While we didn't stand up the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks like previous BYU Coach Crowton stood up Nevada a few years ago, we almost didn't show up to the first quarter of the game, allowing NAU to get on the board early. It was great, however, that after that, the Utes rallied and posted 45 unanswered points.
The thing I have taken away from this game in my analysis of things, is that the Utes are not being diciplined very well as a team. This is in effect, a coaching problem. A disciplined team shows up to play ALL quarters of football, plays every down, and every play. As well, the penalties are another large indicators of this, and the number turnovers in the UCLA game can be counted as another attribute of a less disciplined team.
If there is anything Coach Wittingham can improve on this week to prepare for the harder teams that are coming up on the schedule, it is disciplining his squad.
As I watched them warm us, as compared to NAU, I knew that they woiuld come out slow. They were warming up like it was some sort of beach party. I would have liked to see some warmup routines like Coach Meyer had 2 years ago. This also brings up the point that if they are "lousy" in warming up for the most important day of the week, then how do they warm up for practice?
Discipline plauged Coach Mac. Coach Meyer took the same players Mac had the previous year, and made them a championship team and in two years a BCS buster, with discipline --sometimes so rigorous that after summer camp, a few players called it quits-- and maybe that is overkill. But the Meyer solution worked, and is continuing to produce results even at the big time Florida U. (Imagine being a Coach like Meyer and going into a bigshot school like that and telling the players on the nationally renowned Florida Gators that they are lazy, and that he is shutting down their plush locker room until he feels they are more disciplined.) If Florida needs discipline, then assuridly the Utes cannot neglect it. And I think Wittingham has forgotten it. He's new at the head coach position, so we'll cut him some slack, but disciplined W's are the goal to beat this season, as a comparison; and when it boils down to it, we will win or lose on it.
All that said, I think the team improved this week, and I think the team will now take this confidence W and run with it. I worry though, that we have once again become a desperation team, and not a definition team --a team that redefines football. The game of football is driven in all ways, both the physical and the mental, by momentum, and should only need desperation as a final straw. Despireration is dangerous because it causes a lot of 1 and 2 point losses --something the Utes were akin to in the 90's. They then became a momentum team under Meyer, where every drive carried the next, and we saw some hints of that today with 45 unanswered points in 7 consecutive drives. Do that every game, no matter who the contestant is, and you will win games. Momentum also carries you through the red zone, and into the endzone. Desperation just carries you into the bluezone --where teams get down on themselves because they are always a "play late and a yard short" of making a win.
Tijs Limburg
Tijs Limburg
(Editors note: Y fans - the bluezone is not an attempt of any kind as a cheap shot to your school. However, I cannot do anything about the fact that the color blue is associated with depression and loss of will.)
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Tijs Limburg
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