Washington State at Brigham Young--BYU was one of the more interesting teams in all of FBS football in 2011. BYU were interesting because they left the MWC to ply their trade as an independent. This is the first team that had conference affiliation but still decided to go the independent route. The Cougars went 10-3 after a rough start to the season and were one of the hottest teams in the country once Riley Nelson was officially given the starting quarterback job. Washington State is a FBS team in the PAC 12 that went 4-8 last fall. WSU struggled in conference play going 2-7 with wins over Colorado and Arizona State.
Offense: The Cougars started slowly on offense to start the 2011 season but by seasons end, the Cougars were up to a 30.1 points per game average with 405 yards per game of total offense. The rushing game was good with 160 yards per game on the ground and a 4.2 yards per carry average to go with 16 rushing touchdowns. The passing offense was good with 245 yards per game with 28 touchdown passes on the season. The Cougars must cut down on interceptions after throwing 15 last fall. Washington State were pretty decent on offense in 2011 with 29.8 points scored per game. The running game, however, was not very good in only averaging 100 yards per game with 3.1 yards per carry and only 13 touchdowns. The passing game picked up the pace for WSU as the WSU Cougars threw for 322 yards per game. Washington State also threw for 30 touchdown with only 12 interceptions. EDGE: BYU
Defense: BYU was stingy on defense in 2011 with only 20.4 points per game allowed on the season. The rushing defense was very solid with only 112 yards per game allowed on the ground to go with a 3.6 yards per carry allowed but 16 rushing touchdowns allowed. The passing defense gave up 200 yards per game on the season with 13 touchdown passes allowed but the Cougar defense pulled in 13 interceptions of their own. While the offense for Washington State nearly put up 30 points per game in 2011, the defense gave up over 30 points per game at 31.8 allowed per game. The rush defense struggled giving up 157 yards per game but more importantly 4.4 yards per carry on the season. Opponents were able to rush for 19 touchdowns versus the WSU defense. The WSU pass defense gave very little resistance giving up 252 yards in the air per game to go along with 24 passing touchdowns and only 8 interceptions. EDGE: BYU
Coaching: Bronco Mendenhall is the head coach for the BYU Cougars and has been coaching since 1989. Mendenhall started in1989 as a graduate assistant for the Oregon State Beavers. Mendenhall then went to Snow College, Northern Arizona, Oregon State again, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico, and then as an assistant at BYU. In 2005, Mendenhall was hired as the head coach at BYU where he is now entering his 7th season as head coach. After a 6-6 record in his first season, Mendenhall has been over .500 in ever season since. Mendenhall has a career record of 66-24 with the Cougars including five 10-wins seasons. Newly minted head coach Mike Leach returns to college football with the WSU Cougars after being fired from Texas Tech. Leach started coaching in 1987 with Cal Poly as an assistant. After Cal Poly, Leach made stops in COD, Pori Bears, Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta State, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and finally Texas Tech where he got his first head coaching job. At Texas Tech, leach went 84-43 in 10 seasons with the Red Raiders including bowl berths in all 10 seasons. The Red Raiders went 5-4 in 9 bowl games with Leach as head coach. *Leach was let go before the final bowl game as head coach.* EDGE: PUSH
BYU is 2-1 all time versus Washington State with a 50-36 win in their most recent meeting in 1990. The Cougars also won 38-36 in the 1981 Holiday Bowl. The average score in those three games is 43-39.3 in favor of BYU.
BYU comes into 2012 with no quarterback controversy and a team that returns starters all over the field. The Cougars only lost a single game once Riley Nelson took over the quarterback job and big things are expected from the senior this fall. Washington State represents a challenge for BYU to start the season but Washington State is in major rebuilding mode with the insertion of new coach Mike Leach. WSU will score points but will struggle to stop opponents from scoring which was Leach’s pattern at Texas Tech. Expect a challenge for BYU but the Cougars should benefit from Nelson’s leadership and skill and pull out a hard-fought win over Washington State to start the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment