BYU’s rough night at AT&T Park a microcosm of the challenges facing the school as a big-time independent

By Morris Phillips

A step slow, a play short: it was a pattern that played out to BYU’s detriment throughout the Fight Hunger Bowl Friday night.   While the Cougars acquitted themselves well, riding the spirit and running of quarterback Taysom Hill, when it came time to make a critical play, the Cougars didn’t while Washington did.

In the first half alone, the Cougars amassed 297 yards in offense, but never led.  Four offensive trips inside the UW 30-yard line produced three field goals and one touchdown on the initial push.  In the second half, a big interception had BYU poised to get back in it, but an incomplete pass and a sack preceded Justin Sorenson’s 44-yard missed field goal.

ESPN commentator Dave Pasch called BYU’s offense in the first half that enjoyed huge advantage in plays and yardage “dominant.”  In truth, the Hill-led attack was relevant, but ultimately ineffective.

“That to me was two even matched teams,” an upbeat BYU coach Bronco Mendehall recounted.  “I thought we had time of possession.  I thought we had ball control, et cetera.  We weren’t able to put it into the end zone, maybe on a couple of occasions.”

“When we get down there, we have to execute at a really high level, and we didn’t do that.  We had a couple of penalties that really killed us.”

And special teams were clearly no help.  After the Cougars drove 88 yards in 12 plays—including a gutsy fourth down run and conversion out of punt formation at their own 20—to tie it, 7-7, Washington got a 100-yard kickoff return from ultra speedy John Ross that put BYU behind once again.  After the Cougars narrowed the gap to 14-13, Jessie Callier’s 47-yard kickoff return set up the Huskies for another touchdown.

The BYU offense that moved the ball so effectively in the first half, bogged down after halftime.  Hill’s favored slant route to receivers Cody Hoffman and Skyler Ridley was effectively taken away by the Huskies crowding the box.  While Hill continued to find running holes—he would amass a career-high 31 rush attempts—UW dared the athletic quarterback to throw, and more often than not, Hill couldn’t connect.

The Cougars offense that amassed all the yardage in the first half went without a major push into Washington territory after halftime.  Washington’s touchdown on the initial drive of the half effectively put the game away.

Even more humbling for BYU were the marquee individual matchups that left many of BYU stars humbled.  All-American linebacker Kyle Van Noy played well in his final game as a Cougar, but when UW back Bishop Sankey was in his sights at the 11-yard line in the second quarter, Van Noy was left grasping for air as Sankey sidestepped the Cougar and then raced into the end zone for a 21-13 Washington lead.

In the third quarter stand out linebacker Uani Unga was matched up with UW’s Austin Seferian-Jenkins near the goal line, but the massive 6’6”, 280-pound tight end had the clear size and reach advantage when quarterback Keith Price whizzed a pass to Seferian-Jenkins in the end zone that put UW up 28-16 and left Unga an arm’s length short.

Hoffman, an NFL prospect at wide receiver, made plays in the middle of field, hauling in 12 catches for 167 yards, but his turn as passer didn’t fare well.  Hoffman received a pitch and threw a short out to Hill, but Hoffman took a shot to the ribs as he threw and was limited for the entire second half.

In all, a tough night for the Cougars, but also a reminder of what challenges life as a big-time independent will entail.  BYU left the Mountain West conference after 2012 for greater television exposure and the opportunity to play a national schedule and better pursue an opportunity at an elusive national championship.

But while a hand-picked schedule may garner exposure, the Cougars will have to recruit the best players to compete at such a lofty level.  On Friday night, the best athletes on the field wore purple and gold. A humbling loss to a middle-of-the-pack Pac-12 team in Washington could not provide a better illustration of the Cougars’ conundrum: the Cougars need to win big to gain national acclaim, but those wins will clearly be more difficult to grasp outside the Mountain West and squarely on top of the national stage.

For UW’s Tuiasosopo, the Fight Hunger Bowl is the singular challenge

By Morris Phillips

Washington’s plenty talented enough to hang with the BYU Cougars in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl on tap at AT&T Park.  But with Head Coach Steve Sarkisian saying yes to USC and leaving Seattle after five seasons to coach the Trojans, one has to wonder what will be the collective mindset of the Huskies’ student-athletes when they hit the field on Friday night.

Could the Huskies feel spurned by Sarkisian, or be distracted by all the upheaval?  Or will a talented UW team leap to the challenge of attempting to win a ninth game in a season for the first time since 2000 when interim coach Marques Tuiasosopo led the Huskies to a 34-24 win over Purdue and Drew Brees in the Rose Bowl?

“You’d like to think every close team… would handle it the same way, but you just never know until you go through it,” Tuiasosopo said.  “I think our seniors have done a nice job, and I think our underclassmen have done a nice job of buying into what the seniors are talking about and staying focused on the task at hand.”

One thing’s for certain: the 34-year old Tuiasosopo is the point man for the Huskies’ mindset approaching kickoff on Friday night.  The UW legend, former Raider and son of Manu, the starting nose tackle for the 49ers in their second Super Bowl victory over Miami in 1985, is a rising star in the coaching profession.  In just five short years after retiring from the NFL in 2008, Tuiasosopo has gone from assistant strength coach at UW, to position coach at UCLA under Jim Mora, to quarterback coach and now interim head coach back at Washington with Sarkisian leaving and Boise State’s Chris Peterson set to take control of the Huskies following the bowl game.

And if Tuiasosopo can exude calm, excitement and anticipation for the meeting with BYU, why wouldn’t the players?  The interim coach’s situation couldn’t be any less unsettled than his team’s with a gaggle of UW assistants already gone to join Sarkisian in Los Angeles, and Peterson reportedly set to hire Jonathan Smith, his quarterbacks coach at Boise State, for the same position in Seattle.   Tuisasosopo might be a natural fit on Peterson’s staff in any capacity, or he could take his three week stint as head man and run with it… possibly to a head job at a non-BCS school looking to corral the unbridled energy of a promising, youthful coach.

Undoubtedly, Tuisasosopo and the Huskies will get just one shot together.  In BYU, the Huskies will face a staunch defensive team led by senior linebacker Kyle Van Noy that also features a power running attack led by dual threat quarterback Taysom Hill.  The Huskies will counter with oft-injured but supremely talented quarterback Keith Price and power back Bishop Sankey, who rushed for over 1,700 yards in the regular season.

The game figures to be high scoring and close; one requiring quick-twitch decisions and gutsy play calls, rigorous work for even the most seasoned of coaches. Not only will Tuisasosopo face all those challenges, he’ll do it with an unfamiliar staff.  Meanwhile BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall has held the position for nine seasons and has made bowl appearances all nine times.  The contrast in experience couldn’t be more striking.

Still Tuisasosopo faces his challenge with enthusiasm and a keen eye on his alma mater’s history.  Price and safety Will Shamburger are the only remaining players from the 2009 recruiting the class that committed on the heels of the 0-12 season in 2008, the last under Coach Tyrone Willingham.  Tuisasopo referred to the 2008 season as the lowest point in the history of the school earlier this week.  Given that, Tuiasosopo frames the challenge of chasing a watershed ninth win on Friday as an historic quest.  And that’s what experienced coaches do: set goals and demand myopic focus on them.

“Now we’re at 8-4 and my hope… is that the young guys really focus on that, not everything else,” Tuiasosopo said.

And behind those goals are the players, committed to one coach who left and being asked to devote themselves to another… almost overnight.  Needless to say, according to Tuisasosopo, it can be confusing.

“They’re growing to become men, and sometimes they need to know ‘Hey, I totally understand what you’re going through.  They need someone there to help them through and manage and navigate their emotions through this process,” Tuiasosopo said.