This is part 1 of a four part review of the Brigham Young Cougars’ 2012 football season. Part one is a general recap of the highs, lows, and other key storylines of the season. Part 2—Position Grades will be Wednesday, November 29. Part 3—Season Awards will be Thursday, November 30. Part 4—Highlights and Milestones will be Friday, December 1.
Days after the 2016 football season ended, BYU football lost the face of its program. LaVell Edwards was the Cougars head coach for 29 seasons and built the program into a national brand. His loss was mourned. His life and memory were appropriately honored in the days that followed. For the last eleven months, friends and family have experienced life without LaVell. The 2017 football season showed Cougar fans, en masse, what BYU football was like without LaVell, or more appropriately, before LaVell.
At the annual media day in June, BYU announced it would wear a patch to honor Edwards this season. It did nothing, however, to help replicate his success. Edwards' death turned out to be more of a bad omen for this season, but it was impossible to see at the time.
While just one player was drafted by NFL franchises, once the season began five players from the 2016 team were enjoying NFL paychecks. This was taken as a sign of positive momentum for the program; Kalani Sitake had it headed in the right direction. After all, BYU appeared to have the players in place to pick up where Taysom Hill, Jamaal Williams, Kai Nacua, Michal Davis, and Harvey Langi left off.
Quarterback Tanner Mangum was going to make footballs fly in Provo unlike any other time this decade. Fred Warner was going to lead a linebacking corps that belonged among the best in the nation. Sione Takitaki was going to return after a year away to wreak havoc in the opponent's backfield. Dayan Ghanwoloku and Troy Warner were ready to be shutdown corners.
Nine days before the season opener, word got out that junior linebacker Francis Bernard would redshirt the season. It was an unexpected bombshell, and the second sign that this season was not going to be what fans were expecting. Bernard was one of the biggest playmakers on the 2016 defense. He was third on the team with 80 tackles. He accounted for four turnovers (three interceptions, one fumble recovery), and added two sacks and five and a half tackles for loss.
IMMEDIATE WARNING SIGNS
Controversy swirled over the Bernard decision all the way up until the first game. The 20-6 win over the Portland State Vikings took the attention away from off-field issues, and focused them on what happened on the field. BYU was supposed to dominate the Vikings. Mangum did not look like the quarterback who threw for over 3,000 yards and over 20 touchdowns as a freshman in 2015.
Warning flags were raised, but few were ready to sound the alarms. SEC foe LSU was up next, so fan conjecture was that BYU coaches were more concerned about using the Portland State game as a chance find out as much as possible about the team in a live situation. Sitake, Ty Detmer, and Ilaisa Tuiaki would then take that information and make improvements to be ready to pull off an upset in Houston.
The LSU game was supposed to be played on a neutral field in Houston, Texas. Hurricane Harvey hit the gulf coast of Texas about the same time BYU was playing Portland State. Houton was hit hard, and the game had to be moved to the New Orleans Superdome.
BYU played like a displaced team in that game. For the second time in 25 games, BYU was shutout. The Cougars never crossed the 50-yard line, and had less than 100 yards total offense. At this point, there was no denying that BYU had problems, but it hadn't sunk in yet just how low the season would go.
INJURIES
A win over rival Utah the next week would have put a lot of people at ease, but the game followed the same pattern as the previous four encounters with the Utes. What was worse was having Mangum go down with an ankle injury on the final play of the game.
Mangum became the poster boy for BYU's growing injury plague. While it wasn't the only problem, injuries played a significant role in the Cougars not being able to gel and develop consistency on offense. Each week, there were two or three more guys out with injury.
Sitake refused to comment on injuries, unless they were season ending, so it is difficult to chronical who exactly was injured and what was the nature of the injury. One week a player would make a nice play or two, then he would inexplicably disappear for two or three games. Going into the season finale the official count from BYU was 37 different players had missed significant time with an injury, and 25 of those had been members of the two-deep with 13 players being projected starters.
POORLY TIMED PENALTIES
Another plague that began in the Utah game was a penalty plague. By the raw numbers, BYU was one of the least penalized teams in the nation. However, the offense had a knack of getting penalties at the worst time possible. Multiple touchdowns were called back because of a penalty. Other scoring opportunities were made significantly harder with penalties near the goal line. Fourth quarter comebacks were stifled as penalties killed drives when the offense was rolling. At least eight games saw ill-timed penalties impact scoring opportunities.
TRYING TO KEEP THE SHIP AFLOAT
Beau Hoge, son of former NFL player and ESPN analyst Merril Hoge, got his first career start in the 1,000th game in BYU history. It was the same day BYU honored former greats Marc Wilson, Robbie Bosco, and Luke Staley by retiring their number 6 jersey. None of that mattered to the Wisconsin Badgers. They had no mercy on BYU, and exposed another glaring weakness: pass defense.
At 1-3, BYU was hemorrhaging. The Cougars needed to find a way to stop the bleeding. It was a great time for a bye. During the bye week the players held a players-only meeting.
There was hope that BYU could get back in the win column against Utah State. With a 21-7 second quarter lead, it looked like that was going to happen. Then Hoge was knocked out of the game, and an avalanche of turnovers ensued. Within a span of 15 minutes, BYU turned the ball over five times. The Cougars finished the game with seven turnovers, and for the third time in eight seasons, BYU lost to Utah State. It was embarrassing.
Koy Detmer, Jr. filled in at quarterback after Hoge left the Utah State game, but it was abundantly clear he was not ready to start. That forced Mangum back before he was 100 percent healthy. His health combined with the success the Cougars had running the ball at Utah State made BYU want to take a run first philosophy on offense. The only problem with that was BYU's opponents had zero respect for the pass game. Opponents caught on very quickly, and the offensive woes continued at a historically bad level. Losses against Boise State and Mississippi State left BYU at 1-6.
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
National media was taking notice now. BYU found itself in the number two spot on the ESPN Bottom 10. It wasn't for just one week. The Cougars lost to ECU the next week and maintained the number two spot.
After ECU, there was no denying the historic futility of this team. ECU came into the game with an identical 1-6 record, and the worst defense in the nation. The Pirates were allowing 600 yards and 50 points per game. Yet, BYU trailed 33-10 in the fourth quarter. It had the potential to be the worst loss in school history since the 1985 UTEP game.
The ECU game was supposed to mark the turning point on the BYU schedule from very difficult games to win to extremely easy wins. Even though BYU went into that game 1-6, bowl eligibility was supposed to be relatively easy to achieve by winning the final six games on the schedule. Not only did the loss to ECU complicate that theory, it was essentially the death knell to BYU's bowl hopes. Technically, even at 1-7, BYU could still gain bowl eligible status by winning the final five games to finish 6-7, but if BYU couldn't beat ECU, then the Cougars weren't going to win all the remaining games.
IT CAN ALWAYS GET WORSE
News of more off-field issues came on the heels of the ugly ECU loss. After making his debut in game three against Utah, Ula Tolutau had become the number one running back. Statistically, he was the team's leading rusher. However, he had been cited by police for possession of marijuana the day after the Boise State game. Cougar coaches had continued to play Tolutau, but once the incident was made public he didn't see the field again. That same week, it was publicized that Bernard and Marvin Hifo were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. Sitake was able to do damage control on that one by explaining that Bernard had left the team several weeks ago, and Hifo left the team a short time earlier following an injury. While these two were just former players, it still hurt the program image.
BYU was now riding a seven game losing streak. That had not happened since 1968. It was just one of the many ways this season had been ruthless.
FIGHTING TO THE FINISH
Fans and the team got a reprieve for a week when San Jose State came to town. Playing the Spartans was a night and day difference from any other game this season. BYU jumped out to a quick lead. Mangum directed a vertical passing game. The Cougars got win number two, and everyone could breathe a little easier. Naturally, it didn't last long.
BYU was competitive on the road against a surprisingly good Fresno State Bulldogs team, but the game took a wrong turn when Mangum went down with injury again. This time for the remainder of the season, and possibly all of 2018. Hoge replaced him again, but he quickly dinged up his toe. He was able to finish the game, but follow up evaluation during the week brought a diagnosis of out for the season.
With both Mangum and Hoge out, that opened the door for true freshman Joe Critchlow to get his first start. It marked the first time BYU started three different quarterbacks in the same season since 2012. Five years ago, BYU found success even with the third guy, and such would be the case this year--for one game.
If Critchlow couldn't get his first start in the comfortable confines of LaVell Edwards Stadium (LES), then there was no better place than UNLV's Sam Boyd Stadium for it to happen. BYU had never lost to UNLV in Las Vegas. The Cougars also have a strong fan base there. Against the Rebels, Critchlow had a strong first half. He definitely wasn't playing like a freshman. With a respectable pass game, that opened the door for Squally Canada to take control. Canada took over the game in the second half en route to a 200-yard rushing performance to put his name next to former Cougar greats like Curtis Brown, Luke Staley, and Jamal Willis.
The joys of that night in Vegas were short lived. What was possibly the lowest moment of the season followed. Critchlow looked very much like a freshman in his next start. The offensive line wasn't able to handle the UMass blitz, and BYU suffered another unexpected loss. UMass is still an infant in the FBS ranks, and came to Provo with a 3-7 record. They had never won a road game against another FBS program. Somehow BYU let it happen on its turf. LES was once one of the most intimidating venues in college football.
That left just one game: Hawai'i. With no bowl game to look forward to, fans feared the team wouldn't take the game seriously. In light of everything else that had gone wrong this season, it would just be par for the course to add another ugly, season-ending loss to Hawai'i to go along side the 1990 and 2001 massacres. In the final chapter of the season, fans found out the pride and character of this team was enough to beat a team that was clearly inferior. BYU went back to having Critchlow manage the game and relied on its stable of running backs to control the game.
NO IDENTITY
It was a disastrous season. Normally, there is sadness that the season has come and gone so quickly. This year, there's only relief. BYU never did find an identity. Without an identity, BYU wasn't able to build any momentum. Injuries only compounded all of the problems. Usually, the team takes at least some momentum into the offseason, but BYU has virtually none right now. There is a lot of work that needs to be done. One change has already happened. More will follow. The schedule next year doesn't get any easier. This truly will be a long offseason.
The Editor appreciates all feedback. He can be reached via email at bluecougarfootball@gmail.com
Days after the 2016 football season ended, BYU football lost the face of its program. LaVell Edwards was the Cougars head coach for 29 seasons and built the program into a national brand. His loss was mourned. His life and memory were appropriately honored in the days that followed. For the last eleven months, friends and family have experienced life without LaVell. The 2017 football season showed Cougar fans, en masse, what BYU football was like without LaVell, or more appropriately, before LaVell.
At the annual media day in June, BYU announced it would wear a patch to honor Edwards this season. It did nothing, however, to help replicate his success. Edwards' death turned out to be more of a bad omen for this season, but it was impossible to see at the time.
While just one player was drafted by NFL franchises, once the season began five players from the 2016 team were enjoying NFL paychecks. This was taken as a sign of positive momentum for the program; Kalani Sitake had it headed in the right direction. After all, BYU appeared to have the players in place to pick up where Taysom Hill, Jamaal Williams, Kai Nacua, Michal Davis, and Harvey Langi left off.
Quarterback Tanner Mangum was going to make footballs fly in Provo unlike any other time this decade. Fred Warner was going to lead a linebacking corps that belonged among the best in the nation. Sione Takitaki was going to return after a year away to wreak havoc in the opponent's backfield. Dayan Ghanwoloku and Troy Warner were ready to be shutdown corners.
Nine days before the season opener, word got out that junior linebacker Francis Bernard would redshirt the season. It was an unexpected bombshell, and the second sign that this season was not going to be what fans were expecting. Bernard was one of the biggest playmakers on the 2016 defense. He was third on the team with 80 tackles. He accounted for four turnovers (three interceptions, one fumble recovery), and added two sacks and five and a half tackles for loss.
IMMEDIATE WARNING SIGNS
Controversy swirled over the Bernard decision all the way up until the first game. The 20-6 win over the Portland State Vikings took the attention away from off-field issues, and focused them on what happened on the field. BYU was supposed to dominate the Vikings. Mangum did not look like the quarterback who threw for over 3,000 yards and over 20 touchdowns as a freshman in 2015.
Warning flags were raised, but few were ready to sound the alarms. SEC foe LSU was up next, so fan conjecture was that BYU coaches were more concerned about using the Portland State game as a chance find out as much as possible about the team in a live situation. Sitake, Ty Detmer, and Ilaisa Tuiaki would then take that information and make improvements to be ready to pull off an upset in Houston.
The LSU game was supposed to be played on a neutral field in Houston, Texas. Hurricane Harvey hit the gulf coast of Texas about the same time BYU was playing Portland State. Houton was hit hard, and the game had to be moved to the New Orleans Superdome.
INJURIES
A win over rival Utah the next week would have put a lot of people at ease, but the game followed the same pattern as the previous four encounters with the Utes. What was worse was having Mangum go down with an ankle injury on the final play of the game.
Mangum became the poster boy for BYU's growing injury plague. While it wasn't the only problem, injuries played a significant role in the Cougars not being able to gel and develop consistency on offense. Each week, there were two or three more guys out with injury.
Sitake refused to comment on injuries, unless they were season ending, so it is difficult to chronical who exactly was injured and what was the nature of the injury. One week a player would make a nice play or two, then he would inexplicably disappear for two or three games. Going into the season finale the official count from BYU was 37 different players had missed significant time with an injury, and 25 of those had been members of the two-deep with 13 players being projected starters.
POORLY TIMED PENALTIES
Another plague that began in the Utah game was a penalty plague. By the raw numbers, BYU was one of the least penalized teams in the nation. However, the offense had a knack of getting penalties at the worst time possible. Multiple touchdowns were called back because of a penalty. Other scoring opportunities were made significantly harder with penalties near the goal line. Fourth quarter comebacks were stifled as penalties killed drives when the offense was rolling. At least eight games saw ill-timed penalties impact scoring opportunities.
TRYING TO KEEP THE SHIP AFLOAT
Beau Hoge, son of former NFL player and ESPN analyst Merril Hoge, got his first career start in the 1,000th game in BYU history. It was the same day BYU honored former greats Marc Wilson, Robbie Bosco, and Luke Staley by retiring their number 6 jersey. None of that mattered to the Wisconsin Badgers. They had no mercy on BYU, and exposed another glaring weakness: pass defense.
At 1-3, BYU was hemorrhaging. The Cougars needed to find a way to stop the bleeding. It was a great time for a bye. During the bye week the players held a players-only meeting.
Koy Detmer, Jr. filled in at quarterback after Hoge left the Utah State game, but it was abundantly clear he was not ready to start. That forced Mangum back before he was 100 percent healthy. His health combined with the success the Cougars had running the ball at Utah State made BYU want to take a run first philosophy on offense. The only problem with that was BYU's opponents had zero respect for the pass game. Opponents caught on very quickly, and the offensive woes continued at a historically bad level. Losses against Boise State and Mississippi State left BYU at 1-6.
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
National media was taking notice now. BYU found itself in the number two spot on the ESPN Bottom 10. It wasn't for just one week. The Cougars lost to ECU the next week and maintained the number two spot.
After ECU, there was no denying the historic futility of this team. ECU came into the game with an identical 1-6 record, and the worst defense in the nation. The Pirates were allowing 600 yards and 50 points per game. Yet, BYU trailed 33-10 in the fourth quarter. It had the potential to be the worst loss in school history since the 1985 UTEP game.
The ECU game was supposed to mark the turning point on the BYU schedule from very difficult games to win to extremely easy wins. Even though BYU went into that game 1-6, bowl eligibility was supposed to be relatively easy to achieve by winning the final six games on the schedule. Not only did the loss to ECU complicate that theory, it was essentially the death knell to BYU's bowl hopes. Technically, even at 1-7, BYU could still gain bowl eligible status by winning the final five games to finish 6-7, but if BYU couldn't beat ECU, then the Cougars weren't going to win all the remaining games.
IT CAN ALWAYS GET WORSE
News of more off-field issues came on the heels of the ugly ECU loss. After making his debut in game three against Utah, Ula Tolutau had become the number one running back. Statistically, he was the team's leading rusher. However, he had been cited by police for possession of marijuana the day after the Boise State game. Cougar coaches had continued to play Tolutau, but once the incident was made public he didn't see the field again. That same week, it was publicized that Bernard and Marvin Hifo were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. Sitake was able to do damage control on that one by explaining that Bernard had left the team several weeks ago, and Hifo left the team a short time earlier following an injury. While these two were just former players, it still hurt the program image.
BYU was now riding a seven game losing streak. That had not happened since 1968. It was just one of the many ways this season had been ruthless.
FIGHTING TO THE FINISH
Fans and the team got a reprieve for a week when San Jose State came to town. Playing the Spartans was a night and day difference from any other game this season. BYU jumped out to a quick lead. Mangum directed a vertical passing game. The Cougars got win number two, and everyone could breathe a little easier. Naturally, it didn't last long.
BYU was competitive on the road against a surprisingly good Fresno State Bulldogs team, but the game took a wrong turn when Mangum went down with injury again. This time for the remainder of the season, and possibly all of 2018. Hoge replaced him again, but he quickly dinged up his toe. He was able to finish the game, but follow up evaluation during the week brought a diagnosis of out for the season.
If Critchlow couldn't get his first start in the comfortable confines of LaVell Edwards Stadium (LES), then there was no better place than UNLV's Sam Boyd Stadium for it to happen. BYU had never lost to UNLV in Las Vegas. The Cougars also have a strong fan base there. Against the Rebels, Critchlow had a strong first half. He definitely wasn't playing like a freshman. With a respectable pass game, that opened the door for Squally Canada to take control. Canada took over the game in the second half en route to a 200-yard rushing performance to put his name next to former Cougar greats like Curtis Brown, Luke Staley, and Jamal Willis.
The joys of that night in Vegas were short lived. What was possibly the lowest moment of the season followed. Critchlow looked very much like a freshman in his next start. The offensive line wasn't able to handle the UMass blitz, and BYU suffered another unexpected loss. UMass is still an infant in the FBS ranks, and came to Provo with a 3-7 record. They had never won a road game against another FBS program. Somehow BYU let it happen on its turf. LES was once one of the most intimidating venues in college football.
That left just one game: Hawai'i. With no bowl game to look forward to, fans feared the team wouldn't take the game seriously. In light of everything else that had gone wrong this season, it would just be par for the course to add another ugly, season-ending loss to Hawai'i to go along side the 1990 and 2001 massacres. In the final chapter of the season, fans found out the pride and character of this team was enough to beat a team that was clearly inferior. BYU went back to having Critchlow manage the game and relied on its stable of running backs to control the game.
NO IDENTITY
It was a disastrous season. Normally, there is sadness that the season has come and gone so quickly. This year, there's only relief. BYU never did find an identity. Without an identity, BYU wasn't able to build any momentum. Injuries only compounded all of the problems. Usually, the team takes at least some momentum into the offseason, but BYU has virtually none right now. There is a lot of work that needs to be done. One change has already happened. More will follow. The schedule next year doesn't get any easier. This truly will be a long offseason.
The Editor appreciates all feedback. He can be reached via email at bluecougarfootball@gmail.com
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