BYU football: Doman looks to propel offense to next level

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PROVO — Brandon Doman learned many lessons during his first season as BYU offensive coordinator. Now he hopes to apply those lessons to take the Cougar offense to the next level.

He learned that he needs to give his players more volume and keep things simple. He also discovered how important it was to establish an identity for his offense.

"I learned a lot last year," he says. "I don't know that I as a coordinator really created an identity for this offense. I think we tried to do too much."

Now in his second year leading the offense he hopes to establish that identity immediately. That leads to the question of what he wants that identity to be.

"We're BYU," he says. "I want to be an efficient, progression based passing offense. That doesn't mean we have to be the most prolific passing offense in America but I do want us to be the most efficient."

Riley Nelson during BYU football practice Monday, March 26, 2012, in Provo, Utah. (Tom Smart, Deseret News)

Senior quarterback Riley Nelson and his ability to be that efficient quarterback will be the key to success for the offense this fall. Brandon and Riley have a lot in common. They both, as players, were told they weren't good enough to play quarterback at BYU. They had to be patient in waiting for their opportunity to prove the doubters wrong.

"The way he approaches day-today work, the way he thinks, the way he wants to attack is a lot like me. It's easy to call plays for him."

Like Brandon, Riley didn't become the definitive starter until the spring of his senior year. Doman has seen a difference in Riley because of it.

"Confidence," Doman says. "We are giving him as much volume as we can give him.

That volume of reps in practice has made big difference for Riley. Those reps were always given to or split with Max Hall and Jake Heaps. With more reps has come significant improvement according to Doman.

"I've seen a massive increase from last year to this year," Doman says about Riley's progression. "If you were to ask any of our coaches the jump that he's made has been significant."

The biggest improvement may be in the pocket. Doman says Riley has become a much better drop-back passer.

"We didn't know if he could become a drop-back passer," he says. "We knew he could do a lot of other things. He's actually now developing into a BYU drop-back passer. With the talents that he has I think he has the ability if he works hard to be a really good BYU quarterback."