The biggest reason I was excited about this season was because I believed in Bronco. This is his third season, and his philosophies and talk are exactly what BYU's program needs.

However, the problems we're seeing now are the same problems we've seen in the past. These problems are not constant, but they rear their ugly heads on occasion.

1) Players are unprepared for road games. This game reminded me a whole lot of the SDSU game a few years back.

2) Players are undisciplined. I think this is one of the most surprising things about Bronco's direction of the team so far. Personal fouls, false starts, hot-headedness, unsportsmanlike displays.

3) Coaches are unable to adapt. Don't tell me that I only advocated running the ball more because hindsight is 20/20. It seems that lots of us were thinking it early in the second half. Not sure what could've been done with the defense in-game... maybe switching back to the 3-3-5 for the unique passing attack. Maybe nothing.

4) Players start to believe what fans & sportswriters say about them. I'm guessing the team heard all the "run the table" talk and didn't have quite as good of a week of practice as they needed. Maybe I'm wrong on this one. This isn't something I could observe first hand. But I did start feeling a little uncomfortable when I saw Bronco unable to hold back and smiling a lot during interviews after the Arizona game, and even before the season. Maybe Bronco fell into this trap a little bit too.

5) Coaches are unable to wake the team up at halftime. Last week, the halftime speech & adjustments seemed to work great. This week, Tulsa came out more fired up. Great teams/coaches can do this consistently. A great example from this week was Ohio State vs Washington. I don't know what the secret is, or if it can even be learned, but somehow all the really good teams that I really really hate have an extra gear where they can turn a close game / potential upset into a rout in a matter of minutes.

I'm not a fatalist. I think this season will turn out just fine. But I was talking to a coworker last week and telling him that this season was a catch 22. Expectations were so high that running the table would have merely been meeting expectations. A single loss would have been a disappointment, and losing the conference unspeakably bad.

I must admit that it's becoming harder for me to root for this team. There is little that turns me off more than cocky players and discipline problems. I have faith in Bronco that he will turn things around, but does the team need to be reminded of these things every season?

I think we were all expecting this team to come out and be more focused, more disciplined, and better prepared than every team we faced this year. To me, this season has been a disappointment thus far not because of BYU's record, but rather because this is not the team we expected to see, with all the same problems of the past.

I think you make a good point about the penalties. I think however that this is similar to last year in the first three games. In those games BYU had a lot of penalties and stupid ones as well. One thing that is different from last year is the execution in the Blue Zone. Two weeks in a row going in for a game tying or winning score the offenseive line which is supposed to be a strength makes a bad play or back to back false starts.

BrickWall wrote:

Two weeks in a row going in for a game tying or winning score the offenseive line which is supposed to be a strength makes a bad play or back to back false starts.

Or in the case of this game... both.

japaninator wrote:

I must admit that it's becoming harder for me to root for this team. There is little that turns me off more than cocky players and discipline problems. I have faith in Bronco that he will turn things around, but does the team need to be reminded of these things every season?

I think we were all expecting this team to come out and be more focused, more disciplined, and better prepared than every team we faced this year. To me, this season has been a disappointment thus far not because of BYU's record, but rather because this is not the team we expected to see, with all the same problems of the past.

Harder to root for this team? Tell me you weren't on the edge of your seat hoping for the Y to score at the end of the game. Tell me you didn't have visions of Hall hitting a TD pass despite 4th and 20. On the last kick return, didn't you flash ahead in your mind envisioning Collie breaking one wide open?

You're down dude ... give it a day or 2 and you'll be alright.

I have to agree with the discipline problems, but where did you come up with the "cocky players"?

Don't give up because of an unfortunate turn of events last night ... the guys were reeling, nobody (apparently including them) expected that.

japaninator wrote:

The biggest reason I was excited about this season was because I believed in Bronco. This is his third season, and his philosophies and talk are exactly what BYU's program needs.

However, the problems we're seeing now are the same problems we've seen in the past. These problems are not constant, but they rear their ugly heads on occasion.

1) Players are unprepared for road games. This game reminded me a whole lot of the SDSU game a few years back.

2) Players are undisciplined. I think this is one of the most surprising things about Bronco's direction of the team so far. Personal fouls, false starts, hot-headedness, unsportsmanlike displays.

3) Coaches are unable to adapt. Don't tell me that I only advocated running the ball more because hindsight is 20/20. It seems that lots of us were thinking it early in the second half. Not sure what could've been done with the defense in-game... maybe switching back to the 3-3-5 for the unique passing attack. Maybe nothing.

4) Players start to believe what fans & sportswriters say about them. I'm guessing the team heard all the "run the table" talk and didn't have quite as good of a week of practice as they needed. Maybe I'm wrong on this one. This isn't something I could observe first hand. But I did start feeling a little uncomfortable when I saw Bronco unable to hold back and smiling a lot during interviews after the Arizona game, and even before the season. Maybe Bronco fell into this trap a little bit too.

5) Coaches are unable to wake the team up at halftime. Last week, the halftime speech & adjustments seemed to work great. This week, Tulsa came out more fired up. Great teams/coaches can do this consistently. A great example from this week was Ohio State vs Washington. I don't know what the secret is, or if it can even be learned, but somehow all the really good teams that I really really hate have an extra gear where they can turn a close game / potential upset into a rout in a matter of minutes.

I'm not a fatalist. I think this season will turn out just fine. But I was talking to a coworker last week and telling him that this season was a catch 22. Expectations were so high that running the table would have merely been meeting expectations. A single loss would have been a disappointment, and losing the conference unspeakably bad.

I must admit that it's becoming harder for me to root for this team. There is little that turns me off more than cocky players and discipline problems. I have faith in Bronco that he will turn things around, but does the team need to be reminded of these things every season?

I think we were all expecting this team to come out and be more focused, more disciplined, and better prepared than every team we faced this year. To me, this season has been a disappointment thus far not because of BYU's record, but rather because this is not the team we expected to see, with all the same problems of the past.

You did a good job summarizing my thoughts. What is most disappointing are the things that have received so much praise on this board:
1) The coaching
2) The offensive line (stupid penalties and missed assignments)
3) The defense
You wouldn't expect those three things to let us down but that's what happened.

Yep, it's weird how vulnerable our projected strengths look now.