Why the Cougars Practice the Way they do.
Photo by Douglas Pizac
Fast forward a few years to Coach Mendenhall’s 2nd year as a head coach. He started to realize that there was some truth to the revised saying, “Practice doesn’t make perfect…PERFECT practice makes PERFECT.” Coach told us going into the ’06 Season that we were going to run X amount of plays each practice, so long as they were done right. Right execution, right intensity, etc. Everything had to be right or we did that play again. When we made the switch a miraculous thing happened, we got crisper in our execution, because we actually had enough energy to think and play.
This new model is new to BYU but not to football. The NFL practices in a very similar manner. During the season they have what are called 10-10-10s. Where the O runs 10 plays, then the D runs 10 plays. In all they maybe run 30 plays in team segments. Why? Because it is a long season, and every rep takes a toll on your body, whether you like it or not.
So in closing let’s take a gander at what the point of practice really is. Is it to hone your skills? Learn the opponents Offense/Defense? During the season the time for honing your skills is over. That is done mainly in spring ball and off season. Learning the opponents schemes is more for the film room. The real point of practice is for the coaches to run through play calls against different opponent looks and see how they go together so they can formulate a game plan. Players do get a feel for the other team’s plays and motions, etc but if you pay close attention players will realize they are always running the same blitz/coverage against the same plays.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that in season practice is not to make you sharp, but to keep you sharp. So why waste time being redundant and wear out your bodies? These short practices have been one of the best things Coach Mendenhall has changed in the program. I was never tired going into a game, and never got tired during a game, because I peaked on Saturday. That is why I know the Boys in Blue will peak on the 20th!
By Markell Staffieri
Totally agree with you Markell. Too many coaches out that think that if they run their players into the ground every practice they will be prepared for game time. Unfortunately this leads to mediocre seasons, overtraining and injury. Long distance training gives long distance results. I would rather see our players look like olympic sprinters than olympic distance runners.
When did Mendenhall take on this philosophy?
Shortly after the beating we took in California. Bronco’s first season as a HC was tough then I think he started to find a balance between demands on and off the field, and he relized that great results materialize when a team is fresh and hungry for competition.
I maybe in the extreme opposition here on this, but I am hoping someone post that the first spring practice will be at 5:00 a.m., outside in 25 degree weather and start with heavy pursuit drills and every position is open for real and meaningful competition.
Looking at it from the outside with no inside perception at all I think this years defense and at times offense played very soft and I think you need to bring the intensity and accountability back up for next year. I think too many people on this years team knew they would start/safe and didn’t have much competition for their spots. This is something every business goes through. You have employees that start coming back from lunch late, leave early, don’t return calls and then you have to step in and go extreme with the discipline or worse case fire some people. It is a cycle that requires a balance and adjustment for the overall success of the business.
In other words, I believe someone needs to put a boot to the proverbial fly wheel.
I remember always hearing about those 80-100 play practices under Crowton and thinking our team is gonna kick all kinds of butt in the next game but unfortunately the result was usually a team with low energy and a confused offense on gameday.
I know you guys were on defense but would say that one of Crowton’s shortcomings was that he just had too many plays in his playbook he wanted the team to run?
First BYUJACK – Off Season is fair game for anything. These short practices are for the season. Spring ball has enough intensity and a lot of hitting. Those are physically greuling practices. Making them start at 5am would make them less productive. Aside from military gents, how many of us operate at a functional level at 5am?
No doubt about it, they need a kick in the pants.
SEASIDER – In the words of John Beck “Nobody prepared me better for the NFL than Coach Crowton.”
Maybe guys were confused by the amount of plays, I don’t know. Look at what the Oregon and LSU offenses have done under Coach Crowton…Not too shabby. There must have just been something in the water at BYU.
I found this going through another post today…thought it fit on this post pretty well. Good thoughts DARKBULL!
Darkbull, on December 12th, 2008 at 7:51 pm Said:
I have to admit that as a sports medicine physician, I’m intrigued by Coach Mendenhall’s approach. There’s a lot of new research coming out that shows that, for example, the best way to train for a marathon is not necessarily to run 26 miles at any time… until you run the race.
Similiarly, I don’t think that heavy practices and full contact drills are always the right answer for training. I’m sure that Quinn and Markell could comment on “muscle memory” and how positioning and reacting, once imbedded, are hard to lose–and come back relatively quickly.
Additionally, hard, heavy practices cause trauma, injury, expend lots of calories that are often hard to recover. Pain associated with those injuries can impair sleep, and without adequate sleep, injuries don’t heal well, muscle doesn’t build as well.
More is not always better, or as a mentor once told me, “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.”
Interesting. When I was learning to play the violin as a young lad, my Dad always said, “Practice makes perfect with perfect practice.” That may seem irrelevant here but music is a discipline and so is sports. I think it applies equally in both realms.
Of course, there’s trade off between time and perfection. You can’t run the time too far down towards zero and the perfection to infinity. I’m sure Coach Mendenhall is always looking to fine tune that balance until it is just right. I like that he admits he doesn’t have all the answers and is continually learning.
To all the Arm Chair coaches, give it a rest already. Coach Mendenhall “IS” the coach. He is a great coach. He knows what he is doing. The guy has a great football team and BYU will even get better under Coach Mendenhall leadership.
He is doing his part and the fans need to do our part. Our part is to support our coach and players. Coach Mendenhall does the coaching and the player doing the playing. It is what it is, BYU football.
No one in the country has the same challenges as Coach Mendenhall. His players are married with families, in class working on a Degree, which is fist and foremost the agenda of BYU. Don’t forget Bronco has a family too. BYU is different then any school in the country.
The Brethren have given this job and task to Bronco and he has the awesome responsibility to make it all work. I think he is doing an outstanding job consider all he has to work with.
I have only been a fan for five years and I have NEVER seen the Cougars loss a home game. What team wins at Home three years in arrow and goes to consecutive Bowl games in the Mountain West Conference? It’s The Cougars under the direction of Coach Mendenhall!
Coach Mendenhall knows what he is doing and no one should question him until you have been in his shoes. Just my two cents worth.
I support my coach and team GO COUGARS!!!!!!!!!!!
Just a fan
Gunny
It’s stupid.
Running 80 live plays is different than practicing schemes. There are A TON of things that pertain to practice and preparing for the game that week that don’t make your legs tired.
Hell, Max Hall sounded after the Utah game like he never even broke down video with a coach before in his career.
Quick question: is BYU at a disadvantage to other schools because of lack of practice on Sunday? I don’t even know if other schools practice on Sunday – I’ve gotten conflicting answers – but it’s something that seems to come up among us fans when there’s have a short practice week in anticipation of a Thursday game.
Along the same lines, does the team do anything at all on Sundays, like break down film, or is it strictly a “enjoy church and we’ll see you Monday” deal?
Dave,
I think we are at a distinct ADVANTAGE for not practicing. 100% of teams I know of all have activities on sundays which usually consist of some kind of work out and breaking down the film (which BYU does Monday).
The only thing we have at BYU on saunday is treatment for injured players. The doctors and trainers are in the training room for those players who may have been hurt the day before.
Every so often an injuerd guy may go look at film after treatment, or a player may come in while the building is open and sneak a peek. It is not mandatory, pretty rare, and probably has no effect either positively or negatively.
PS – I think we are at an advantage because it is literally and spiritually a day of rest. I think giving your body and mind the day off is great for the long season. Heck the NFL gives it’s players Tuesday off? So why does every college think they have to go 7 days a week?
Interesting that the team seems to be following an NFL model in their practice pattern. I love being able to watch our starters play the entire year. I also love Bronco putting in some underclassmen who are not redshirting every once in a while, even if they make some mistakes.
Now, if only the fans could put in some practice time and support our Cougars the way they want us to. I know, I know, no one pays to watch us cheer, but couldn’t we at least wear BLUE???
Kiyo – Great point on the BLUE! I still can’t figure out why every other school in the country has figured out that you wear your team’s colors to the game? You should have seen Husky Stadium, and they went 1-11? Maybe we just have too many band-wagoners right now.
I am in the middle of finals week and still the only thing I can think about is the game on Saturday. Still working on my priorities.
This is a VERY big game on Saturday, and anybody who thinks this is toilet bowl type matchup is absolutely wrong. Reading all the articles from Tuscon, it’s clear the Wildcats are getting pumped up for this their first postseason game in 10 years. What an important thing it will be to send our seniors off with a win, and to finish the ‘08 campaign off on the right foot. GO COUGS!
Gunny,
3 years ago Utah’s backup QB beat us in LES. Maybe you’re saying you didn’t watch that game. Since then, the team is perfect at home.
I’m all for Mendenhall, but I for one do not equate BYU football head coach with being an apostle. Because it’s more important.
Just kidding! But if Coach Mendenhall is aware of how he needs to keep learning, why should we be prevented from discussing our thoughts on what’s going right and what’s not? Personally, I don’t know enough or have enough experience to criticize much at all, but BYU football is fair game for discussion and even criticism, since it isn’t quite the one true religion.
Game week baby! Can’t wait to get the bitter taste of that loss out of mouths and go take it out on ‘Zona. I’ve been taking “trash” from co-workers and friends for weeks now about the loss. Nothing would be sweeter than a dominant victory Saturday.
This should be a great launching pad into next season. I already miss my Saturday drive down to LES…..
September is a LONG ways away.
I’ll be reading everyone’s posts up until the game and after, and to all my fellow die-hard Cougar fans,
“GO BYU!!!”
Mark,
Just when I was beginning to get over that loss 3 years ago, you have to go and bring it up again. Thanks.
Honestly, I think Bronco is open to all kinds of criticism and I doubt any of us fans could throw anything at him he hasn’t already experienced in his short tenure. He has changed the program and will continue to make adjustments as he sees fit. I think he has just enough confidence, swagger and his skin is so thick and he honestly puts a moratorium on any media blogging that he takes all that the boosters, media and fans say to heart. He just doesn’t seem like the kind of coach who gets “run out” of anywhere. He’s going to work closely with his coaches, players and AD Holmoe for the good of BYU and BYU football, run the program according to principles he’s established and then let the criticisms come. Slow players, not enough intensity, old players, white players, married players, soft returned missionaries, too much passing, too little passing, jump to the NFL, good QB, bad QB, good recruiting style, not aggressive enough recruiting, bad defense, slow defense, not aggressive enough defense, Bronco has heard it all. He’s going to consistently persist and put in the 8-12 hours a day, go home and spend family time, take Sundays off, and NEVER BE SATISFIED with where BYU football is. And, he’s going to retire young, when HE WANTS TO.
And, I think, even a true religion should not be afraid of a little discussion, or even criticism – so keep the points of view coming!!!
Will be watching hoops just to warm up to kick some PAC-10 tail.
Hello Markell, hoping to send a PM to you…it is regarding a former HS coach of David Nixon’s (back in Tx)…certainly nothing negative, as Nixon apparently attempted to leave Tulsa tickets for this coach at last years Tulsa game…the coach is now a HC in Okla City, Ok….Markell, do you have an email I can send info on this to?
Thanks, Jared Frazier
Jared are you looking for my email or Dave’s? Send me an email at markellstaffieri@gmail.com and then remind me to check it because that is my junk email account.
great Markell…intending to email you…a message for you to pass along to D Nixon, perhaps even quickly (but only if you feel so inclined)…I’ll email later today and explain and remind you later…thanks Markell,
Thanks for the insight. I think that a lot of Cougar fans are just plain spoiled. We have a great team, but many are bitter mainly becuase the Utes are better this year. I submit that with this years team, the previous coach would have found a way to lose at UNLV, CSU, AF and Washington. Instead- we won all of those games with coaching and execution. We lost TCU and Utah- but could have won both if it were not for turnovers that very FEW teams could have overcome.
I’ve been reading how the team next year will benefit from the extra practices that come from being bowl-bound, but I read this morning that they will only be using 6 of the allotted 15 practices.
Is that primarily because we have one of the earliest bowls, or were there other reasons to only use 40% of our allotment?
Just saw that Justin asked the same question on practices, on another thread. Thanks for all the detailed answers.
I don’t think that it is the lack of reps in practice that some fans are concerned about. For me it is the apparent lack of scheming and gameplanning for specific opponents. Some of the games this year looked as if BYU had never seen that team play before. We were SHOCKED that TCU ran direct snaps. To me that has to be directly on the coaches.
I agree that practice during the season shouldn’t be a grueling exercise to develop skills. It should about idenitfying the opposition’s weaknesses and putting in a game plan to capitalize on them. It should be about identifying the opposition’s strengths and devising a scheme to neutralize those.
But from everything we have heard, and seen for that matter, that doesn’t happen at BYU. Coach Mendenhall makes it abundantly clear that we just worry about what BYU does. I think that is a flawed philosophy and we were blatantly exposed this year. It wasn’t a lack of speed or talent that hurt BYU this year, it was being way too predictable.
How many games this year do you feel like the BYU coaching staff really out schemed the opponent?
For me only one game and that was UCLA.
How many times this year was BYU blatantly out schemed by the opponent?
Washington, TCU, USU, UNLV, CSU, Utah at least. Some of those teams just didn’t have the talent to beat us, but based on talent it shouldn’t have been that close. All of those teams made noticable adjustments to pick apart our weaknesses.
Conversely, TCU is predictable in blitzing and overpursuing. Did BYU take advantage of this and catch them off guard with screens or misdirection? Or were we naive enough to think that we will just do what we always do and out execute them?
So I guess my question is, does BYU really focus on gameplanning for specific opponents? Bronco claims that he doesn’t and it appears that he is telling the truth. We don’t seem prepared to play.
With that said, I think that we are very good at doing what we do do well. That is why we still won 10 games. Hall, Collie, Reed, Unga, Pitta and our OL are just that good. But how good could those same guys be if we put in a specific game plan each week depending on the opponent?
MattC, you’ve articulated some frustrations we all feel but I’m not sure the effect those points are having is as dire as you suggest.
Remember that Coach Crowton focused on exploiting other team’s weaknesses but that didn’t get us very far. The “execution first” philosophy has been much more successful.
But I agree that — at least from my very limited perspective — some degree of mixing things up and becoming less predictable needs to happen if we’re going to take the next step and reach a BCS bowl.
Matt – I have to completely disagree with your statements here. I am sorry, but I have seen the hours that go into scheming and with maybe two exceptions Utah and CSU I don’t think we were out-schemed at all this year. The thing people forget about the Washington game is that Harvey fumbled in the endzone and Max threw a pick before half when at the least we walked away with a FG. That means we win by 10 at least. Then the rest of the year Washington was without Locker, which dramatically changed their offense (much like Oregon last year w/o Dixon). Washington wasn’t as bad as they looked this year.
Against TCU we had the scheme in place, but when those players get between the lines they have to be the ones that make the plays.
And to answer your question, Yes we game plan. I talked about this in length a few weeks ago, but the short version is that during the season we 85% of the time we spend preparing is studying the other team and gameplanning. When Coach Talks about focusing on ourselves it is more that we focus on what we can control…one being our PREPARATION.
We watch ourselves on film after each game, but in preparation we are not sitting in the film room breaking down our practice. We are studying how to beat the other team.
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