5 things BYU needs to do to beat Georgia Tech

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PROVO — The BYU Cougars come off one of their most productive offensive performances of the year against Utah State. But the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are looking to be the second ACC team to get a victory over the Cougars.

Georgia Tech's offense is not hard to understand — they like to run the triple option. Fortunately for the Cougars, they do pretty well against the run game.

Here are five keys for the Cougars to beat Georgia Tech and to get closer to bowl eligibility:

Keys to the Game: BYU =====================

1\. Stop the Jacket's juggernaut rushing attack ----------------------------------------------

It's an obvious statement, but sometimes you need to state the obvious: This is a run-heavy team that averages 300 yards a game on the ground — that's seventh best in the nation. In last week's loss to Miami, Georgia Tech had 335 yards on the ground and no one ran for more than 100 yards. Eight players rushed for over 25 yards.

If there was ever a time to put seven to eight guys near the line, this is the game. But BYU defenders can't get too antsy. Jackets quarterback Vad Lee has thrown seven TDs this year, including four against Duke.

2\. Vanquish Vad's run game --------------------------

Lee completed over 50 percent of his passes in the first three games of the season, and they were all wins. Then the Jackets played Virginia Tech. Lee was 7 of 24 in that game, but threw a couple of interceptions. He was forced to throw because Georgia Tech's running game was stuffed. The Jackets only had 129 yards rushing in the game and Tech lost.

In last week's loss to Miami, Lee was 5 of 13 with a fourth quarter interception that was returned for a touchdown. His team was down by a couple of touchdowns at the time. Vad is bad when it comes to constantly throwing the ball. He'll complete some passes, but he will also make mistakes. BYU's defense needs to put him in obvious passing situations throughout the game and the turnovers will come.

3\. Go with tradition --------------------

Let Taysom toss it a bit more. Georgia Tech's pass defense is only giving up 210 yards a game — that's not bad. It was better before the Yellow Jackets played Miami — 'Canes quarterback Stephen Morris threw for 324 yards and three touchdowns. A majority of Morris' yards came after the first quarter. Morris only completed 17 passes in the game, meaning he was picking up big chunks of yards in his tosses.

It kind of sounds like Taysom Hill in last week's game — Hill only averaged 9 yards a completion, but two of his touchdowns were over 30 yards, and a 60-yard chuck to Kurt Henderson. Taysom had 31 passing attempts last game — I would give him five more. If he completes at least three for a 10-yard average, that could be the difference in an extra score.

4\. Honor the running game -------------------------

I want Taysom to throw it a bit more. But he won't be successful if the running game is not working. Play action passes worked great for him last week, and that is only going to work if the running game is humming. Jamal Williams, newly named starter Algernon Brown and the rest of the running backs are going up against a defense that is yielding 121 yards a game on the ground — Miami ran for 227 yards on the Techsters.

With BYU's offensive line woes, you would tend to believe (and possibly hope) it would be closer to the 121 yardage mark. But with the Hurricanes' success, you‘ve got to believe there is something Robert Anae saw that could give the Cougars some success. Williams has to be happy to face a team he scored on four times last year. Expect him to get more carries this week.

5\. Enjoy the "Spirit" of Homecoming -----------------------------------

BYU will don the "tradition, spirit, honor" jerseys this week. Kyle Van Noy's compromise to wear the jerseys for the homecoming game was brilliant after Bronco Mendenhall announced it would be all season long. It showed Mendenhall was humble enough to recognize a mistake and that the team's feelings really do matter. Hopefully the team will play with a little more honor and recognize why their coach wanted them to don the jerseys in the first place.