Did BYU football fill recruiting needs?

byDuc Manh •
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BYU football coach Kalani Sitake gives a thumbs-up during BYU football media day at the BYU Broadcasting Building in Provo.
Kalani Sitake, BYU’s head soccer coach, provides a thumbs-up throughout BYU soccer media day on the BYU Broadcasting Constructing in Provo on Thursday, June 17, 2021.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information

This text was first revealed within the Cougar Insiders publication. Signal as much as obtain the publication in your inbox every Tuesday night time.

Did BYU recruiting elevate this system?

Kalani Sitake’s workers elevated crew velocity, bolstered its offensive line and working again depth, and started work on including depth to a depleted protection through the February nationwide letter of intent signing day.

Here's a listing of our recruiting protection tales from that week:

Cougar Insider’s predictions

Right here’s the query of the week: Ought to BYU be glad with its recruiting class simply signed or is extra wanted between now and the season opener?

Jay Drew: With regards to this recruiting class, my feeling is that BYU coaches completed effectively with a late flurry of excellent signings and switch portal additions to rescue what was wanting like a below-average class.

For example, getting Cal working again Christopher Brooks was big. Additionally, a few of their finest work may contain getting receiver Gunner Romney to return for one more season. That mentioned, extra work must be finished, notably on the defensive aspect of the ball.

The Cougars need assistance from the switch portal on the defensive position, and maybe at security. Briefly, they want a big-time edge rusher and a ball-hawking defender. Asking one of many freshmen they signed in December or February to be a first-day starter at these essential positions will not be sustainable.

Positive, guys like Malik Moore and Jakob Robinson are again within the defensive backfield, however who’s going to be the playmaker? Linebacker Keenan Pili, who suffered a season-ending knee damage early final yr, may be capable of fill that function. However a full comeback may not be within the playing cards. We are going to see.

Dick Harmon: You'll be able to by no means be glad with recruiting regardless of all coaches speaking up their signing day fruits. There are misses, failures and coming-up-short tales throughout with each program exterior the elite 11. The Cougars seem set on offense with Christopher Brooks and Houston Heimuli transferring in to bolster the RB room, and the O-line acquired a monster in five-star Kingsley Suamataia. The WR group ought to be productive veterans with added velocity.

I feel two issues BYU did on this class is improve velocity and dimension.

The addition of Aisea Moa as a rush finish is big, and BYU might want to discover DEs and OLB rushers out of recent faces to hitch Tyler Batty, Lorenzo Fauatea, Caden Haws, Earl Tuioti-Mariner, and Pepe Tanuvasa. The protection will take a step ahead if Keenan Pili and Payton Wilgar heal in time and younger expertise like Josh Wilson step up.

Cougar tales

Mark Pope has the problem of his BYU profession as a rising shedding streak threatens the crew’s post-season probabilities for the NCAA Event. Fortunately, his crew did a number of onerous work earlier within the season with Quad 1 and a couple of wins however losses to Santa Clara, Pacific, San Francisco and Gonzaga have set his squad reeling with confidence.

Jeff Name addresses the problem in these tales:

  • Can BYU repair its points earlier than postseason (Jeff Name)
  • Pope: We’re actually being examined (Jeff Name)
  • Numbers don’t add up after third loss (Jeff Name)

From the archives

From the Twitterverse

Further factors

Fanalyst

Feedback from Deseret Information readers

“A roster filled with gamers with the yips. ... How do you repair that? It appears to unfold sooner than the omicron variant. Is constant to do the identical ol’ factor going to all of a sudden yield completely different outcomes?”

— Grunchie Ralph

“I do know we maintain speaking about shedding Harwood and Baxter as the explanation our season has gone south. I feel it's greater than that. Harwood went down in an exhibition sport and has not performed a single minute in a sport that counted on our file this yr. Baxter was recovering from a severe damage and was enjoying restricted minutes. For the 5 video games he performed, solely as soon as did he play greater than quarter-hour and solely 3 occasions did he play greater than 10 minutes. What we're all stating is we ‘hoped’ they might have been higher with these two. However we actually by no means had these two this complete season. But by some means BYU made it to the highest 25 and in keeping with nearly each supply was a lock for the match.

“What has occurred to BYU within the final two weeks has to do with the gamers on the ground, not the gamers in avenue garments. Groups have adjusted to BYU, and BYU has not adjusted to them. I lay this squarely on our teaching workers. The gamers we've got now are the identical ones we had once we beat SDSU, Utah, and blew out Oregon. (Save quarter-hour from Baxter per sport) Why are we persevering with to run the identical offense and protection when it's apparent to anybody that watches this crew play that different groups know how one can defeat it and even groups like Pacific are having their manner.

“Pope looks like a great man. I've all the time thought he had an excellent skill to individually coach youngsters up. However now we want him to be the coach of the crew. Make some changes coach. If you're good, now's the time to indicate it.”

— Blue_Tsunami

Up subsequent

Feb. 10 | 6 p.m. | Softball | vs. UNLV | @Las Vegas

Feb. 10 | 7 p.m. | Girls’s basketball | vs. Pepperdine | @Provo

Feb. 10 | 9 p.m. | Males’s basketball | vs. LMU | @Los Angeles

Feb. 11-12 | TBA | Indoor monitor | Husky Basic | @Seattle

Feb. 11 | TBA | Indoor monitor | Texas Tech Shootout | @Lubbock, Texas

Feb. 11 | TBA | Girls’s tennis | vs. Weber State | @Provo

Feb. 11 | 10 a.m. | Softball | vs. Cal-Bakersfield | Bakersfield, California

Feb. 12 | 7 p.m. | Males’s basketball | vs. Pepperdine | @Malibu, California

Feb. 12 | 1 p.m. | Girls’s basketball | vs. St. Mary’s | @Moraga, California

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