Seems to me that Greg Hansen was spot on...

[ClaudiusJones]

with his assessment of BYU and how tough a game this was to be for UA. I think many on this board owe the man an apology. It's funny how we as fans have blind faith when it comes to our team--me included. But I can tell you this--that I will no longer blindly submit to Mike Stoops and his merry band of blind mice (delusional fans).

I am not upset we lost. I knew this would be a very difficult game, which I felt we would be lucky to win.

I am upset about the play calling. This falls squarely on the shoulders of Stoops, not the OC. He is supposed to be the leader of this team and is responsible for developing a game plan.

The line in general seemed to give Willie more time to throw the ball vs. last year. Please scrap that stupid one yard pass of the line--I don't think I have ever seen he play go for more than a few yards anyway.

The defense looked tired much of the day. Which is not surprising given the thin mountain air. Yet, they did keep the team in the game.

Willie looked 'ok'. He seemed to have difficulty with his accuracy early on, and could never get into a rhythm until late in the game.

Why was wasn't Gronkowski used more? What about Mitchell? To hardly use these two players is a joke--especially Mitchell.

Lastly, while the defense played 'ok', their tackling was a joke. I guess much of this can be attributed to being on the field forever and being tired. But they must improve this.

This team will be fortunate to win 6 games...
3 Wins -- NAU, NM, Furd
3 more sure losses -- USC, UCLA and Cal
3 Wins from this bunch won't be easy-- Oregon, OSU, Washington, WSU, A$$U

[azcat49]

You know who else was right, Mike Ritter from the Daily Wildcat. he said BYU would win and that their linebackers were better then ours. Stoops gave every player on the team a copy of the article for the flight to Provo.

they still got their a$$es handed to them.

[Class of 1990]

You know who else was right, Mike Ritter from the Daily Wildcat. he said BYU would win and that their linebackers were better then ours. Stoops gave every player on the team a copy of the article for the flight to Provo.

they still got their a$$es handed to them.

Maybe our kids can't read ?

Hopefully when this fog clears things will be OK.

Hopefully.

[Ziggiles]

We got beat by a better team. I love seeing everyone jump off the bandwagon so early. We played a BYU team that won the game in the trenches on both sides of the ball. This is a team that did finish the season 11-2 last season, and is even tougher at home. I believe expectations were far to high because a variety reasons starting with the fact we beat BYU last year.

The biggest issue i had with the game was Tui turning into Richard Kovalcheck and checking down at the line. Tui needs to realize that this is going to happen against every team, they are going to give him Multiple looks and not just play in a nice base defense he can tear apart. Go figure his two best plays of the game, was first, a broken play where natural instincts took over and he hit Mr. Dean down the sidelines (great catch by the way by Dean). The final drive of the game and yes i understand that it was against third stringers or whatever. But tui was way over thinking every time at the line, he has to realize he just needs to let it fly. He was to worried about failing, and he was doomed and never would succeed.

Secondly, the bend don't break defense is getting a bad rap, they were on the field all day long. After 3 quarters BYU had a 10 minute advantage in time of possession and we were still in the game because of the defense. People, step back from the ledge.

[Class of 1990]

Z I don't think the fans are jumping but we did expect to see better play callings and execution. Since the spring we have read about this different offense and yet they ran many of the same plays and the same problems of last season.

Dive - WR Screen - 2 yd passes when needing 7 or more - Illegal motion - Going for 4th down or not ? - Draw play on 2nd and 10

Accountabilty is what we say about societies ills.
Well Stoops needs to fix this offense or he is gone.

See Tomey .....

[Ziggiles]

Z I don't think the fans are jumping but we did expect to see better play callings and execution. Since the spring we have read about this different offense and yet they ran many of the same plays and the same problems of last season.

Dive - WR Screen - 2 yd passes when needing 7 or more - Illegal motion - Going for 4th down or not ? - Draw play on 2nd and 10

Accountabilty is what we say about societies ills.
Well Stoops needs to fix this offense or he is gone.

See Tomey .....

I agree with everything you are saying, but some of the blame goes to our own blind faith and optimism in this offense. Our optimism that is fueled by puff pieces written by our very own and why shouldn't they?

Writers for sites like scout and rivals make there money on breaking stories, they break these stories by having a higher rate of access to coaching staff's. So, if you want this kind of unprecedented access do you write pieces that show criticism and critiques or puff pieces that build rapport between yourself and those giving you the access?

All that a side, yesterday we were playing not to lose, not to mistakes and you could see that on every 3rd down when we played it safe and dumbed it off to a running back when we should have let it fly. At some point, the players have to execute, tui needs to trust the offense and just play, he was not thinking and his brain got in the way. Its not stoops fault that Wilrey dropped an easy pick 6, or Cason muffed a punt. Is it the coaches fault that guys like Ronnie Palmer weren't wrapping up?? I don't think this team is under preparred by any means, the team just didn't come to play yesterday. It happens.

[Class of 1990]

I get what you wrote. Fluff for the subscribers.

It would have been nice for us to run some of the things from the scrimages though.

What is more important is how the offense: improves/executes/plays being called.

The D did its job IMO. Held BYU to 20 on the road. Make a goal line stand.
Yeah the tackled sloppy at times but the time of possession was worse then indicated. Remeber that last U of A drive took about 5 minutes against a prevent defense from BYU.

The main bummer about the D was need to hide the blitz better after the first series. The first BYU touchdown came after the safety went inside and didn't even bump the back going out on the BYU check off. The front 4 needs better pressure to lessen the need to blitz.

Anyway one down and 11 to go.

[BibbysTowelDude]

I agree that the defense gets a bad rap.. Not that they played great or anything and they had a handful of dumb plays but thats the first game of the season for you... They really only gave up 13 points... The final score should have been 13-0 and that shouldn't have been hard to beat but for this anemic offense.. I guess it was.

[Ziggiles]

I get what you wrote. Fluff for the subscribers.

It would have been nice for us to run some of the things from the scrimages though.

What is more important is how the offense: improves/executes/plays being called.

The D did its job IMO. Held BYU to 20 on the road. Make a goal line stand.
Yeah the tackled sloppy at times but the time of possession was worse then indicated. Remeber that last U of A drive took about 5 minutes against a prevent defense from BYU.

The main bummer about the D was need to hide the blitz better after the first series. The first BYU touchdown came after the safety went inside and didn't even bump the back going out on the BYU check off. The front 4 needs better pressure to lessen the need to blitz.

Anyway one down and 11 to go.


I wish we didn't agree so much, but you are once again spot on the whole time. I think we tried to run some things that we did from the scrimmage the problem was that Tui was not comfortable running the offense. I also agree with your assesment of the defense. IMO, we should have been rotating players like crazy in and out of the game save of course for Larsen, Cason and Wilrey. i think its a waste given how much depth we have this year compared to prior years, we have guys on the second unit that are capable of playing at this level and the coaches need trust them... i see you Mr. Elmore...

[Footballjunkie]

Most of the advice on the boards is not followed. :confused: That's why they continue to lose.:devil:

If they followed the suggestions that we hard core fans give them then they would not be losing. We say the same things over and over. A hard head makes a soft butt.

What is a shame is that I have been there when some fans nicely tell them that they are too conservative on offense and then they continue to choke up and get ultra conservative in games.

Stoops & Dykes need to read these message boards. Then each would be designated a genius and be able to command any salary they wanted.

[AZCat Man]

I think we tried to run some things that we did from the scrimmage the problem was that Tui was not comfortable running the offense. ...

I guess that's what I don't get. How can Tui still be uncomfortable running the offense at this point. Haven't they been working on this offense for the past several months starting last spring. If he still doesn't get it by now then he never will or his eligibility will run out before he finally does.

Conversely, Hall, who hasn't been in a college game or thrown a college pass in four years adapted pretty well....288 yds. worth, looked composed and hit the open receivers. It may be time to face facts.

[bhanson]

I agree Hall certainly played much cooler than Tuitama, but remember that Hall was on the scout team all last year. Not like he was trying to convert Fijians.

[Arnold Booke]

Yup. Greg was right. Kudos to Hansen.

He was also right a three years back when, during an early stretch - after we "found a way to lose" to Wisconsin, and Chris Henry fumbled away the win vs. Wazzu... remember those blunders? .... Greg wrote something along the lines of "enjoy the fresh air, folks, the good news is things are changing - we're better - the bad news is a LOT MORE SUFFERING IS ON THE WAY."

How right you were, Greg.

[cridkid]

Why was wasn't Gronkowski used more? What about Mitchell? To hardly use these two players is a joke--especially Mitchell.

This was my question from about the middle of the first quarter on. All I can think of is that they're saving them for conference play and didn't want to show too much. I really fear that this loss will cost us a bowl game. If these guys aren't used a lot more the coaching staff needs to start taking the short bus to school.

[azpenguin]

How can Tui still be uncomfortable running the offense at this point.

Well, it's his first game running this particular offense against a group of guys in different uniforms. And they knew what was coming, since they've been running something similar for a while now.

Now they have to look at the tape and figure out WTF they did wrong and what they can do better. Problem is, every team who has UA on the schedule is going to watch this tape over and over. Maybe this can be chalked up to the learning curve, and the Cats can plug the holes, right the ship, and push full speed ahead in the next few weeks. But you'll excuse me if I don't feel terribly optimistic about that right now.