The BYU Cougars are near the very bottom of the NCAA in all offensive statistical categories. On defense they are in the bottom third. That didn't get in the way of some classic coach speak from this Saturday's opposing head coach.
East Carolina head coach Scottie Montgomery opened his weekly press conference by saying:
After a tough loss to UCF we have turned our focus to BYU. We examined the tape, corrected our mistakes and realized that we have to be better in every phase of the game to beat one of the country's best teams.That is some classic coach speech. It wasn't the only glaring coach speech he had to say about the Cougars.
Montgomery later said, "It's a team that traditionally has great depth and they have been hit quite a bit with injuries moving to this point."
Actually, depth has been an Achilles heal for BYU over the years. Losing Taysom Hill was very costly in 2014. Jamaal Williams' sporadic health last year probably cost the Cougars the game in Boise. Let's not get into what happened when Luke Staley went down.
Montgomery, like Kalani Sitake, is in his second year at the helm of East Carolina. Besides injuries, he credits the schedule as the reason BYU's 1-6 record doesn't reflect how good the team is.
"They've also played a ridiculously tough schedule," Montgomery noted. "They've played Wisconsin, LSU - big time opponents. Mississippi State, you name it. I don't think anybody would trade their schedule to this point in time so we are looking at a really good football team that just happened to go against the likes of Boise State and some other places that have been traditionally great football programs."
The way he continued to call BYU a really good football team calls into question how much game film he has watched. His next comments make it clear he has watched enough to notice Ula Tolutau.
Montgomery explained, "Offensively they are kind of a different team than we have seen and they are more of a power team with bigger backs, much bigger backs. For instance, a 250-pound back versus a 175-pound back that we have faced. "
However, he followed that up with a statement that again questions how closely he has studied the game film.
Speaking of the Coguars' pass attack, Montgomery said, "Offensively, they can also get into the seams and throw the ball, definitely well, down the seams. So we are going to have to do a good job on defense, much better than we did last week."
Someone needs to point out that BYU hasn't passed for over 200 yards in a game this season (and then some).
Montgomery is worried about the different defensive looks BYU may present.
"Defensively, they give you a little bit of a problem because they came out in three different fronts in three different games," Montgomery detailed. "We are thinking that we are going to see a four-down team but they also came out in what we call a diamond front which is where they stacked their backers and make it really hard on the inside zone team to read the backers."
He resisted the urge to compare the Cougars to any of the Pirates' first seven opponents. His response to that question was more coach speech.
"They are a completely different look to something we have seen at this point in time," Montgomery noted. "I don't think you can compare them to anybody. It's very hard to do that. It's hard for me to compare teams that we see in back-to-back weeks, so a team out of conference to a team in conference or a team we have played is hard to do."
Perhaps the most straightforward statement he made was, "All in all it is going to be another tough opponent for us." Hard to disagree with that. East Carolina is 1-6 and allows 50 points and 600 yards of total offense per game. Who isn't be a tough opponent for a team like that?
The Editor appreciates all feedback. He can be reached via email at bluecougarfootball@gmail.com
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