I won't rehash the loss any more than I have to. It was arguably the lowest low for a program that has been discovering new lows with decent frequency for the last decade. The question then becomes one of whether or not the team, not the program but this team, can recover within a week before facing off against a good BYU team. Obviously, I won't tell you that these things will happen, but these are the things that this writer believes needs to happen if this team is going to settle down and bounce back from this devastating loss.
Let's begin with the coaching. You have to decide who your starters are and make sure that those starters are ready to play. There can't be some nonsensical rotation where 10-11 players are considered potential starters and you divide your time and attention between all of them when preparing for a game. When everyone is a starter, you have no starters. You have no depth chart. You have no continuity. That was painfully apparent on Saturday. Based on the newest depth chart released for the BYU game week, they have starters and hopefully they'll stop rotating players so heavily that nobody can find any rhythm or comfort level.
Speaking of rotating, stop doing it to experiment with different looks during a game. That is serving no one. Not the players, not the fans, and not the outcome of the game. Frankly, it made the staff look more than a little silly and left the impression that the staff hadn't prepared this team appropriately because no one had been able to emerge and establish themselves. Heaven forbid you not keep an eye on the roster because it was probably your only hope of knowing who was on the field at the time. Oh, and those too many men on the field issues? Rotate less and that stops being an issue.
You cannot prepare 85 guys equally to play. It's just not realistic. Toss in walk-ons and we're up to 115 and that's spreading yourself miserably thin trying to get a roster ready to play. Identify your starters. They get the most attention. Your second string gets a decent amount of attention, but a little less. Beyond that, you shouldn't need to rely on them much anyway, so coach them but don't spend much time on integrating them into the game planning and game preparation.
No opponent is unimportant. Saying it to the press sounds all well and good, but it's painfully obvious that it was lip service based on what everyone saw last weekend. Until this roster is both mentally and physically at a point where they can walk all over most teams, you are not good enough to overlook an opponent. It will never be said aloud, but that is precisely what happened with GSU. Georgia State was a couple days of prep before turning the attention to BYU. Well, that backfired pretty resoundingly.
Stop pretending like you're playing chess. You aren't going to use every play in your playbook ever, but going so simple as to become predictable is ridiculous. The game plan was garbage. You showed nothing as planned, and it bit you squarely on the keister. If that was the goal, well done. If the goal is to win, find your plays each week regardless of how complex they are in order to best attack the opponent and stop pretending that being basic for a week or two is going to be the key to beating Florida. The key to beating anyone is execution and game planning. Not sitting on plays until you think you can pull out the big surprise to beat someone.
Finally, even if you find yourselves as a staff at a loss as to what to do to motivate the players or get them to execute, you simply cannot reflect that with your body language. In the film Remember the Titans, the line is uttered: "attitude reflects leadership, captain", and that's significantly truer when referring to the coaches. If the team is demoralized and quitting, guess who gets to own that? Don't throw your hands up. Don't shrug your shoulder. Don't drop your head. You are who they are looking to. Be a leader in every sense.
Players, you don't get a pass. Before diving into individual units or singular performances, to the team as a whole: don't you dare quit on your teammates, your coaches, your fans, or your school again, but more than that don't you even think about quitting on yourselves one more time. The fact that many of us would give up years of our lives for one chance to run through that T, take the field in the Orange and White, and give our all for Tennessee just once notwithstanding, you owe yourselves and your teammates more than giving up because it gets hard. Don't drop your head and lay down playing dead for any opponent, least of all this one. The hell with owing it to us fans. You owe it to your brothers on the field and yourselves. Don't give yourselves a reason to look back on these moments with regret, and don't give any NFL staffs a reason to doubt your fire.
Jarrett Guarantano, you have been much discussed. I'm not here to pile on and suggest you should be benched or blah, blah, blah. I am going to make a couple of statements and then move on. Find your leadership style. Vocal, by actions, whatever that may look like, you need to find it, stick to it, and be the guy that offense rallies around when times get tough. Trust your offensive line. I know that one is tough to do, but you have to trust them so that you can run through your progressions, stop either running or dumping the pass off to your outlet guy because of perceived pressure, etc. The offense can't progress as long as the quarterback is running the show under duress, whether or not the pressure is real. Trust what Chaney has taught you. Change plays and protections accordingly. Don't be afraid to assert that authority given to you by your offensive coordinator and head coach. They've entrusted you with it because they believe in you. Take that to heart. You are the heart of the offense. It will only be as good as you enable it to be.
Running backs: secure the ball. I don't care which running back it is. You cannot put the ball on the ground. The running game has to be reliable enough to keep defenses honest, and that simply cannot happen when the coaches are afraid to put the ball in the hands of their best backs. You also need to trust your blockers. Trust your vision out there. If the hole isn't there, find the gap in the defense or take what's available, but you cannot bail on the running lane just because you don't trust what you're seeing. Secure the ball, whether it's a passing play or a running play. Then worry about yardage. You can't gain an inch without the ball in hand.
Receivers...well...yeah. You were pretty much fine for most of the game. Keep that up. Make sure you keep watching the ball into your hands because there were a couple of missed connections that didn't have to be missed, but all in all, solid day for arguably the best position group. Continue working hard and making plays.
Now, that prior note included Dominick Wood-Anderson, but to the rest of the tight ends, he can't do it alone. Jacob Warren. Sean Brown. Jackson Lowe. One of you guys needs to emerge as an additional passing threat and legitimate blocker because the seven offensive lineman thing is too telegraphed and isn't a sustainable formation to be used. It would be preferable that they can use a similar look with a pair of eligible receivers out there.
Offensive line, you honestly didn't have the worst day for three quarters. Heck, it wasn't even the worst I've seen as a whole because you weren't responsible for some of those sacks. Once you know who the starting five or top eight OLs are though, understand that these are your best friends. They are your brothers and you are inseparably close. Outside of classes and sleep, y'all spend your time together. You work on signals and chemistry and timing until you know what one another is thinking with a glance at each other. The quarterback and the running backs are your younger siblings or nephews or little cousins, you choose. You don't let anyone hurt them, and if someone has the audacity to touch them it's on you to make them pay for it.
To the defensive line, you have to know where to line up, fire off the line, and even if you're wrong, be wrong at full speed. The only cure for inexperience is to line up and play, making mistakes along the way. That said, everyone cannot be listed as a starter and anyone feel comfortable, and a rotation that's so heavy that you can't get into a rhythm isn't helpful. Still, whoever is on the field at the time has to attack like their name is Bobby Boucher. Break faces out there. Make the offensive line regret taking the field.
Inside linebackers, I know it sucks not having Bituli out there to help with getting guys lined up. I know it's all a bit new, especially for you, Henry To'o To'o. It's going to get easier, but until it does you just need to seek and destroy because attacking the offense has never gotten a defender in trouble. Make plays, whether you did your job right or not, until you get the assignments down. Don't overthink it. Football is still just football.
Outside linebackers, you had moments. Bennett, Johnson, both of you got after it and made some plays behind the line of scrimmage. Keep doing that. Taylor, aside from that nice play in coverage you'll need to get going, but we've seen that you have that talent. Until the younger guys get caught up, it's up to you three to provide that OLB pass rush. Things should be freed up once the staff begins rolling out the blitzes and stunts.
Secondary, mixed bag, right? Warren Burrell, you got tossed into a no-win situation due to circumstances off the field. The same more or less happened to you as well, Alontae Taylor, as a three-man rotation was trimmed down to two, more or less. Shawn Shamburger, build on that strong game of yours. Make the Star position your own. Safeties, we need better as a whole. If the corners are probably not going to have a chance to rotate, it's going to be up to you guys to provide them the necessary support when they start getting tired or get beat by the receivers. Support one another. That's how being a team works.
Specialists, I don't really have any notes. Keep up the good work. You all kicked great, the snaps looked crisp, no flubbed holds. Returners, same as I said about the running backs. Secure the ball. Then worry about everything else. If you fumble and lose it, no one will remember the return. Just the turnover.
BYU is solid, but they aren't unbeatable. Winning or losing is all going to fall on execution by the coaches and players. There's no excuse for what happened. There's no reason it should continue happening. There's plenty of talent. There's enough experience on the roster to win games. This staff has set winning expectations at every stop until now. Put up or shut up time. Get it right and beat BYU. It won't forgive everything, but it's a place to start.
