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PROVO — Since the 2005 football season, BYU football has ranked in Bill Connelly of SB Nation’s S+P rankings in the top 30 for defense and in the top 60 for offense.
Say what? A program that has always hung its hat on offensive excellence is known for what it does on the defensive side of the ball?
Those type of numbers from Connelly are not what the BYU football program is used to. Is it a bad thing? No. But when you’re talking about a program that helped shape the offensive football we know today, hearing the Cougars have been middle of the road offense the past decade doesn’t sit well with the fan base and the coaching staff that view the late great LaVell Edwards as their mentor.
Head coach Kalani Sitake and offensive coordinator Ty Detmer want to establish an offensive culture that led to them choosing BYU over the likes of Iowa for Sitake and a handful of FBS programs for Detmer.
That visionary spirit on the offensive side of the ball might be back at BYU with Detmer implementing a pro-style offense.
Again, say what? Hear me out.
The NFL held its annual selection draft a few weeks ago in Philadelphia. Many of the NFL coaches since the draft have complained about how offensive players — particularly at quarterback — are no longer “NFL ready.”
Bruce Arians, head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, who is known for his work with quarterbacks over the years, was critical in March of this year’s quarterback class in the NFL draft.
“I think one of them is ready to start as a rookie. I think all the rest there are some really talented arms that need a year of learning how to play the position, especially at this level,” Arians said.
A lot of the criticisms from NFL coaches and executives is due to college football programs implementing spread offenses, instead of pro-style offenses that better prepare players for the next level.
The complaints go beyond quarterbacks. Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll complained about the offensive linemen entering the draft.
What Detmer is trying to accomplish at BYU takes a page from Edwards' book. When everyone ran the football in the 1970s, Edwards aired it out. College football teams want to spread it out today, while Detmer wants two tight end sets and offensive linemen who look like an NFL line getting off the bus.
Detmer recently joined Ben Criddle and me on ESPN 960’s "Cougar Sports with Ben Criddle" and discussed why coaches like Arians feel the way they do about college quarterbacks entering the NFL.
“Teams don’t huddle anymore," the former Heisman Trophy winner said. "You look at the [Patrick] Mahomes kid (Texas Tech, drafted by Kansas City Chiefs). He was on the show with Jon Gruden, and he said he had never been in a huddle or had to look his teammates in the eyes to show the confidence that he could get it done.”
For Detmer, the pro-style offense has always been something he excelled at, and he feels it can be beneficial in the transition from one level to the next.
“I remember when I came out of high school, I had run a pro-style offense and was reading hot routes on every play, along with looking at both sides of the field,” Detmer said. “It was an easy transition from high school to BYU, and to the Packers from BYU as well.”
It’s a "Back to the Future" feel in Provo with how the offense is being constructed. But the training wheels are off. Year two will command a more efficient offense that boasts playmakers and higher scoring outputs. That's a tall order when you consider Detmer is trying to replace two of the best athletes to come out of BYU in the last decade, Jamaal Williams and Taysom Hill, who are at Detmer’s old NFL stomping grounds, Green Bay.
If this pro-style offense puts BYU over the top to go from a nice-but-hollow-feeling eight- or nine-win seasons to the special seasons that Cougar fans are desperately craving with 10 or even 11 wins, we could see the Cougars assume their role as football’s trendsetter, again, for offensive football. That would be a welcome change from NFL franchises. Mitch Harper is the publisher of CougarNation.com on the Rivals network and co-host of the Cougar Center Podcast on iTunes and Google Play. Follow him on Twitter & Snapchat @Mitch_Harper.
