It’s a team thing. They love football and they want to do it, but there’s got to be a belief that you are going to win games. – llaisa Tuiaki
In the aftermath of BYU’s fourth straight loss, the game plan remains the same: work harder.
Does Kalani Sitake have enough hard hats, picks and speeches left?
Utah State converted seven BYU turnovers into 26 points to turn a 21-7 deficit into a 40-24 comeback win over the Cougars Friday. The Aggie win clouded a BYU effort to improve its overall identity and success.
While parts of that quest were met or exceeded short of a win, the bigger picture looms: The Cougar offense may now have to redesign itself with a new quarterback for the third time in three games.
Standing outside the locker room at Maverik Stadium after Friday night’s loss to USU, BYU defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki stood with his wife, Viola, while his son Hilamani was hugging his legs. BYU players shuffled out of the building to join family members or head to buses.
Tuiaki doesn’t normally do post-game interviews because the school’s media coordinators have a routine of getting players and the head coach before reporters after the cooling-off period.
If you are Tuiaki or any of his defensive players, the USU loss had to be frustrating as ever. The defense gave up some plays, but in the middle of the game was dominating, limiting USU to 14 total yards and no first downs during a period in the second and third quarters. Safety Micah Hannemann had returned an interception for a touchdown.
Tuiaki was without middle linebacker and captain Butch Pau’u after the first quarter due to injury. His leader Fred Warner was all over the field with a sack, pass breakup and three tackles for losses of 12 yards.
“As everyone knows, you can’t win a game having that many turnovers,” he said.
“Without looking at the film, there were a couple of calls I may have regretted but I thought overall the defense played stout. You know, if you are going to play aggressive man coverage, there are times you are going to give up long passes. We gave up one and I’m OK with that. Obviously, with as many times as they went deep, to give up one, well, that will happen.”
Tuiaki may not have an update on Pau’u until Monday. Pau’u was apparently injured after making a big defensive play in the first quarter. He was on the sidelines without a helmet the remainder of the game.
On Monday, Tuiaki said the coaches will take a similar approach with players whom he says are anxious to work hard.
“It’s a team thing. They love football and they want to do it, but there’s got to be a belief that you are going to win games. Going into Wisconsin there wasn’t a feeling that we could win, and on defense, it was kind of like giving up, that it wasn’t worth it.
“There has to be a reason to believe that you can win, and right now I don’t know if there is. It’s up to us as coaches to make sure the players are playing hard, and part of that is giving them a feeling that they can go out and win. That’s what we are challenged with when we meet on Monday.”
You’d wonder if Tuiaki’s defenders are too down to keep up hope.
One of his best players, freshman tackle Khyiris Tonga, in the midst of an outstanding rookie season, may have given a clue in a tweet Friday night: “Wouldn’t want to be with any other group of men on the field. Grateful for the opportunities. On to the next.”
Offensively is where Sitake and coordinator Ty Detmer have the larger load.
For the past nine months, they’ve invested most of their preparation and repetitions into junior quarterback Tanner Mangum, designing a pro-style offense with receivers and backs. Mangum was injured on the last play of the Utah game.
Then most all the practice reps went to backup Beau Hoge, who started against No. 10 Wisconsin. His preparation included re-packaging offensive sets to include a read option and introduce freshman running back Ula Tolutau, held back because of a fall camp foot injury.
All the investment in Hoge went out the window Friday when Hoge suffered what looked like a concussion after making a read option keeper for 7 yards in the second quarter. When he didn’t return, Detmer had to change some things on the fly to give third-string QB Koy Detmer Jr. a chance to succeed with fewer practice reps than Mangum or Hoge. The result was five of the seven turnovers.
Detmer will now create a game plan for either his nephew Koy, or Hoge, (if he’s declared healthy), or Mangum, (if he is cleared to practice), which is unlikely since he was in street clothes and wearing a support boot on the sidelines Friday night.
Detmer could draw up a design with Austin Kafentzis, a hybrid wildcat, using the read option, but that is more of a novelty than mainstay — as Utah used safety Eric Weddle a decade ago.
Or since Koy Detmer is a non-scholarship walk-on, he could take the redshirt protections off freshman Kody Wilstead, who last played at Pine View High three years ago, or freshman Joe Critchlow.
Both Wilstead and Critchlow were on LDS missions a year ago, and the thought could be that one could turn into a 2015 version of Mangum in relief of Taysom Hill. Thing is, almost no reps have been used on Wilstead or Critchlow since camp opened in August.
Meanwhile, BYU's next opponent, Boise State (2-2), has had a week off following a loss to Virginia to prepare for the matchup with the Cougars Friday in Provo.
Sitake never dreamed he’d have this kind of journey back in August, but he’s in high seas now and the wind and waves are up.
If wins don’t come, BYU will be out of the bowl picture. The Cougars need to win six of their remaining eight to be eligible to keep a 13-year postseason streak going.