Quick Takes: BYU

[Mike Roach]

Who: Texas Longhorns 1-0 (0-0) vs BYU Cougars 1-0 (0-0)

When: 9/6/2014 6:30 PM CST

Where: Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin TX (Fox Sports 1)

Odds: Texas -3.5

The Good: Taysom Hill was 28/36 for 309 yards and 3 touchdowns passing while leading the cougars in rushing with 96 yards and two more scores.  Hill will face a totally different defense in Austin than he saw in Provo last season, but will be playing with a lot of confidence.  The Cougars rolled up 513 yards of total offense in the 35-10 victory, with 329 coming in the first half.  BYU also accomplished this without running back Jamaal Williams and Wide Receiver Devon Blackmon who were suspended due to school honor code violations. 

The Bad: BYU was heavily penalized (15/150) and allowed UCONN 355 yards of total offense.  The Cougars were still able to punish UCONN, but will need to play more disciplined in week 2 as penalties could cost them the game against Texas.

The Uncertain: The Cougars will face a totally different Texas team than what they saw last year.  With the news today that Longhorn QB David Ash will miss the game, how will BYU prepare for Tyrone Swoopes and the new look defense?  They will get a boost with Williams and Blackmon returning, but will need to clean some things up in order to build on a strong start

What's at Stake: Any time you can beat a program like Texas it is a big boost for your team.  Mendenhall will want to prove that last year's game wasn't a fluke and that the Cougars can compete on the bigger stage.  If they are able to defeat Texas, their schedule sets up nicely with home games against Houston, Virginia, and Utah State, before going on the road to face Central Florida.

 

[Juan]

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

 

[Lukus Alderman]

Good stuff, Mike! BYU will certainly take advantage of turnovers, so Texas needs to make sure they protect the ball.

 

[Matt Cotcher]

Interesting that BYU has absolutely nothing to gameplan off of WRT to Watson, Swoopes & the Texas offense.

 

[Mike Roach]

Interesting that BYU has absolutely nothing to gameplan off of WRT to Watson, Swoopes & the Texas offense.

I thought that myself

 

[Juan]

Some stuff from ESPN piece

http://espn.go.com/blog/colleges/texas/post/_/id/24077/stats-that-matter-byu-texas

1. 600 

Charlie Strong does not have a problem with defending rushing quarterbacks. 

In the past 10 years (six at Florida, four at Louisville) his defenses have give up a total of 600 rushing yards to quarterbacks. That's 131 games, 940 rushes, 600 yards. That's an average of 4.58 yards per game. We're including sacks in that number, but to put this in perspective: Last season, Texas gave up 715 rushing yards to QBs. 

BYU quarterback Taysom Hill rushed for 259 yards against Texas last season. Strong's Louisville defenses gave up a total of 209 in the last three years. His teams of the past decade have never allowed a performance like the one Hill produced. 

No team surpassed 300 rushing yards against Louisville during the Strong era. Excluding sacks, Texas gave up twice as many rushing yards to QBs (2,173) as Louisville did (1,034) in the past four years. No quarterback has surpassed 80 rushing yards against his defense in 10 years. 

What's the point? While Hill is a rare talent as a rusher, history suggest he could have a hard time running wild again vs. Texas. 

 

-- MORE AT THE LINK --

 

 

[Marian Hinton]

Those are pretty telling numbers, in regards to how many yards Strong's team allow a QB. I think that's the key quite honestly. If we contain him, I think we win. 

It helps us that this entire team is pretty much an unknown to the Cougars. 

 

[Juan]

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

 

[Lukus Alderman]

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) https://twitter.com/mikefinger/status/507264353352310784" data-datetime="2011-11-07T20:21:07+00:00">November 7, 2011

Seriously???

 

[Juan]