BYU’s O-Line is Fine — Just in Time
BYU guard Braden Hansen (BYU photo)
Don’t look now, but the BYU offensive line is starting to come together.
And just in time.
After two weeks of fall practices filled with injuries, demotions, transfers, cross-trainings, and career-ending chronic conditions, even the Cougars’ starting quarterback was expressing frustration with the revolving door in front of him.
Precious time was ticking down, time that an offensive line looking to replace two starters from 2011 needed to help create continuity.
It was an issue that was becoming a key story coming out of camp.
However, during the Cougars’ second scrimmage of the season on Thursday, the five guys that many have believed would be the starters up front when BYU opens the season against Washington State took up their expected spots.
The group of Ryker Mathews at left tackle, Braden Hansen at left guard, Houston Reynolds at center, Brock Stringham at right guard and Braden Brown at right tackle now appear to be set as the starting five when the Cougars take the field on Aug. 30th.
And they still have a couple of weeks to work together before we start keeping score.
During Thursday’s scrimmage the offensive line was impressive, clearing the way for BYU running backs, who gained nearly 200 yards on the ground, including 117 on 13 carries from redshirt freshman Adam Hine. The group drew praise from Bronco Mendenhall, even though much of the success came against a defense that was missing many projected first team players.
Bronco and his staff appear to have little or no concern about the fact that they will be starting a redshirt freshman in Mathews at left tackle this season. Part of that is because the former Army All-American is supremely talented, the other part is that he won’t be protecting Riley Nelson’s blindside, seeing that the senior signal caller is left handed.
Ryker was penciled in as a member of the two-deep last year behind Matt Reynolds before he was sidelined for the season with a foot injury just a week before the first game against Ole Miss. He was widely regarded as the sixth best option on the line despite the fact that he was straight out of high school.
This fall Mathews has returned healthy after missing spring drills, but Reynolds, Stringham and Brown have all spent time sitting out of practices with various nagging injuries, while Hansen has been working his way out of the dog house for not meeting his fitness goals coming into camp. The Outland Trophy candidate had largely been relegated to working with the second team while earning the right to rejoin the ones.
Thursday was the first time that the entire group took a snap together.
The primary back ups this season appear to be Blair Tushaus, Michael Yeck, Famika Anae and Solomone Kafu, who hopes to return in the next two or three weeks after suffering a broken hand earlier this week.
Tushaus has been cross trained at both center and guard this year, although he is a bit undersized to play the guard spot. If one of BYU’s guards were to go down with an injury, the most likely scenario would be for Reynolds to move to guard and Blair to come in as the starting center.
Yeck can play either tackle position, although if the Cougars were to lose a starter at tackle, an option could be to move Hansen to the outside, then move Reynolds into Hansen’s position and Tushaus to center. Braden spent a good part of his time with the twos this fall playing tackle.
Other players that may be called upon if the line is hit with a rash of injuries include Austin Hoyt, Ryan Freeman and Manaaki Vaitai.
Here’s how the “functioning” two-deep should look against Washington State:
LT – Ryker Mathews (6-6, 292 Fr.) – Michael Yeck (6-8, 288 So.)
LG – Braden Hansen (6-6, 307 Sr.) – Famika Anae (6-6, 312 So.)
C - Houston Reynolds (6-2, 305 Jr.) – Blair Tushaus (6-2, 270 So.)
RG – Brock Stringham (6-6, 290 So.) – Famika Anae (6-6, 312 So.)
RT – Braden Brown (6-6, 300 Sr.) – Michael Yeck (6-8, 288 So.)
The offensive line is the key to BYU’s season being a success. They’ve also been the biggest question mark, so this is indeed good news.
Great news. Hope we see great offensive protection of the QB this year and the QB doesn’t panic and have to scramble every play like last year.
I love the updated weight on our players. We used to average like 325 lbs and now we are down to 300. This should make a HUGE difference in our fast paced offense.
I had thought that Tushaus had passed Reynolds by for the starting spot at Center, though I knew that the race was very close. Maybe conditioning and health were a part of it.
You know, previously season’s camp had focused quite a bit on bad snaps from the C position. Not a word about it this year. I don’t know if the snaps are all good, or if it just hasn’t been a media focus in 2012…
That might be the tallest, on average, corps of o-linemen we’ve had in quite some time. Their body fat % seems to be more where it needs to be, as well. Stay healthy, boys. Depth is a major concern.
@Mars – I agree! I think there are enough cameras around that the media would bring it up if they were still having fumble/snap problems… Let’s just hope they are doing great and will be ready for WSU. I’m pretty stoked they are all in much better shape!
I haven’t heard anyonetalk about this yet, so I may be off base, but it seems that most of the O-line in the scrimmage was first string, but the D-line was backups. Did this account for some of the success in running the ball? How about in practices, is the first-string O-line able to handle our 1′s on defense?
Should I be worried that our defense is not having very many days of shutting down our offense? Brett, can you give us an assessment of the overall balance?
AZ Coug,
It was mentioned in this article, and every other article about the scrimmage, that it was 1′s on the Oline against 2′s on the Dline. The question I have is are they going to have enough time playing together to play as a cohesive unit. WSU and Weber it should be fine (neither school has been known for their D) but lets just hope they come together well by the Utah game.
Also, the D isn’t stopping the O anymore like they were early in camp because there haven’t been many, if any, practices where the entire D was playing together. And with the best player, KVN, just now starting to play the D will get better.
The last scrimmage was two separate full teams: #1 Offense and #2 Defense against the #2 Offense and #1 Defense with separate coaches: Chad Lewis and Curtis Brown. A lot of the #1s and some #2s were held out to avoid the possibility of injury. From the reports, the #1 O did well against the #2 D and the #1 D did well against the #2 O. All good from where I stand.
Highlands Ranch, CO and Greenville, NC are very proud of Brock!! the Rock Stringham.
AZ_COUG-
You are correct, the 1st team offense went against the 2nd team defense so I am with you and the OL is a concern to me just like it seems to be for a majority of DSOB members. I can understand why Brett is saying that everything is coming together just in time, but that only means that they all came together t to start for the first time together. But there are at least two major problems:
1. They are just barely healthy and are just a few ankle sprains away from sitting down again
2. Although the offense gained over 200 yards in the last scrimmage, again there was not one defensive starter on the field.
Finally, Coach Mendenhall has to say that he is pleased; what else do you expect him to say? Now I have picked them to go 12-1 so I guess I shouldn’t be concerned either…but I am. I just still think that the key is keeping Nelson healthy and if he is he will elevate the play of the OL and will the team to victories.
The AP poll is out so here are all three polls and who we play that is ranked in the top 25 or has received a vote(s):
A. Coaches Poll
22. BSU
24. ND
28. Georgia Tech
32. Utah
B. AP
24. BSU
26. ND
30. Utah
31. Georgia Tech
C. ESPN Power Ranking
24. BSU
25. ND
32. Utah
34. Georgia Tech
So we play some big names a few of which are just inside the top 25. We have beaten higher ranked teams under the Mendenhall regime so this is doable but what makes it even tougher is that all these games are on the road. But, this is what we wanted, national exposure against storied programs…it doesn’t get any better than this and if we play well and win a majority of these games there’s no telling what it will do for our image and recruiting in the years to come.
GO COUGS!
I am very interested to see the effect of having a leaner O-line is this year. Will run blocking improve? Will pass blocking improve? Will one be better than the other? Will both be worse?
This is very intriguing for me as we enter this season. I would want to ask a former LB – would you rather take on a heavier slower O-lineman or a smaller, quicker one?
@Walt
Notre Dame is a storied program but Georgia Tech, Boise St and Utah aren’t. These teams are all on the bubble of the pre-season top 25 in various polls so it has the beginnings of being a decent schedule.
Utah finished 8th in the Pac 12 last year and well out of the top 25 rankings. Plus they are 0-5 since 2009 vs teams that have finished in the top 25. They had a couple of great seasons in the past decade with a lot of mixed results in-between. I don’t think that qualifies them as a “Big Name” program.
Notre Dame is a storied program but it’s been a while since they’ve lived up to their reputation and I’m not sure if Georgia Tech has ever been either storied or big name. They fall more into the category of respectable BCS opponents like others that we’ve played in recent years.
Boise St has been great year in and year out for the past 10 yrs or more and they have a good reputation nationally but SOS is always an issue for them. Some might think they’re a little iffy as a “big name” program because the bulk of their success was built in the WAC. They’d play one or two decent to good teams and then get fat on a steady diet of NMSU, Idaho, SJSU, etc. They do have 2 BCS bowl wins to their credit but many critics can make the argument that if they had to play a BCS conference schedule in those years that they would inevitably come away with a loss to two.
This is definitely an improved schedule from a year ago and it’s only going to get better going forward with the addition of teams like Nebraska, Wisconsin and others. My hope is we limit the cupcake games to just a couple a season, play a few more against middle tier major conference teams (like we’re doing now with schools like Oregon St, Utah, GT, etc) and then get a few top 25 teams as well. Playing a lot of Thursday night and Friday night games vs good competition on ESPN will help BYU re-establish their reputation.
I noticed that all the back ups listed at second string are sophomores. Those guys are going to be motivated to perform and perfect their craft so they can earn a starting spot next year when more spots on the line are up for grabs. Besides OL is a position where there are injuries though out the season and rotation during games so some of those guys should see plenty of reps this year. Weber mentioned yesterday that he sees a rotation at the center spot heading into the season. I hope that doesn’t cause havoc with the QB/Center exchange.
A little off the theme of this article – our defensive line didn’t fee very well allowing 200 yards rushing. Now Coach Leach is very innovative. He’s new at WSU and doesn’t have the skill players he is used to having. Remember a few years ago when we beat Utah with our ground game – caught them very off guard. I wonder if this strategy might be WSU game plan against us.
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