BYU’s defensive coaches like riding the tailwinds of an explosive offense.
In Zach Wilson and the boys, they trust.
They love playing with leads, with momentum, being able to watch opponents struggle to stop BYU’s offense, punt and get a chance to give the ball back to the beast.
It’s been a formula that’s worked like a charm for No. 8 BYU, now on an 8-0 win streak during a week off to prepare for North Alabama.
Who wouldn’t want to watch an offensive counterpart that basically plays Xbox on game days?
“It’s been phenomenal to see what our offensive guys are doing,” said defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki. “It is huge for our defense. It makes a big difference to try and go out there and get the ball back to that offense. It is the most explosive offense we’ve had since we’ve been here in five years.”
Assistant head coach Ed Lamb echoes that sentiment, describing what is the ultimate goal of every football team, to have the offense, defense, special teams all buy in, support one another, foster chemistry, trust one another and have a bench where nobody is pouting because they’re not playing.
“We are playing together as a team and that is so much more important of a matrix than others put so much emphasis on,” Lamb explained on BYUtv’s “Coordinator’s Corner” this week.
Indeed, the Cougar offense has been off-the-charts productive in a season of a reinvented schedule. But the defense has also reaped rewards.
Folks will argue any record or statistic posted by the Cougars deserve asterisks because of COVID-19 and the disruption of a far better schedule.
But it isn’t the fault of the staff or players that this is the hand that has been dealt — and they’ve done it without blemish. It is the most they could do.
It is also worth crediting those players and coaches for adjusting, meeting health protocols and playing seven straight weeks without a glitch or cancellation, where some simply can’t launch a season.
It may be that in late December, the CFP committee, ballot voters and awards committees will simply have to draw up a different white board for 2020 and assign value to what is, not what should have been.
In this regard, BYU’s defense deserves credit.
Tuiaki deserves accolades for the consistency of his defensive linemen. Lamb deserves credit for what he’s accomplished with special teams, personnel development and the linebacking crew. So do secondary coaches Jernaro Gilford and Spencer Hadley.
But ultimately, so does head coach Kalani Sitake. He’s put the blocks together and is reaping the rewards of some recruiting done a very long time ago in BYU’s strange, ever-changing roster due to missionary service.
Sitake was lucky to get in six spring practice sessions, get players on campus in early June, and create a disciplined, hard-hitting culture that is executing on offense and running to the ball on defense with physicality.
Facing challenges of missing players is a big one. This team navigated it. The MIA list includes Chaz Ah You, Zayne Anderson, Chris Wilcox, Keenan Pili, Tyler Batty, Isaiah Herron, D’Angelo Mandell, Kavika Fonua, Lorenzo Fauatea, Uriah Leiataua, Khyiris Tonga and Pepe Tanuvasa for stretches or, in the case of Ah You and Fauatea, they are out for the season. BYU’s defensive depth has been tested.
As it stands right now, with BYU having played more games than anyone in FBS, the Cougars’ defense ranks sixth in yards allowed at 284.9 per game. The leaders, No. 1 Wisconsin and No. 2 San Diego State, have only played one and three games, respectively. BYU is ranked No. 8 in scoring defense, allowing just 13.9 points a game, again, with eight games of exposure.
The most any team has scored on BYU’s defense is Houston (26 points), and if that holds, it will set a mark not broken at BYU in 41 years. And 26 isn’t that high. Thing about Houston’s 26, is BYU’s offense then scored 29 straight and the blue Cougars won, 43-26.
Tuiaki’s philosophy of dropping seven or eight into coverage has received a lot of criticism, but this year he’s been very dependent on an effective three- and four-man front with shifting looks of five or six at the line that has worked.
After the Cougars stymied No. 21 Boise State last week in Boise, Tuiaki and Lamb both credited BYU’s base defense featuring three and four linemen for the success of the entire defense, holding the Broncos to just three points through three quarters of play.
“What all the opposing coaches have talked about is our defense has kept the ball in front of us, rarely allowing a pass over the top,” said Lamb.
The exception has been some pass plays at the end of games with reserves on the field. That’s when BYU’s secondary got nicked, with the outcome decided. Boise State got two quick ones in this kind of situation last Friday.
“We’ve got to work on the depth. That shouldn’t happen and those players coming in have to step up,” said Lamb.
If that’s the biggest, most glaring blemish on this No.-8 ranked team, then so be it.