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BYU football: Cougars hit a wall in final 7 games

BYU had two issue this season- inferior talent compared to top teams in the west and an arrogant superiority complex. That is a recipe for disaster.

Respect your opponents, BYU.

You could not be a more classless person. I'm sure you're a ute fan. Look your team is in a BSC game, congratulations. Name calling and lecturing your rival is so pathetic and classless. You have an arrogant inferiority complex.

You have a good team this year, go cheer for them.

I don't know if they were arrogant about their opponents per se. I do know they came across as thinking all they had to do is step on the field and they would magically score 59 points.

The obviously read WAY too many news stories and followed their climb in the national polls.

Maybe next year they will live up to their potential. Maybe but who knows. And they do need some team speed. I think my grandma might be able to beat them to the corner on a running play every now and then.

It's not arrogant to observe BYU came in unprepared, unmotivated in its money games. Despite not being the best team on the field, BYU failed to focus. Players and coaches have said as much. There was no unity this year and for things to have worked out BYU would have had to overcome talent deficiencies. Utah showed it was prepared and BYU did not. Whit outcoached Mendenhall a hundred percent. I guess the nine to five work routine won't beat a 24 to 7 coach.

It's too bad BYU didn't play better, but football is merely entertainment (except for the players and coaches). The season is over. Time for fans and sports writers to move on.

Coach Whit has Urban Meyer in his corner, Bronco had the now ex-coach Rocky Long. Enough said.

I'm sure that the mishaps of the BYU Football season and the Las Vegas Bowl game ended up being a valuable learning experience for both Coach Mendenhall and all the players with the rest of the coaching staff. Chances are that everyone will learn enough from the mistakes and have a much better season next year. I am confident about that.

I guess the question is simple. As cougar fans, are we really interested in watching a team whose focus under Mendenhall will always be football fifth.

It is obvious from the 2008 season that the cougs had a major lack of focus this year...not what one would expect from a team returning so many starters.

Let's put it this way...if I put in the same kind of effort in my job that the football team did on the football field, I'd be unemployed today.

the wall was "hit" at the conclusion of the Wyoming game not after. the QB position is up for grabs in the offseason in many of the cougar fans' minds. the team leaders cannot choke each time they play a "quality opponent".
also, heard no mention of Fui's injury in the arizona game. is Tonga coming back? the fullback position is key in the cougar offense.

Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speeeeed now you get it? Go back to the old farm and chase chickens. Even Rocky Balboa had to chase chickens to increase speed and agility. Mr. Hall needs to increase body mass and speed; he looks like a stick out there on the field.

They didn't hit a wall...

it just took til the end of the season to play 2 good teams.

They just weren't that good!!

I am tired of Mendenhall's same old refrain "I didn't get them ready for the game". Ok, coach--if you can't get them ready for games, I guess it's time to move over and let someone coach that CAN get them ready for games.

I admire Bronco's desire to mold young men. We need more of them in the world. Unfortunately, he is paid a lot of money to coach football and not to mold these young players. Bronco needs to focus on football and forget the other stuff. The whole "Quest" and his silly list putting football fifth opens himself up for ridicule when the team loses. If BYU wants a top tier football program they are going to have to give up this silly mixture of religion and athletics. Hire a football coach and make Bronco a mission president.

Since when is 10-3 laughable? You know, sometimes things just don't go the way you would like, that's called life. To have a goal of perfection is not a crime. A goal that isn't a stretch is of no value. I agree that it shouldn't be shared around with the world at large, but kept within the locker room and presented on the field.

BYU played few teams with better players. They played 3 teams with better coaching.

When you can run you should run. When your QB is struggling you spare him and the team the embarrassment of continuing to try doing what everbody can see isn't working (i.e. keep passing...and throwing interceptions).

BYU can win with these players. They can excel with these players.

Having an eternal perspective on priorites doesn't mean you don't work hard on each. When it's time for family, you focus on family. When it's time for football, everything else takes 2nd place.

It's coaching boys. Mendenhall can do it but:
1. He's got to be a full time head coach. Hire the best defensive coordinator he can, or promote from within, if the ability is already there.

2. Avoid surrounding himself with mediocre assistant coaches (the way Lavell did near the end).
3. Be merciful. Fire the incompetnents and let them work at jobs that are a better match for their skills.

It is interesting that Utah squeaked by Michigan and BYU squeaked by Washington, at the time both were hailed as great victories.
Notre Dame, which had a mediocre year, nevertheless squashed both of those schools (Wash, Mich).
There is no substitute for a tough schedule.

I wonder if BYU's board has as its goal a championship football team or, rather, a quality football team composed of good men who represent BYU and the Church well? I wonder if Bronco Mendenhall will be asked at the pearly gates if he a national championship or if he produced good young men. I wonder if my tithing dollars should be spent hiring a coach who can win or one who can represent the School well. Mind, you, I am not saying that any of these goals are necessarily mutually exclusive. I just don't buy into the whole idea that sports should build the kind of rancor, heartbreak, mean-spiritedness, etc... that I see on these comment boards. I have to admit that I prefer Ivy League sports where victory takes a second place to other, more significant, goals. But, that is just me.

Merry Christmas to all and go Utes!

Relax, people. The Cougars won 10 games! They won 11 games last year and 11 games the year before that.

And drop the "soft schedule" ranting. Most teams play a so-called "soft schedule." Max Hall had two uncharacteristically bad games or BYU might have finished 11-1. Only TCU really handled the Cougars.

I really don't think BYU underacheived at all. 10-3 is a very good record, and the three losses were to very good teams. Except for the occasional spectacular season, you are simply not going to win all of your games when your competition is as good as what BYU played. Sometimes it doesn't even matter if you have a superior will to win -- the breaks just don't go your way.

BYU needs a new offensive coordinator, that's all they need. Our, put him up in the press box like every other coordinator in the country is. They need to spend sometime with Boise State and see how an offensive is supposed to play the game.