Provo • It happened during spring camp, most notably after an open practice in Saint George, and again at BYU’s football media day in June.
Head coach Kalani Sitake and offensive coordinator Ty Detmer both said numerous times well before the 2017 season started that the Cougars didn’t lack offensive playmakers. Their go-to response was always something about how receivers such as Akile Davis, Micah Simon, Talon Shumway and Aleva Hifo and running backs such as Ula Tolutau, Squally Canada and Trey Dye weren’t household names then, but would be at the end of the season.
They said replacing two of the most prolific offensive players in school history, running back Jamaal Williams and quarterback Taysom Hill, and steady receivers Nick Kurtz, Colby Pearson and Mitchell Juergens would be accomplished by a committee of talented skill position players.
BYU fans are still waiting for that to happen, and are obviously growing impatient. The Cougars have started 1-3 with one of the most impotent offenses in major college football. Sunday’s updated NCAA statistics leaders confirmed the misery: The Cougars rank dead last in scoring offense (9.8 points per game) among 129 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
They are 128th in total offense (221.8 ypg.) and 126th in first downs, 43.
And it could get worse.
Having had a bye last weekend, BYU returns to action on Friday night at Utah State, which improved to 2-2 with a 61-10 shellacking of San Jose State on Saturday.
The Aggies broke out offensively at CEFCU Stadium, taking a 38-0 halftime lead and racking up 589 total yards, 318 rushing and 271 passing.
It’s amazing what happens when you put a few first downs together. Utah State ran 98 plays; BYU has ran only 209 plays through four games, for just 887 yards.
Suddenly, the Cougars are staring at a possible 1-6 start, with Boise State and Mississippi State looming after a trip to Logan against a suddenly confident team that never has trouble getting fired up to play BYU.
So what has gone wrong in Provo?
It is clear that BYU coaches overestimated their returning talent — especially on the offensive side — last winter when they didn’t even attempt to land an experienced receiver or running back from the junior college ranks or via graduate transfers.
They were counting on Tolutau, who signed with Wisconsin out of East High, to fill the void left by Williams. But he returned from his mission a bit overweight, and then suffered a foot injury during fall camp that hampered his progress.
Moroni Laulu-Pututau’s foot injury just days before the season opener derailed some of what the Cougars wanted to do offensively. They worked on various double-tight end formations throughout fall camp to utilize the strengths of Laulu-Pututau and promising freshman Matt Bushman.
Detmer and Sitake spoke glowingly of junior quarterback Tanner Mangum’s progress, even after dismal performances in the rain-soaked Poinsettia Bowl and spring scrimmage, but the junior whose reputation was built on two long touchdown passes his freshman season — against Nebraska and Boise State — failed to deliver on that promise even before he suffered an ankle injury in the final play from scrimmage against Utah.
Mangum’s injury — he could miss three or four more games — has also exposed another weakness, a complete lack of depth at the quarterback position. Redshirt sophomore Beau Hoge was totally ineffective in his first college start, a 40-6 loss to Wisconsin, and there’s zero experience behind him.
The offensive line has been fairly solid in the middle with center Tejan Koroma and guards Tuni Kanuch and Keyan Norman, but tackles Thomas Shoaf and Austin Hoyt were pushed around against Power 5 opponents.
Defensively, the Cougars have tried to overcome the loss of star linebacker Francis Bernard by moving Matt Hadley from safety to the redshirting Bernard’s old spot, with mixed results. That inability to stop the run has limited BYU’s pass rush, and defensive ends Corbin Kaufusi and Sione Takitaki haven’t been able to get to the quarterback as much as expected.
Also, the competition has been pretty good, Sitake acknowledged.
“We have a long ways to go, but we have a lot of season left to play, so we will take advantage of the bye week and try to help ourselves get better so we can win games,” Sitake said. “If we want to be as good as these great teams, we need to play them.”
And be competitive against them, every once in a while.