In the last two seasons BYU has started slow and finished strong with an 11-2 record. Now most folks predict a 12-1 or an undefeated season and a BCS bowl invite. That may happen - IF. If BYU can come out of the gate strong and consistant, but will all of the hype and high preseason rankings get to them? With the team on average older than all other Div I teams you would think and hope that they will be mature enough to handle the exposure, learn from their past two years, and be successful in raising the W-L bar this season. Some folks can't handle success very well, while others can't handle failure (Or learn from it). I think with the type of coach that BYU has that he will be able to keep the team focused - probably through long and hard workouts and film study.

What do you think will be BYU's reaction to all this preseason hype for the team this year?

jmchess1 wrote:

In the last two seasons BYU has started slow and finished strong with an 11-2 record. Now most folks predict a 12-1 or an undefeated season and a BCS bowl invite. That may happen - IF. If BYU can come out of the gate strong and consistant, but will all of the hype and high preseason rankings get to them? With the team on average older than all other Div I teams you would think and hope that they will be mature enough to handle the exposure, learn from their past two years, and be successful in raising the W-L bar this season. Some folks can't handle success very well, while others can't handle failure (Or learn from it). I think with the type of coach that BYU has that he will be able to keep the team focused - probably through long and hard workouts and film study.

What do you think will be BYU's reaction to all this preseason hype for the team this year?

I believe that Bronco will have them ready. One thing that he seems to be able to do is learn from the past. He addresses what he sees wrong, changes things, and they don't happen again. This year when the preseason camp starts, he'll probably change it a little compared to what he has done the last few seasons. He'll have them ready to go, up to speed faster, than they've done in the past.

Like you say, hopefully they've learned from the last two seasons. I don't know if their heads got a little too big necessarily but they should still have seen that no matter how good they thought they were they still have to show up and bring everything to every game. And they've got to really want it on the road.

I do think alot of it has to do with the coaching and playcalling starting slow though the last two seasons. Hopefully with the offense returning almost in tact, they'll have a nice warmup against No. Iowa and then open up the playbook against UW. I'm not too concerned about showing too much in the game becuase I think we'll be able to handle UCLA at home regardless if they have two weeks to prepare and if they've seen our whole playbook. I just really don't think their offense will be able to move the ball on our defense and their defense won't be able to stop our offense, especially in Provo.

Yeah I have wondered the same thing, I don't know how you could stay focused with all that attention, I know when I get a lot of hype from my friends and family and the press before a semester starts it really hard for me to stay focused...all that pressure to get good grades! man Lay off!!

Although we won't have the rest after the first few games I think playing N. Iowa was a good move. It will bw a tune up game of sorts but N. Iowa is talented enough to make it a game and allow us to try some things and see how they work. I think this will help us get off to a good start although I wish the USU game and Washington were flip flopped to get our defense a couple of games experience before a moderate road game.

I think we will be fine this year. Our slow starts killed us the past two seasons.. and Bronco has mentioned in several interviews that he can't let that happen anymore. The guys will be ready.

I think it will be important to have some leaders step up and accept the pressure and make sure the team comes out of the gate at full speed.

I know the offense has its leaders and I will miss Kehl on the defensive side of the ball. I imagine Jorgenson & Nixon may be leading the way on defense. Who else?