FS and SS tandem, but it barely registers.
Week 13 #16 BYU vs Utah
After flopping against Hawaii this game against Utah no longer feels like a sure thing. Which is a problem considering I promised every recruit under the sun that we’d have a winning record against our rivals this year. That may be in jeopardy. And ...
We lose 28 to 7.
My only guess here is that the computer is trying to crap on me? I’m outraged. My coaching integrity is going to plummet. We’ll end the season out of the top-25. Everything just crashed. After averaging 45 points a game for 10 weeks we finish the season scoring 20 points total in our last two games combined.
It makes no sense. My 95 rated offense got nut-kicked by a couple of mid-80 defenses.
I must be Bill Belicheck in this instance. Amid questions, insults, criticism, defeat, all I can say is ...
On to Arizona State.
Again??? Yup.
Kraft Hunger Bowl #23 BYU vs Arizona State
We beat the Fighting Muchas 45 to 16 in the season opener. How weird to have a repeat game in the bowl for the second season in a row (after playing Boise twice and losing to them twice last year).
We've had an underwhelming bowl performance during my time at BYU. But we complete the season sweep over Arizona State with a 38 to 24 victory.
Remember that Northern Illinois team we beat 42 to 18? They whoop on the Utes in the Little Caesars Pizza bowl 38 to 20. I can't think about that game or I'll quit this project.
And if you thought that was weird ... well Washington upset USC in the Pac 12 title game and as a result got a spot in the National Championship game against ... Arkansas State??? Washington won 44 to 17 and is the 2018 national champ, meaning yet again -- again!! -- I crossed paths with a championship participant. For those with short memories, we beat the Huskies easily back in week 7. It's something to hang our hat on I guess as we enter the offseason.
Eric Gates leaves BYU with the school record for rushing yards in a career with 4,835. He fell just short of being only the 10th player in the history of college football to record 1,000 yards rushing in 4 seasons. He went for 974 as a freshman, 1,591 as a sophomore, 1,160 as a junior, and 1,110 as a senior to go along with 46 touchdowns. He also turned in 829 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns through the air. He leaves as the record holder for touchdowns in a career and all-purpose yardage in a career. What a Coug.
Two other bits of news. Senior DT Jon Moss out of Riverton earns a second team all-american nod. And for the first time in my career we end the season in the top-25.
Contract update time and I'm annihilating the goals Tom set for me. I'm up to a 93% job security, a far cry from my head coaching days. But then Tom delivers the shocking news. Isaac Callahan, the guy who replaced me when I was unceremoniously demoted to San Jose State, is out the door.
"The HC job is yours again if you want it? Want to see the contract?"
I don't need to. I just need to know if DC Todd Peterson is being let go as well. Tom nods. I sign and am back as HC of BYU.
Jason Grisby is the new Cougar defensive coordinator, while Calvin Washington replaces me "in name" as offensive coordinator.
I'm inheriting a program who had a great year but is losing some serious talent. Obviously seniors RB Eric Gates (97 rating), TE Gary Lucas (93 rating), TE Jason Stewart (89 rating), C Frank Green (89 rating), FS Jesse Cohen (85 rating), DT Jon Moss (93 rating), QB Mike Manson (85 rating), MLB William Brown (88 rating), FS Steve Johnson (85 rating), CB Adam Watkins (87 rating) are the heavy contributors we will miss.
But we also have two juniors declaring early for the draft, OLB Ben Moore (89 rating) and WR Tony Wilson (88 rating). In total that's 12 players leaving our team who have a 85 or better rating. On the bright side we might end up with 5 draft picks this year and that doesn't count Jon Moss who is expected to go unsigned. I've gotta believe our 'pro factory' recruiting rating has to be jumping up real high with the last couple years of results.
Then the big whammy. Three freshman are requesting transfers. One is a nobody, one is average, but the third is a star in the making, DT Tommy Nixon who started out at a 78 rating. I'm going to put all my efforts into keeping Tommy. And those efforts are zero. I can't make a single promise or attempt at persuasion. He's leaving for Arkansas State, who fell to Washington in the BCS championship game.
The early departure of Ben Moore and the surprise transfer of Tommy leave me with holes I instantly need to plug before the February signing date. It's emergency searching mode.
The loss to Hawaii. The transfers. The loss to Utah. Washington being ranked above us all year despite us trouncing them. Getting fired. Every single slight or pain I've felt on my coaching journey leads me to this moment. I recruit my brains out and sign 16 4-star recruits, refilling the entire cupboards with 25 incoming freshman, which leaves me with the #1 recruiting class in the country. How do I do it the pundits ask?
I embrace how hard BYU is. I tell recruits it will be harder for them here than elsewhere. They'll be outgunned in most big matchups. They'll be asked to forgo the items college students love. But I promise it will be worth it. And they believe me (and why wouldn't they? Now that I know how to manage my recruiting promises my coaching integrity is in the top 75%)
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