The big fellas are getting big minutes
Here comes the most karmically dangerous sentence I've ever written: BYU's offensive line has been crazy healthy this season.
BYU has ran 219 plays so far this season. Check out how many of those snaps our four established offensive lineman have played.
LT Caleb Etienne 215
LG Weylin Lapuaho 211
C Connor Pay 211 of 219
RT Brayden Keim 215 of 219
Collectively those four have been on the field for 97% of our plays. Last week the starting five allegedly played every single snap of the game. I've never seen that before when reviewing snaps on PFF. I'm not even sure I like it. Against a team as bad as Wyoming I'd like to see the scrubs get some play.
The opposite of offensive lineman
If the offensive line represents the ironman of the offense, corners have been the pillar of our defense. The two players who have been on the field the most this year on defense are Jakob Robinson and Marque Collins, who each have played 84% of available defensive snaps. In a surprise to me, the player with the sixth most snaps is corner Evan Johnson, who has been on the field 62% of the time.
Safety meanwhile continues to see a weird amount of rotation. Tanner Wall leads the pack with a 58% participation rate, followed by Crew Wakley (33%), Tommy Kiss My Prassas (27%), Talan Alfrey (26%), Raider Damuni (21%), Faletau Satuala (15%), and finally banged up Micah Harper (15%).
#9, Truthteller
Austin Collie spoke, and the coaches listened. What a bounce back in week 3 for Chase Roberts. The fellow who went over 100 yards receiving twice in his first 23 games at BYU has now done it twice in his last 3 games. He's taking the leap!
Chase has caught 15 passes this year and PFF says 14 of them have been for first downs. Only 7 receivers in the country have more. That's like bowling 15 frames and having 14 of them be spares. For comparison our running backs have only generated 18 first downs the whole season.
The Keanu Hill Experiment
Hill started the season against Southern Illinois playing like a "real" tight end. What do I mean by that? He played 75% of his snaps next to the left or right tackle, in an inline alignment. Each game since he's started to drift more and more outside to his natural wide receiver position. In game one he lined up wide on only 7% of his snaps; by game two it was up to 17% of his snaps; in the Wyoming game he was up to 32% of his snaps being wide. The Wyoming game also happened to be his best game of the year, which means you could suggest that he played better as he returned closer to his old position. On the other hand, his big TD score came when he was inline.
What does it all mean? I'm not totally sure. The season is only a quarter old, but it feels like BYU may be seeking more ways to get Hill off the line of scrimmage and into his old playing space.
One tight end note I'm pleased with is BYU hasn't been as predictable as I feared they would be rotating Hill and Mata'ava Ta'ase in the lineup. When Hill is in the play BYU passes 60% of the time; when Ta'ase is in the lineup they run 55% of the time. I'll admit that's a trend defenses can key on, but I expected it be worse. For example, last year BYU passed on 62% of Isaac Rex's snaps and ran on 60% of Ta'ase's. Small improvements.
Middle Management
Jake continues to pound the middle of the field, targeting passes in the 10 to 20 yard window on 32% of his throws. That's the 5th highest rate in the country.
The Keanu Hill Experiment
Hill started the season against Southern Illinois playing like a "real" tight end. What do I mean by that? He played 75% of his snaps next to the left or right tackle, in an inline alignment. Each game since he's started to drift more and more outside to his natural wide receiver position. In game one he lined up wide on only 7% of his snaps; by game two it was up to 17% of his snaps; in the Wyoming game he was up to 32% of his snaps being wide. The Wyoming game also happened to be his best game of the year, which means you could suggest that he played better as he returned closer to his old position. On the other hand, his big TD score came when he was inline.
What does it all mean? I'm not totally sure. The season is only a quarter old, but it feels like BYU may be seeking more ways to get Hill off the line of scrimmage and into his old playing space.
One tight end note I'm pleased with is BYU hasn't been as predictable as I feared they would be rotating Hill and Mata'ava Ta'ase in the lineup. When Hill is in the play BYU passes 60% of the time; when Ta'ase is in the lineup they run 55% of the time. I'll admit that's a trend defenses can key on, but I expected it be worse. For example, last year BYU passed on 62% of Isaac Rex's snaps and ran on 60% of Ta'ase's. Small improvements.
Middle Management
Jake continues to pound the middle of the field, targeting passes in the 10 to 20 yard window on 32% of his throws. That's the 5th highest rate in the country.
He isn't throwing deep (20 yards or more) as much -- 15% of his passes are of that variety, 72nd nationally -- but he's been effective on those attempts. He's connected on 7 deep throws (13th most nationally) and has gained 246 yards on them (16th nationally). If you can ignore the turnovers things have been terrific from Jake thus far.
Where art thou screen game?
BYU's screen game has fallen off a cliff in the Arod era. Here are our yards per pass on screens from the last handful of years.
8.4 yards per screen in 2020
6.4 in 2021
7.3 in 2022
4.8 in 2023
3.4 so far in 2024
Where art thou screen game?
BYU's screen game has fallen off a cliff in the Arod era. Here are our yards per pass on screens from the last handful of years.
8.4 yards per screen in 2020
6.4 in 2021
7.3 in 2022
4.8 in 2023
3.4 so far in 2024
I'd love to see the creativity and offensive line movement that Grimes brought return to our offense. Funny note - you know who else sucks at screens? Our next opponent, Kansas State. They've ran 11 of them this year and netted only 28 yards. Woof. They make our 3.4 average look downright electric.
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