A 2-2 record, based on the competition, may be nothing to sneeze at for the BYU football team, but what are the takeaways — good and bad — from the first four games of the season? BYU Insiders Jay Drew, Jeff Call and Brandon Gurney take a closer look at the first month of the season, as well as how the loss of Ty’Son Williams will impact the team. That and more on this week’s episode.
Brandon Gurney: Coming up on this edition of Cougar Insiders podcast, we talk about the carnage left in the wake of a loss to Washington, the loss of Ty’Son Williams, how it affects the program, and what we see going forward. A tougher than imagined four-game slate right ahead for BYU. What’s going to go down? How’s the team going to recover and what can we look for in the coming weeks? That and more on this week’s edition of Cougar Insiders podcast.
Welcome to the Deseret News Cougar Insiders podcast, brought to you by Mr. Mac, where right now you can buy one suit at $299 and get the second suit for just $1. I’m not Dick Harmon, your fearless leader, I’m merely Brandon Gurney of the Deseret News. Alongside me is Jay Drew and Jeff Call. What’s up fellas?
Jay Drew: Just another Monday podcast. A lot to talk about today, though. Should be a fun podcast.
BG: I guess starting out we’ve got to talk about the Washington game. What went wrong, guys? What happened? I mean, the program’s buoyed up, you get national exposure, all that, then just a clunker against Washington. Now what happened in that game? And where’s the program at right now, Jay?
JD: Washington was just a better team. I wrote that Saturday night after the game and I’m sticking to it. They’re more talented. They’re bigger, stronger, faster. They’ve got one of the best coaches in college football. Their quarterback, Jacob Eason, was pinpoint accurate. And they just overwhelmed BYU in all three phases. BYU was never really in the game where you thought BYU might win this game. So hats off to Washington, they won and you move on.
BG: Did you see the same thing, Jeff?
Jeff Call: Well, I mean, it was very obvious the differential in the two teams. And Washington’s a very dominant team, as Jay said, and you could see it with your own eyes. And then it certainly doesn’t help when you give up the ball. You have this strip sack fumble return for 69 yards, you give up a punt return for 88 yards, face mask penalties, I mean, you add all that together — Washington doesn’t need any help to win the game and BYU gave them lots of help. So a lot of respect for Washington, I was really impressed with them, seeing them live. And it just kind of shows you that BYU is just not to that level. I mean, there’s a gap between the two teams. And it’s pretty evident.
BG: Yeah, the margin of error is not big for BYU these days. And I think with the USC game you just didn’t see a lot of errors, you don’t see much of anything. And they still needed overtime to beat USC. It was a great win. I don’t want to detract from that, that same USC just beat Utah. But Washington just didn’t make those mistakes. And they forced BYU to make those mistakes, you saw those mistakes coming up where you thought they were done with it after USC. And it just speaks to the margin of error, in my mind, where BYU just can’t get by allowing the things that it did and committing the penalties it did. It’s not that good of a team relative to what Washington is to get away with that. And I think we largely saw that in this game relative to USC. But the good news, let’s talk about the good news. A 2-2 to start the season. I predicted 1-3, I’ll own it.
JC: I picked 1-3 as well, I thought that, you know, going 2-2 was maybe a little too much to ask and the fact that they did get to 2-2. I mean, BYU’s got to be happy with that. Two memorable wins against storied programs, Tennessee and USC. Where those programs are, you know, you could say, well, they’re not what they used to be or whatever. But still, 2-2 I think is pretty good coming to this point. So yeah, I think BYU’s got to be relatively happy with where they are.
BG: Jay, you have a reputation for being overly optimistic about BYU football. Is 2-2 even beyond your wildest expectations?
JD: It is slightly beyond my expectations. I also said probably 1-3, I thought USC would be the win. And then obviously Tennessee, they added that one. Tennessee is not a very good football team. I’ll say this, maybe because I’m always the contrarian, I will say they’re a lot closer to being 0-4 than they are to being 4-0. So in other words, the two losses they weren’t even competitive, or they were barely competitive against Utah, I would say. And then the two wins they eked out. So I would say I’d be a lot more optimistic looking to the future with this 2-2 record if BYU had shown better against Washington on their home field. That’s kind of a little bit of a Debbie downer to the whole situation. I still think it’s a really good football team. I still think they’re going to go to a bowl game. But the way they performed against Washington was mildly troubling. I’ll say that.
BG: Now you bring up a really good point because it took a miracle catch by Micah Simon to get them in field goal range. No one saw that coming and Tennessee just completely blew that coverage. But BYU is making plays, I think that’s the one thing you can grab on to is that you have an offense with guys that are showing the ability to make plays, and then on defense, with Dayan (Ghanwoloku) picking off that pass in the overtime period. Some credit for that. But as you said, Jay, I mean, the margin of error is very slim, and you need those plays. You need guys to step up and one guy who’s not going to be able to step up moving forward, a really big loss in my mind, is Ty’Son Williams. And it seems like whenever there’s bad news about BYU these days, it tends to be worse than previously imagined. And Ty’Son, yep, the old ACL. Done, might never play at BYU again. We learned just earlier that he’s still weighing his options. Maybe he’ll come back, maybe apply for that medical redshirt, but holy cow, but how big of a loss is that in your mind, Jeff?
JC: It’s huge. I mean, I think Ty’Son Williams was probably the MVP of this team in a lot of respects. Because I mean, he had that game-winning touchdown against Tennessee in overtime. He was the guy that could make plays. He was pretty reliable and consistent. I think we all knew that it was a big pickup when he transferred to BYU. And I think he maybe exceeded expectations. He was a very good player. So losing him moving forward is a tough thing to swallow for BYU because the way he was able to run the ball and his leadership and things like that. It’s a huge void for BYU moving forward, I think.
BG: Yeah, I saw Ty’Son Williams as kind of a complementary back with Lopini Katoa going into the season. Boy, was I wrong on that. Ty’Son? I think he’s like Jamal Williams. I think he’s at that skill level. I really do, seeing him play. He’s able to move through holes, very instinctive, always makes that first guy miss, which I think Jamal did very well, and always seems to get more yards than he probably should. He just maximizes the blocking assignments in front of him. Just a natural, really, really good running back. And while the respect to Lopine and Supe I haven’t seen that from them yet. We’ll see a lot more of them. But I think in that regard, I think it’s a big drop-off for this team and something they’re going to have a hard time compensating for. Do you see that, Jay?
JD: Yeah. And I think he also brought a confidence factor. I think he’s the type of guy that makes the others around him play better. And I think Brady Christensen today in the weekly press briefing, the offensive tackle, kind of touched upon that, where when you knew that Ty’Son was getting the ball. It just gave the offensive lineman a little more juice, a little more pep or energy knowing that, hey, if I do my assignment, this guy’s going to pick up big yards. So he brought that confidence to the team. They know he came from the SEC, they know what he’s done in the past. And that’s going to be missing as well. That’s another factor that Ty’Son brought that they’re going to be without. So it’s just one of the worst losses, personnel wise, that they could have suffered.
BG: Yeah, and it’s really overshadowed another big loss that I don’t think most people realize, just because he didn’t play throughout all of last year pretty much, is Zayne Anderson. When Zayne Anderson is at full health he’s a really, really key cog in this BYU defense. And you kind of saw that early on in the Utah game and that’s where he obviously got hurt. And I think that’s an underrated loss for this team just because he hasn’t been able to perform at a top level for a long time. But I think maybe the players behind Zayne are more capable of stepping up than maybe the players behind Ty’Son, maybe that’s what’s going on there. So maybe he’s more replaceable in that regard. But I still think that’s a big injury and a big blow to this defense.
All right, let’s take a break from these hot takes and just remind you guys of our unbeatable deal of men’s suits on sale at Mr. Mac stores. Buy one suit at $299 and get the second suit for just $1. That’s right, buy one suit for $299 and the second suit for just $1. Come check out the latest fashion colors and patterns on sale now at Mr. Mac. Suit sizes start at size 38 and go up to size 56. It’s an unbeatable value. Now while supplies last at Mr. Mac, buy one suit at $299 get the second one for just $1. Remember, no one buys, no one sells, and no one cares the way we do. Absolutely no one.
Looking forward to the next four games. Toledo, wow. One of the crazy games on Saturday night that just had everyone staying up probably later than they wanted to. Man there were some fun games. But what do you guys see in Toledo? I had this as a trap game going into the season, not really knowing much about Toledo and I absolutely regard it at least as that right now. That’s a team that can put up a lot of points, create a lot of trouble. We tried to get it out of Kalani today, man, he didn’t want to touch the issue of going across the East Coast, playing at 10 a.m. in the morning, but that might be a thing. It comes at a tough time for BYU. How do you see this game shaking out, Jeff?
JC: Well, watching Toledo the other night, obviously a really good run team, good running backs. And yeah, kind of the X-factor is that early morning start that Jay, you and I were out in Foxborough last year for that BYU-UMass game and remember how it took BYU a while to get just kind of get into the flow of the game? And it’s a tough thing when you travel that far. But the other thing I would say is Toledo is one of those teams that I think a lot of fans will look at the name and just kind of chalk it up as a win. But, you know, they’re a lot better than people think. And they’ve got some athletes and I think all you have to do is look back to a few years ago when Toledo came out to Provo. It was a 55-53 game. I mean, it came down to a game-winning field goal there at the end. It was back and forth. And Toledo’s got a lot of athletes and it’s going to be a tough game, especially on the road.
BG: One of the things BYU has struggled at this year is stopping the run, do you see that as a big problem, Jay, going into this?
JD: Yeah, I was just gonna say this is not a good matchup for BYU. Toledo ran all over Colorado State and BYU has been very susceptible to the run, starting with Utah and Zack Moss and then USC ran for a fair amount of yards on them, and then obviously Washington almost 200 yards. So Kalani addressed that today and said we have to get better at stopping the run, but this might not be the best team to try to do it against. Toledo running back, I can’t remember his name, but he had over 200 yards, a career high, against Colorado State. And so Toledo only threw the ball six times against the Rams, so they’re obviously going to try to run it down BYU’s throat on Saturday. And so far BYU hasn’t shown the ability to stop it.
BG: Yeah the defensive system worked really well against USC, forcing them to run. You’re not going to want to use that same system against Toledo, I think is very much the case in this one. Well, it’s prediction time. I love predictions. You guys probably love them as much as I do. Especially Jeff Call. I’m looking at you, you’re just, yes, I gotta make a prediction.
JC: I was so spot on last week, picking BYU to beat Washington.
BG: Well we get to make two predictions. So first off, because we talked about it, what do you see happening in this Toledo game? What do you think is gonna be the outcome?
JC: I think it’ll be a dogfight. I think it’ll be kind of a back-and-forth game a little bit. I’m gonna pick BYU to win, I’m gonna say 31-30 or something like that. I think it’ll be pretty close.
JD: I think Toledo has been scheming for this game for a long time. This is Toledo’s chance to make a national splash. BYU isn’t the biggest name in college football. But for a MAC team, BYU has what they don’t have. And that’s more of a national profile. I think they’re going to be sky high. And I’m going to go ahead and predict a Toledo win. I’m going to say Toledo 24, BYU 14.
BG: I’m with Jay in one aspect, I think Toledo is going to beat BYU, but I think it’s going to be far higher scoring than that. I can see a 38-35 game. I’m not convinced BYU has the horses to stop what Toledo’s gonna throw at them. It’s a scary thing. It’s a scary thing, 10 a.m. and all that. I predicted a Toledo win to start the season. I’m going to stay with that. And these next four games, it’s kind of interesting that you look at it on paper and it’s like like yeah, BYU should handle that. And maybe prior to Ty’Son going down, yeah. And maybe after USC, maybe our predictions would have been a little different. But these next four games you have Toledo, bye week, then South Florida. Then Boise and then Utah State. 1-3, 2-2, 4-0? What do you see, Jeff?
JC: That’s the thing is everyone going into the season talked about this September schedule, including the Utah game in August. About how tough it is, P-Five opponents and all that stuff. But this next stretch is, you could argue, it’s just as difficult because of the travel involved — going to Toledo, going to South Florida. And then just BYU’s struggles, especially the last few years, with both Utah State and Boise State. It’s been really tough games. I think we could see another 2-2 performance out of these four.
JD: I would agree with that, 2-2. I think BYU will win one of the two on the eastern road trip and I think they’ll win one of the two against the second and third rivals, Boise State and Utah State. Of course Utah is BYU’s No. 1 rival, but the other two have to be considered rivals and I think they’ll go 1-1 against those two teams.
BG: I was going to go 2-2 but I don’t want to be boring. So Toledo I think is a loss. South Florida is terrible. That’s not a good football team. Off a bye week I think they’ll handle South Florida. I’m not sold on USU. I know they’re getting votes, they’re beating teams and all that, but they haven’t beaten really good teams. They barely got by San Diego State which I think is an awful football team. And they gotta beat Utah State, come on. Three years in a row to Utah State? That’s not going to be good. They got to be up for that one. And they’ll have a bye week before USU. And Boise State, that’s probably the toughest one, that’s probably where you guys are seeing the second loss. We’ll see. It’s going to be tough. It’s gonna be tough, but I’m going to go 3-1. I think BYU’s going to rebound. I think the bye weeks in between all of it is going to help quite a bit, and I’m going to go 3-1.
That wraps up another edition of Cougar Insiders podcast A big thanks to Mr. Mac for sponsoring. When you go and buy one suit for $299 then get the second suit for just $1. Be sure to tell them thanks for sponsoring the Cougar Insiders podcast. It’s a fantastic deal.
Go to Mr. Mac. We work hard to give you the most up-to-date coverage of BYU sports and you can find it online at Deseret.com and we’ll talk to you guys next week.
Find and subscribe to this and other podcasts from the Deseret News at DeseretNews.com/Podcasts. Or find us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you listen to podcasts.