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PROVO — The end of spring football marks a lull in the college sports fan calendar — 143 days from now, BYU will host Portland State to kick off the 2017 football season. But there’s a long time until then, and for the BYU football team a lot of work to put in between now and kickoff against the Vikings and ultimately LSU, rival Utah and Wisconsin.
Every year there are new strengths and challenges for any team, and that’s no different for BYU after what we saw from spring football.
Let’s take a closer look at what we learned about the 2017 BYU football team with spring football now officially in the rearview mirror.
Improved second unit
When Kalani Sitake took over the head coach position at BYU, one of the challenges he faced was improving the depth in his program. For years, BYU has always fielded a team that has great starters, but the depth has always been a major question mark. Entering year two under Sitake, the depth is already showing signs of significant improvement to where the second unit is creating competition for the projected first stringers.
Case in point is the cornerback position. Anyone who has followed BYU football knows that the cornerback position has historically been a spot where the Cougars are fortunate to field two quality starters, let alone six or seven players who can contribute. The latter is what BYU is currently experiencing at cornerback, and the same can be said for many other positions in the program.
No running backs emerged
The difficult task of replacing all-time leading rusher Jamaal Williams continues to look tougher as the days go by. The most experienced rusher from a year ago is former Washington State transfer Squally Canada. Canada didn’t create separation from the players behind him vying for the starting nod, leaving offensive coordinator Ty Detmer to say the position will be a running back by committee this fall. Look for that to be a four-man committee of Canada, walk-on KJ Hall, converted linebacker now runner Kavika Fonua and returned missionary Ula Tolutau.
BYU’s offense will rely on the offensive line
Last season at this time, offensive line coach Mike Empey inherited a unit that had seven linemen in camp, and one of those linemen was a walk-on. He didn’t have much to work with at the time. Flash forward 12 months later, the offensive line is now a strength of the BYU team, leading Sitake to say that BYU’s offense will lean on the big nasties up front.
Senior center Tejan Koroma is a leader of the team, and by the time his BYU career is over he could go down as one of the greatest centers in BYU history. Redshirt freshman Kieffer Longson also impressed throughout camp with his nastiness on finishing blocks and his massive size at 6-foot-7-inches and 300 pounds.
BYU’s starters at linebacker are some of the best in the land
You’re not going to find many trios at linebacker in college football better than the three starters BYU has this season. Weakside linebacker Fred Warner, Mike linebacker Butch Pau’u and buck linebacker Francis Bernard are all playmakers and guys who could be playing in the NFL after their playing days at BYU are over.
BYU has something special with these three backers, and the way they feed off each other should be fun to watch.
Wide receiver position still raises some questions
Last season, BYU failed to produce a 100-yard receiver in a game for the first time since the 1960s. Will the drought end this season? Early returns say there are some intriguing options, but no one is separating himself from the pack just yet.
Senior Jonah Trinnaman should have a bigger role in Detmer’s pro-style offense and is a likely starter. But the question for Trinnaman would be, is he ready to be a No. 1 wide receiver? After Trinnaman, there’s a logjam with Talon Shumway, Micah Simon and Akile Davis, who all earned high praise from Sitake and Detmer but they lack any real game experience.
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: @Mitch_Harper.
