Photo by Mark Philibrick

Do you know what the SDSU game was like? It was the kind of game where you make a great play, but remember that the team you are playing is 1-9 with their only win coming against Idaho.  As a player you have to rely on your preparation and your experience in order to have enough emotion of kick a dying…. nay dead Aztec horse.

For fans it’s that game you don’t really feel bad for missing, but you show up anyway because you want to see how bad the damage is going to be. Will we score 70 like the Lobos, or will Bronco submit to his conscience and put the reserves in the game so SDSU can return to sunny San Diego with a little dignity intact -to be honest how much motivation can the Aztecs have for the remainder of their 08′ season. It’s tough to be an Aztec these days, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Only eight more quarters to go.

Saturday’s game was a solid win, but still left a few questions in my mind. The first of which is, did we improve upon our previous weeks performance?

In order to be playing our best football when we go north our Cougars are going to need to improve every week. We made some positive strides….but was it enough? Was a 41-12 win over the worst team in college football enough? Some folks out there will say no. BYU dropped in the BCS…does that mean we should have put more points on the board? Or do we simple forget about rankings and take care of business in order to have a share of the conference championship? Personally I would go with the latter. It’s the only thing we can control.

Things we did well:

Our defense did their job of stopping the run -which was the only chance SDSU had of pulling off the up-set. SDSU used numerous backs in order to find some kind of solution to their offenses lack of production. The Aztecs most effective play was the fly sweep -where an athletic player comes in motion across the formation and they hand it off as he’s running full speed. SDSU gained the majority of their yards on this play -41 of 120.

In order better stop the fly sweep our outside linebacker and safety need to recognize the motion quicker and rotate efficiently in order to catch the ball carrier before they can turn the corner and get up field. It’s an easy adjustment and this play shouldn’t be a problem in the future.

The linebackers played very well. Nixon was all over the field and Bauman and Doman were in the backfield most of the game. I also noticed that 4 or 5 different linebackers played throughout the course of the game. Coach Tidwell worked the rotation strategy in order to keep our linebackers fresh and excited about their minutes in the game.

I was encouraged to see our linebackers making plays against a spread offense. They made some good open field tackles and when they were forced to play coverage they had nice, even spacing in their drops, which put them in good positions to knock down balls and disrupt passing lanes. This group played one of its best games -with regards to production and emotion.

Our offense kept the ball on the ground much of the game, which is why the game felt boring. While some folks out there are saying the play calling “sucked” and we should have thrown the ball more. I say to you, relax. We needed a game like this one to keep teams guessing as to what types of plays we might call in certain situations. Don’t be short sighted in thinking that we aren’t self scouting. We ran the ball 37 times and threw it 30 times. Against the Aztecs that’s good balance. To be perfectly honest we should have been able to run the ball more and still won, but Harvey left the game early and Wayne fumbled; so Max and Co. had to drop some bombs so the fans could feel comfortable in their seats.

Max is making great decisions with the ball. If there is one person that has improved the past couple of weeks it has been Max. He;s throwing the ball on time and finding the open player. He’s using the role players early in possessions and then concentrating on Austin and Pitta when the Cougars need a first down or a big play. He also showed great composure when he was under pressure and forced the Aztecs out of dropping eight into coverage when he ran during those situations. Teams are know going to need to account for Max running when they drop eight, which makes it difficult for linebackers to focus on Dennis and Andrew. In the next two games Max is going to need to be able to scramble for positive yardage as AF and Utah both have good secondary’s and schemes that can cover all of BYU’s route combinations.

Max also didn’t throw an interception and that’s good on a lot of different levels.

Where does our team need to improve?

The young players on special teams need to start playing better. We give up way to many yards with our punt and kick-off cover teams. BYU needs to be able to rely on our young players to make tackles so our starters can get a much needed rest. Plus it’s good game experience for freshman and sophomores who might be prepping to take over next year.

Putmun, you don’t have to listen to this. Just keep doing what you do. On another note I think Putnum is developing his own celebration. It’s good to see one young player taking advantage of his opportunities and displaying emotion while making plays.

Our secondary is getting thinner and thinner and they still aren’t making plays on the ball. Against SDSU the linebackers made most of the plays, but I still want to see our defensive backs more engaged in knocking down balls and making big hits. Next weeks game will be telling as to what we can expect on November 22^nd. Winning against Air Force demands discipline and play making ability by the defensive backs. Our scheme against the cadets relies heavily on the safeties/corners abilities to beat blocks and make plays. It will be an interesting week of practice for this bunch.

Our offensive line needs to pick-up the blitz better. SDSU got pressure with 4 and 5 men in the rush. Four and five defenders in the rush are nothing compared to what they will be seeing the next two weeks. We have to get back to solidifying our communication and winning the one-on-one battles in the trenches. Our linemen have some challenges ahead of them and with their experience and talent I expect them to respond and play extremely well.

In the next two weeks BYU is going to have to match AF’s and UTAH’s intensity and emotion in order to come out 2-0. The Air Force game should hinge on our defenses ability to make correct reads and adjustments in stopping the run game and our offenses ability to protect the football.

Against the team up north we will need to be playing our best football in order to win. I think the teams match-up well. We have advantages in some areas, while the Utes have advantages in some other areas. The winner on Nov. 22^nd will be the team that can physically dominate from the opening kick-off until the final play for all the marbles. That game is shaping up to be a dandy.

AP Photo by Denis Poroy

Due to injuries and early heart wrenching losses SDSU is very light up the middle. They have good sideline-to-sideline speed but have a hard time standing toe to toe with their opponents in the trenches. After some bad losses in recent weeks this SDSU team is coming into Provo with desperation in their eyes. If our offense or defense comes out and lays an egg on their first series it could end up being a long day. BYU instead must comes out and blast SDSU straight in the chest, they won’t be able to withstand the disappointment, and the day will be ours.

Don’t get me wrong SDSU has some guys who can play. Both corners are good players who have good feet good hips and they stay tight in coverage -their safeties on the other hand aren’t the best in coverage. They also have good all around team speed, but their linebackers and DB’s often take bad angles and end-up in difficult position to make plays.

I feel for this team, but I won’t feel sorry for them until the 9th of November.

The SDSU defense scheme is a 4-3, but they often have a fifth outside linebacker on the line to help in protecting the defenses edge. When the Aztecs need to stop the run they will bring their safeties into the box and rely on their corners abilities to hold up in coverage. SDSU will also brings numerous zone blitzs if they feel the run support is lacking.

Their defense is at its best when they can stretch play horizontally allowing them to use correct angles and momentum to make tackles and plays.

-I am watching the UNM game for the second time as I write this and it really must have been the worst defensive game I have ever seen. It’s like watching a really nasty injury; you don’t want to but when the moment of impact comes you just have to peek between your fingers to see the damage.

To be completely honest their defense is like swiss cheese. SDSU’s best players are their two corners, but they will only be effective if their defensive front gets their pass rush working.  I just don’t see that happening due to our size and ability advantage.

In passing situations the Aztec’s go to coverage is cover two, and in third and long situations they will be in a nickel package with 5 underneath players and 3 over the top players. This type of max coverage forces the offense to take a short throw and have the ball carrier weave their way through the defense in order to pick-up the first down.

The only way SDSU can stop our offense is if we completely breakdown. Their defense if good enough to get a couple of stops, but as long as our offense comes out blazing points shouldn’t be hard to come by. My worst nightmare has the Cougars coming out completely flat, turning the ball over early and our defense being unable to stop the run.

Wait a second that scenario seems all too familiar.

Do you know what I would like to see from our offense? I would like to see a demoralizing run game, which is complemented with play action passes with Max on the edge whipping the ball around on the run. Than Fui and Harvey -yes I said that in the right order, Harvey needs to rest up and get back to 100%- softened SDSU’s middle up enough that SDSU has to devote every body they have to stopping the run. As they put more and more players in the box we than begin to use Dennis and Andrew. When the Aztec defense then feels inadequate to the task of stopping our TE’s we begin using our wide receivers and so on and so forth.

It’s a simple formula, but I think if we can start scoring early this fragile team will lose what confidence they have and they’ll begin making more and more mistakes.

I wish San Diego State the best on Sunday the 9th, but until then I would ask that the Cougs start playing like they want a piece of the MWC Championship. With the Utes win over TCU we still have a waaayyyy outside shot at the BCS and we could still share a portion of the MWC title. If our team can show some improvement over the next two game we could enter the Black-out stadium to play the most significant rivalry game in the Holy Wars long history.

(Let’s just not forget to beat the cadets in Colorado Springs.)

Without wasting too much time focusing on our opponent I want to look at a few reasons why SDSU finds themselves with only 1 win this year, and losses to some of the weakest FBS and FCS teams in the country.

Problem #1:  SDSU is in bad need of a rival.  This team is an emotional roller coaster and I think it is because they don’t know how to feel about their opponents.  I read an interesting article today that said “SDSU has made a reputation of playing the Top Teams close.”  They play up for these games, because it would mean something to beat a big school like Michigan or Ohio State.  But when they are playing conference teams you never know what SDSU team will show up to play.  When they are fired up, they can actually do some damage BYU @ SDSU 2005 when we planted our flag in the middle of the 50yd line?).  I think the fact that they are the only team outside of the mountains – in the Mountain West – leaves them feeling sorry for themselves and unable to find a true rival.  I guess UNLV is out of the mountains too, so maybe they should start hating each other.  After all it is a short drive from SD to LV. 

Solution: Right now it would be great for SDSU and the city of San Diego to start a rivalry with USD.  They are a Div 1-AA team, but they are really good.  They don’t lose very often, and probably would not lose to SDSU this year.  A rivalry here would really give SDSU the spark they need to be more competitive.  Everyone needs someone to hate, and right now SDSU doesn’t have that.  They used to consider us their rival, but we really don’t have time to return the affection because we hate Utah too much and we try to accommodate TCU and Wyoming now and then.  Besides we have also thrown Utah State back in the mix.

Problem #2: The biggest contributor to the poor play of SDSU has to be their player’s commitment to the team. This may actually stem from having so much sunshine in the summer in So. Cal.   I had the opportunity to train with two players from SDSU for the combine/pro day.  I asked one of them what seemed to be the problem there and he said, Accountability.  Fact is, there isn’t any on the Aztec football team.  Guys are not held accountable to each other or to their coaches to make it to workouts or to improve in the others areas of being a student athlete.  This is the same problem that plagued BYU from 2002-2004.  SDSU will not turn this thing around until the coaches start holding the players accountable. 

Interestingly enough SDSU consistently turns out more NFL players than any other MWC school.  For the past few years (with this year being the first exception) they led the MWC in NFL players.  Right now Utah has 16 and SDSU has 15.  BYU (14) and TCU (10) are the next in line.  So they have the talent.  They just need to harness it.  I heard a great quote from Drew Brees a couple weeks ago.  He was being interviewed before the Charger/Saints Game about his time in SD and the trade.  In a nut shell he said he does not resent being traded at all because in New Orleans the coaches built the offense for him, and they are so good and building game plans that highlight player’s strengths.  He said, “These coaches will never ask a player to run a play that preys on their weaknesses.”  Case in point, Coach Mendenhall switching from his pride and joy 3-3-5 to the 3-4, so that we could play to our strengths.  Coach Anae replacing Nate Meikle with Andrew George because of the athletic ability and depth of our TEs.  The SDSU coaches are capable and have had a lot of success.  In the off-season they need to sit down, evaluate the strengths of their players, and “Get the right people in the right seats.”

Food for thought on SDSU coaches:

The last 4 coaches for SDSU from most recent on back:

• Chuck Long is 8-25 at SDSU. Prior to that all he did was:
• win 3 bowl games with Iowa as the DBs coach while his unit led the conference in INT returned for TDs and INTs 2 out of 3 years.
• QB coach of the 2000 BCS NC Sooners.
• OC for Oklahoma winning the 2002 & 03 Rose Bowls while averaging 51.5 points/game
• 2004 Asst Coach of the Year
• Tom Craft was 19-29 at SDSU…before that:
• 31-2 with 2 JuCo NCs for Palomar JC (Who FYI has 90% of its roster from local high schools) Why can’t they get them to SDSU?
• Top 5 in Total offense in 5 years
• Coached 7 All American QBs
• Ted Tollner was 43-48 at SDSU…before that:
• 26-20 @ USC and was fired after losing to rival UCLA 3 out of 4 times (we will discuss rivalry later)
• After following Head Coaches who kept getting fired, Ted has been fairly stable as an offense position coach and OC in the NFL for the 49ers
• Al Luginbill – the weakest of the bunch outside SDSU – was a surprising 31-25. That is one of the top wining % at the school. Should have kept him.
• 2001 XFL Champs as head coach
• 30-26 in the NFL Europe winning World Bowl III

With impressive resumes before and after SDSU, it tells me there was something else going on besides just the head coach.

Photo by Mark Philbrick/BYU

With the SDSU offense there are a few things that concern me and a few things give me a lot of hope. Let’s start with what concerns me. They have enough athletic ability to take a simple run or pass play and break it loose for a big gain. They also use the spread formation a lot because they have the speed and ability at the WR position.

Know that the bad news is out of the way here is the good news. Their offensive play calling always comes back to some simple concepts and plays. Their offense starts with the ride play -not the ride option, simply handing the ball off to the running back and letting him work. After that SDSU uses their speed and agility on the edges and they will run a lot of WR screens/bubble screens. They’ll throw the ball to the slot receiver and someone in the secondary has to make a play to get their team out of a series.

Last but not least, San Diego’s offense uses some simple route combination’s, which make it easy on their young, inexperienced quarterbacks to make reads and throws. SDSU runs a lot -and I do mean a lot- of curls, hitches, outs and streaks. All of their passing plays make it extremely easy for the quarterback to make the read and throw the ball. The Aztec quarterback basically isn’t forced to make any crucial decisions with the ball in his hands.

Lets look at some key players for the San Diego offense.

Running Backs

#6 Atiyyah Henderson is their best play maker and if he gets running lanes it could be a long day for our defense. Because SDSU spreads defenses out and uses zone blocking schemes it gives the running back a lot of freedom to pick lanes and holes. Henderson has great speed and also understands situations. If he needs two yards he’ll stick his nose in there for the yardage. If he thinks he can bounce around and make a play he will. Where he struggles is in pass blocking, let’s just say he is like a swinging gate everyone gets in.

#32 Tyler Campbell is their bruiser and pass blocking back. He’ll come in to get the tough yards up the middle.

One thing our linebackers can do to neutralize Henderson’s speed is to pay attention to his alignment. He sometimes gives the play away simply because he lines up shallower or deeper. It’s a small detail, but it could give you an extra step when plugging your gap.

Wide Receiver

Don’t believe everything that the stats are telling you. These guys can play if you don’t let them know how physical you will be throughout the game. Their offense depends on these guys catching the ball in space and making a corner or safety miss a tackle. Of the bunch #80 Vincent Brown is their go to guy. He’s one of the youngest receivers and possesses some raw talent. I just hope our pursuit is great this game because he will make a couple of guys miss. I hope our DB’s can bottle him up enough to let the calvary get their shots in before he ducks out of bounds.

After Brown their other favorite targets would be #1 DeMarco Sampson -who should remember me because I smoked him on a curl route last time he was in Provo. He has good speed and decent hands, but a tendency to be lazy if he is not the primary receiver.

#4 is somewhat of a wild card. Darren Mougey he was their back-up quarterback that switched to WR and he presents a difficult match-up in the slot position. He is 6′6” and goes 230 lbs. with good feet and decent speed. I just hope our DB’s are aware of the fact that he was a quarterback and if you see a reverse coming in his direction, it will most likely be a reverse pass.

In all honesty, when you look at these guys on paper you think WOW we will be in for a long day. The fact is these guys drop easy balls, and their quarterbacks aren’t that good so they don’t get the chances that less talented receivers at other schools receive.

Quarterback

#14 Ryan Lindley and #9 Drew Westling have both taken snaps and started games but neither has taken the reins of the team. Until one of these two players steps up the offense will continue to struggle. Westling is the most experienced as a JR, but having been a back-up his whole career shows when he has to make tough throws.

Lindley seems to be the guy of the future. He makes the easy throws and doesn’t take a lot of chances. Both quarterbacks struggle with pressure and both don’t throw the long ball very well. With these guys behind center I think we will be alright.

Offensive line.

There line is OK. They aren’t particularly physical, but they have done just enough to win one game…if you catch my drift.

SDSU’s offense boils down to their ability to run the ball and get the skill players in open space against corners and safeties. They throw quick throws, which limits the need for a great offensive line and in the running game all they need to do is get in a defenders face, just long enough for the RB to get through the hole. It’s not an scary offense to play against as long as guys are doing what they are supposed to do -simple right?

Keys to the game:

We need to play very smart at the inside linebacker and defensive end positions. A lot of the time the running back is depending on these players to over pursue or hesitate so he can exploit a seam. If the Cougar defense plays low and hard they should stop the running game and force SDSU to do other things.

Tackling will play a very important role this week. They use the spread 90% of the time, which means there are going to be plenty of open field tackles. Please breakdown, wrap-up and most importantly keep your eyes open.

Get some turnovers. Third down stops will also be nice, but we need some emotion from the defense and an interception would be great. I am thinking either Andrew Rich or David Tafuna.

Everyone needs to be running like wild animals to the ball. Playing hard is something that BYU has hung their hat on for the past 4 years. Let’s not take a week off. Yes, this team hasn’t won a league game in a while, but I can imagine they would love to steal one away from BYU. Let’s not make this a BYU vs SDSU shootout.

Over the last two weeks we have mentioned a lot about preparation for games and knowledge of assignments.  I figured it would be a good idea to go through the week and show exactly how we prepare for a game.

Saturday:

Immediately after the games players are handed their scout DVDs.  These DVDs have four games of our next opponent on them.  These games are selected by the coaches by how closely they match what we expect to see in our own game.  For example, this week’s DVDs for the defense will show SDSU’s offense against teams this year that also play a 3-4, most recent game and any other game the coaches feel will most closely resemble what we expect.

Sunday:

The great thing about BYU is that we do not have any obligations on Sunday.  I always took this day off, some guys would put in their DVDs to get familiar with the next opponent.

Monday

This is always the longest day of the week.  The first position meeting Monday afternoon is to watch the previous game and learn from how we played.  After team meeting and defense/offense meeting it is back to the position rooms for an introduction to the new opponent’s top plays and top personnel.  In the position meeting there will usually be a couple new blitzes or adjustments specific to that week that the coaches will go over also.

Out on the practice field, Monday is a little more laid back.  There are no pads and most of the practice is spent walking through formations and introducing the bread and butter plays of the new team, along with discussing the general scheme of the offense.

Tuesday

Tuesday is the day that the rubber really hits the road.  Players are given a binder that has every game, every play, every statistic broken down for the opponent’s season.  It shows what the team’s favorite plays are by formation, situation (down and distance).  It breaks down the percentage of run/pass in every situation and formation too.  This was my Bible and what I spent the most time studying.  If there were tendencies for the team, they would show up in there.

Out on the field things picked up too.  When I was at BYU this was our full-pad day, or at the very least shoulder pads.  This was a big hitting day to get us ready to be physical.  In pre-practice we had a period called “adjustments.”  Here we would react to all the different motions of the team.  If they had an option component to their game this is the period we would go over option assignments.  The rest of the team periods were personnel specific, meaning: 12,21,22 personnel usually go together; 11, 10 personnel usually go together.  The goal on Tuesday for the coaches is to use different blitzes and coverages against different plays and then watch the film to see what will work best to defend a certain play.

Wednesday

Any blitzes or coverage adjustments that were installed on Monday did not look good on Tuesday they are thrown out.  The players begin to get a better idea of what the game plan (meaning which fronts, blitzes and coverages we will be using) for the game will be.  Practice and meetings closely resemble Tuesday.

Thursday

Thursday practice is more mental that anything and it all starts with the defensive test.  Remember that binder we got on Tuesday?  Well first thing after team meeting on Thursday the defense runs into the defensive room and Coach Mendenhall already has the clock started.  We have a timed test on the material in that binder.  We will be given sheets of paper that have different formations on them.  We are supposed to write down the percentage of run/pass out of that formation and then the top 3 run and top 3 pass plays out of that formation.

Out on the practice field Coach looks for crisp execution and a lot of communication, especially on plays where the offense gives away a pre-snap read.  There are no pads, but you better be running everywhere you go.  There is no room for error on Thursday.  Everyone is expected to know exactly where to be and what to do.

Friday Morning

At some point in the morning (the time changes depending on home/away and when the plane leaves) we will all meet for a team meeting.  Coach goes over the agenda and we all head to the Indoor Facility for our walk-through.  At the walk through we are just in shorts and tees with no helmets.  We have been wearing cleats lately because Coach wants it more of a “run” through.  If there were any plays we messed up on the day before you better have them down pat today.  WE start the run through with goal line plays then go to the normal offense.  At the end the coaches can hand pick any certain plays they want to see one last time.

To end the run through we have “Special Teams Call-Outs.”  All the players are on the sideline and the Coach Higgins calls out each special team, 1^st and 2^nd string and nobody better be missing, or we start all over.

Friday Night

Just before the fireside on Friday night we have a film test.  At the film test coach will put up a play on the screen with the formation paused.  He expects us to say anything that we may know about the play by the formation.  ie: check for screen, or QB draw, etc.  Then he will give us a play call, “Tiger Flex Tornado Auto” (something from the old 3-3-5 days).   We are sitting in rows with 1^st string in front 2^nd behind and so on.  From L-R we are seated DE, N, DE, SOLB, SILB, WILB, WOLB, FS, SS, FC, BC.  After we get the play call we go down the line from L-R and everyone has to say their responsibilities.  You don’t leave that room until there are no mistakes.

After the fireside we have another walk through just like in the IPF.

Saturday Morning

Another walk through first thing in the morning just like the night before.  Then for the rest of the day, until the busses leave there are film rooms set up where you can go watch some last minute film of the opponent.

And that’s it in a nut shell.

Written by: Markell Staffieri