POSTCAST: Kalani Sitake & BYU Football Show STRIKING Improvement With SIU Win | BYU Cougars Podcast

it's just one game it's an FCS opponent but I believe BYU's performance against Southern Illinois is going to have cougar fans feeling a lot better about BYU's chances this season let's break it down on postcast you are locked on cougars your daily podcast on the BYU Cougars part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day what's up everybody I'm Jake hatch your host here on lockon cougars resident BYU Insider thank you for making lockon cougars your first View and or listen of the day and thank you to all of you who are every dayers with us right here on your original daily podcast focused on the BYU Cougars this is a special edition of the podcast we like to call them postcast uh we do them after each and every BYU football game home or away breaking down whatever we saw just literally it feels like an hour or two after the game after my radio responsibility wrap up and then uh we get to have your guys' comments on the show as well so let's Dive Right In big win for BYU is a take care of Southern Illinois 41-13 the final as the Cougars improved to one and0 on the season My overall takeaway from this game is Jake Retzloff looks just fine I know and I I'm gonna probably get some of you commenting on this it's just one game Jake I I get all of that man kid was 20 of 30 348 yards three touchdowns and more importantly zero count them zero turnovers what can you equival with that QB rating of 197.4 Jake retof looked the part of the guy who won the quarterback battle and do it did so convincingly enough that the BYU coaches as he mentioned postgame named him the starter at least in meetings 10 12 days ago almost two weeks back he looked the part of qb1 for BYU Gary bohannan I actually thought he might see some extra time in this game but he came in a mop-up duty time when BYU had finally pulled away in that fourth quarter unfortunately we did not get to see a chance to see him throw the football but uh circumstances being what they were at that point BYU just seeing the game out and that was his job I also really liked what I saw in terms of Jake just kind of commanding the field he had the helmet Communications obviously getting the play called relayed to him and uh there was some confusion by the way on the helmet comms side of things a lot of you wondering well is it actually working yes it works the issue is there are so few teams BYU among them that huddle on a consistent basis in college football that only having one receiver on the field in terms of the transponder that's in Jake's helmet it's hard for him to relay all the information it was more like the NFL where teams huddle literally every play and the play call comes in and they relate to every member of the offense that'd be a different story but when you go no huddle and you're looking at the sideline you're going to continue to see those signs the the graphics the hand signals on the play play cards that type of stuff that's going to still continue to be a part of BYU and what they do the simple fact of the matter is the communication between Aaron rodri and Jake rofs essentially allows for Aaron to kind of pop in his ear and say hey watch for this on this certain play Etc it's going to be an advantage to have that communication same thing with the defense even without Jay Hill there colani said that it was Justin enna who was relaying calls to the middle middle linebacker who obviously has a transponder in their helmet on defense I was harison tagert Cera Etc so I think overall this was a very very confident confidence building win for the BYU football program yes it's an FCS opponent yes it's the easiest game on the schedule for BYU all season long it gets ramped up next Friday when BYU takes on SMU there is no argument from me about this maybe being a one-off for BYU but you can't take anything other away from this game that I think confidence in this BYU team I talked about wanting to see them win this game 45-13 I wanted to see 400 450 total yards they ended up with 527 I know and we'll get to the comments here in a moment from you guys that some you gonna be like well the rush per y Rush per carry numbers aren't great 47 carries 179 yards and had you not had to kneel down the ball twice at the end of the game you would have been over 180 yards 3.8 yards per carat yes I know it's sub four yards per carry and that's not ideal but let's re reiterate 47 carries folks BYU got off 77 plays in this game there were games last year that BYU was trending to getting just barely 50 plays they doubled up Southern Illinois in time of possession they did I think literally everything I wanted to see BYU do in game one is there plenty to clean up yes we'll get to that we'll dig into that momentarily what I noticed I want to see them clean up in the moment but I don't think you can argue with the performance BYU put on in this game I thought defensively B is absolutely lights out even without Jay Hill uh on the sidelines he was there he was sitting in a box he made his way down to the field pregame and also late in the game as well and from all uh pictures and video I saw of it his players were mobbing him uh making uh him feel comfortable I thought his defense was absolutely awesome have we seen that much pressure from Buu on the defensive front in particular and what it's been 5 years it feels like if not longer than that since we've seen them get after the quarter back to that level that was really cool to see seven tackles for loss three QB hits I don't know how many QB hurries because I didn't see an official number on that come out but more importantly two sacks those two sacks everybody would make up one fifth count at one fth of the total for 12 games a season ago be why you mustered just 10 sacks as a team a season ago two tonight speaking of the win over Southern Illinois was one of that total I really liked what I saw from BYU defensively DJ WIlliams yes he was a scramble threat he ended up running for 121 yards in this game but outside of him really what threats were there from Southern Illinois I thought BYU's defense did exactly what it need needed to do it limited SIU to 231 yards 43 of it that they got on a deep ball that I should have been reviewed it should have been looked at by the officials to determine if he made that catch but the officials for whatever reason love the next play to get off even while Kanan satake is just running on the field screaming timeout at the referees the fact that just a few plays later that SI was able to call a similar uh timeout and very late in a play clock that type of situation you know what it is what it is but it was not an ideal situation for the officials in this game I really like to BYU end up with 6.8 yards per play that's a very healthy number Jake redoff 11.7 yards per completion anything north of 10 yards per completion is actually Elite number by most quarterback metrics out there so once again I really really liked what I saw overall from BYU in this game I was a really really impressive performance Darius Lasser did we really miss him speaking of BYU not really and he obviously will only add to an already dangerous dangerous wide receiving core when he returns next week against SMU after serving an NCAA mandated one game uh suspension uh for his uh waiver of getting the Year back this year no problem Chas CH Roberts looked absolutely the part of a lead dog for BYU at wide receiver I thought that JoJo Phillips he is showing signs of being a really really Elite Talent at that wide receiver position that deep ball from Jake rof to him I think was 57 yards for that touchdown that was like okay the future the by wide receiving core is on display right now because JoJo Phillips he's still a red shirt freshman he has got a lot of talent in him and I for one cannot wait to see how he continues to develop because he's got Elite size and speed combo 6'5 he's got the speed to really get down the field in a hurry and I think that is kind of the future for BYU at wide receiver unfold display there I look at this as an overall it was a very very capable opening game for BYU there is plenty of positives for BYU to build upon as they head into a game against SMU and BYU should be confident going up against the Mustangs the Mustangs did Pummel Houston Christian 59 to7 taking out some of the frustrations from a very narrow victory that got the week prior to that over um over Nevada but I don't see anything on tape for me in this game for by leads me to think they're going to go into that game against SMU thinking we got no chance BYU should be brimming with confidence this was the type of game you wanted to start your season with and have a positive outcome and have your guys feeling okay we're not as bad as some people say we are now is there plenty to clean up yes there's plenty for BYU to work on in the time between now and next Friday when they kick it off against the SMU Mustangs what are those what are the things they need to work on chiefly we'll dig into that momentarily as you roll on right here unlocked on cougars Today's show was brought you by our friends over at LinkedIn now LinkedIn is here for you guys no matter what you're looking for when it comes to your small business you want to find quality candidates obviously they're right for the roles you Happ to be hiring for that's why you need to check out our friends over at LinkedIn jobs they have the tools to help you find the right Professionals for your team faster and more importantly for free think about that LinkedIn is not just a job board my friends it helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else even those who aren't actively searching for a new job but might be open uh to the perfect role in a given month over 70% count at 70 70% of LinkedIn users do not visit other leading job boards so if you're not looking on LinkedIn you're looking in the wrong place you're missing out on lots of individuals out there 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college football proud partner of the lockon podcast Network your team every single day all right uh let's talk about what B wayu needs to work on in the week ahead uh first thing special teams Miss cues Parker Kingston kelen Maran got to be more sure-handed when it comes to uh obviously receiving the kicks uh two muffs that I recall off the top of my head for Parker one for kelen Maran that'll be something that I'm sure that Kelly ping is GNA remind them about be between 30 and 50 times a day until they kick it off against SMU you got to be more sure-handed you got to be obviously to be able to track that in the air a couple times the two times it felt like that Parker Kingston uh mishandled those punts they were over his head obviously you got to be a better judge of where that ball is going to be coming down and attack it going forward rather than uh being in Reverse in situations like that I know that he redeemed himself with a pretty nice punt return late in the game but something he's absolutely going to work on other thing uh will faren misses the easy kick of makes the two hard ones he pushes his first kick 36 yards wide right would allowed BYU to have 44 points had he made that but then he bounces back it a positive sign for a kicker of his mental fortitude makes a 50 y at the end of the first half he add it I think was a 44 yard later in the game so yeah you don't want to miss the short kicks but to redeem yourself in the way he did that was a positive but there were some special teams Miss cues that absolutely need to be addressed and corrected in the coming week uh a couple of you and we'll get to these comments momentarily from you our listeners out there uh were complaining about the rush yardage and saying that well the offensive line Looks no different than a season ago trust me when I say this the offensive line looked a lot different than a season ago BYU's oine I thought had a fairly solid game now obviously I will defer to Connor pay when he joins us uh it be like Tuesday or Wednesday I think is when we will finally have a chance to catch up with him to get his thoughts on how the offensive line played but I was sitting in the Press Box there I thought BYU's o line actually opened quite a few holes my concern with the Run game is the vision of BYU's running backs not named LJ Martin LJ Martin is I use the term he's a thoroughbred he has been born and bred to play running back he's been trained his entire life to play running back there is a vision that running backs have the ability to set up blocks see those creases and exploit them that he absolutely has the other guys at running back for BYU I am concerned don't necessarily have that and it's nothing against them uh speaking mainly of Hinkley rotti as well as Miles Davis if you know about their background and if you don't I'm going to school you to the game momentarily is that both of them were wide receivers in high school hinley was more of a slot receiver did play a little bit of running back but he will tell tell you I was a slot receiver in High School Miles Davis never played running back until he showed up at BYU he was a thoroughbred wide receiver in the Las Vegas area growing up there is a difference as a wide receiver in terms of what you're looking for than you do as a running back you have to make split-second decisions and they've got to be the right ones and I am concerned that the vision for Hinkley rotti and Miles Davis made BYU's offensive line look worse than it actually was in terms of its overall performance we'll get Connor pay's thought on this but I'm not trying to throw guys under the bus I just felt like the vision was lacking at times in this game can that be corrected yes with obviously adequate reps guys can start to realize hey I need to exploit that here film review will go a long way towards that I'm sure that Harvey OA is gonna sit these guys down when they go through their game cut ups and say hey that was the hole there you hesitated or you missed it or you tried to overrun it essentially and you didn't allow your offensive line to set it up the way it needs to be set up I am hopeful and I have a hopeful tone here is that Hinkley and miles in particular they will learn from this they will realize hey you know what I've need to be better about that I've got to be maybe a a touch more patient in the wide Zone scheme allowing the blocks to get set up instead of being so eager to hit a hole that may not be there quite yet or at other times you can miss the hole you your vision like I said takes you one way making you think I'm going to go outside here when you needed to cut it back up inside and you got to have that Vision LJ Martin is BYU's number one back I know that he and Hinkley shared the Reps down the middle 13 carries for the both of them LJ had 67 yards against 57 for Hinkley the nice part is with time and obviously film review and some extra work I don't think that's going to be an issue going forward but I do know that the BYU offensive line B based on my mentions on social media they took a little bit of a of a brow beating from those of you out there but I would actually Point more to the running backs and their Vision issues in this game once again don't consider it to be a long-term deal in my mind I think it will be corrected in time and if it's not well then at that point you probably look at some other options on that running back depth chart guys like poai honga enck naak c i MOA Etc maybe give them a crack but uh for the time being I'm gonna count it off essentially as just first game issues and we'll hopefully see a better performance but 47 carries folks BYU was very very impressive in that regard you get nearly 50 carries that's the type of numbers that like option teams get in college football so they ran it a lot and that was a positive oh one other thing I'll use it as a positive as well remember the East West action that BYU was so famous for last year and a lot of complaints about their inability to go north south you pay attention to that game I'm going to go back and watch it its entirey I'll have my full film review for you guys on our Monday edition of the podcast but overall my thought is BYU going north south against Southern Illinois was actually far more successful than east west in this game that's a POS positive BYU was showing that they can go downhill on teams I know once again it's an FCS opponent it's your weakest opponent on paper but to go down hill on them the way that they did I thought it's something you can build upon there in terms of a positive uh a couple other things here that need to be fixed got to be able to contain the QB run better as I mentioned DJ WIlliams was the only I mean the only threat that southern Illinois had in this game and he exploited BYU a couple of times for some big runs nothing bigger than that 38 yard touchdown run that he had uh to give them their second score on the night you contain that BYU otherwise had everything else locked down now will they learn from this yes they'll be better with their QB spy BYU did spy I saw guys like Sony MOA getting that assignment uh to spy DJ WIlliams but their their inability to uh Square him up when they were spying him I think contributed to his ability to scramble he did run uh for a lot of yardage against BYU but I think that can be cleaned up with just some extra coaching obviously getting the right guys in the right sets situations like that BYU will be better about that I think you learned from that as well and then the final thing that needs to be improved is Holy Smokes the officiating the fact that they overturned a fumble that was a clear fumble in my mind for BYU didn't allow colani satake to call that Timeout on that bobbled pass that added 43 ill gotten yards uh to the total for Southern Illinois the officiating woof needs to be better it has to be better and I'm sure that those officials are going to hear it from their evaluators when it comes to the postgame there were a lot lot of things in that game that I don't think anybody's gon to be happy about most particularly those officials will they answer for it to any significant degree that we're going to be aware of probably not but man I thought the officiating it needed to be better it was not bad overall but when they missed a call they missed a call all right so there you go that's what I would like to see cleaned up now is your guys' time to shine coming up next what do you guys make of the win for BYU what do you want to see more of what do you think was good will delin all that as much of the comments as we can get to As We Roll on right here on locked on cougars Today's Show is brought to you by our friends over at game time no matter where you're trying to get to when it comes to your events you want to go out to whether it's a BYU football game a comedy show a music concert no matter what you're into Theater events game time has got the 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first purchase once again uh create an account by the way some terms apply to this create an account redeem the promo code l o c k d o n c o l l EG that's locked on college for $20 off your first purchase download game time today what time is it game time thank you once again for making lock on cougars your first listen of the day if you have not done so already join the locked on cougars Insider group we had a great chat going on oneon-one with myself with a number of you during the game I'm sharing insights as I'm sitting there in the Press Box about what you guys want to talk about if you want that insight to Intel you can't get anywhere else join the locked on Cougar's Insider group there's a link in the show notes below whether you're watching this on YouTube or if you're listening to wherever you get your podcast click the link join us 14-day free trial just $5 a month to have The Insider access that you crave so join us today the locked on cougars Insider group all right time for you guys to have your say on what happened in this game now I can assure you I'm not going to get to every comment between the lock on Cougar's Insider group and our social media reaction I've got north of of I think a hundred messages there's no way I'm G to fit that in the time remaining so let's just kind of roll through here and get your guys' uh thoughts uh from you guys Robert asked this last year a got a lot of grief for his play calling how was this game for you I thought it was actually a pretty solid game uh the thing about it is play callers call plays players make said plays when you have the success be way you had on offense it makes A-Rod look a lot better tonight when you had some of the Duds the B you had a season ago well guess what a lot of that blame Falls at the feet of Aaron rodri I thought he did just fine tonight so uh and I get come off a lot of you have accused me of being a homer for A-Rod so be it but I thought he had a very very capable game uh in terms of his uh play calling in this one uh other comments here Alex as this s says this actually solid first game got to clean up a bit Jake looked better than last year went in the pocket but struggled with accuracy outside of the pocket that's not a bad point he says hop hope has been instilled so far about BYU he did struggle with some of his ACC accuracy on the run I will agree with you on that he fired high and wide a couple of times but when he was in the pocket there and by the way the BYU line gave him plenty of time to operate inside the pocket for the most part uh funny enough at times it felt like he was so comfortable in that pocket that he actually got sacked a couple of times so uh yeah I agree with you Alex his accuracy outside the pocket was a bit of a concern but obviously with coaching hopefully that and him some individual work that can uh be improved upon uh Jimmy asked this it's not too late to throw my two cents I have second row tickets and Jake as he says all caps holy crap have those boys put on some muscle in the off season seeing them up close this year as compared to last year the difference is night and day BYU looks like a power four football team you know who you're going to tip the cap to on that one Jimmy tip the cap to Ryan Phyllis and his strength staff they have worked nonstop and I mean nonstop to get BYU's players looking the part as you mentioned of a power for team now is that going to yield uh wins TBD but they look I'm with you they look the part they their significant bulk and just overall definition being added to the frames of these young guys and it's really cool to see them uh doing their thing our good friend Taylor my evaluation besides the QB run run defense looked a lot better I agree with that tackling looked good at times there were some issues uh one player that was interesting to watch was Ephraim a he is slippery on the edge he is Ephraim came in on pass rush situations he is about 200 pounds soaking wet right now uh but when he comes in on those pass rushes he he gets after the quarterback and that's something you can work with you need the guys who are gonna press the pocket that's exactly what he did uh Taylor continues Jake rlof blew me away what a statement from him I'm hope they're also just limiting LJ because he's Far and Away better than Hy rotti I think that's absolutely the case you don't want to run LJ into the ground against the likes of Southern Illinois unleash him against SMU sure go right on the head but SIU that's not the one LJ is a different breed of Runner no disc to rotti I said it earlier he's a thorough bre he's been trained his entire life as a running back whereas hinley he has taken to the position since coming to college in junior college obviously he also made the transition uh there is a difference to guys who played it growing up speaking of running back to guys who took to the position later in life all right biggest thing to focus on in my opinion is still the Run game good Improvement it's got to be a bigger threat in my opinion yeah 3.8 yards per carry you want to see more than that I'm sure Connor pay will come on and say that he wanted to see north of four if not five yards per carry but the nice part is you got the win now you got to clean up some stuff that's the positive so I I still look at it as you're still learning a lot about this team as you move along here uh Scott Simpson I have a question is it a smart move to let Jake play most of that game I wish we would have seen more of Gary in the second half here's my little thought on this I don't have any inside Intel so this is just me speculating and spitballing here BYU has stuff for Gary in the Playbook as the second string quarterback I think most notably QB run RPO action type stuff to take advantage of his legs you didn't want to put it on tape tonight against Southern Illinois deploy it against the likes of SMU deploy it against Kansas State you hold on to that stuff you didn't need it in this game keep it in reserve keep it in that Playbook and when you need to unleash it then it's a real surprise for posing teams the SMU team will obviously be spec looking at everything be wayu did in this game in some ways keeping Gary quote unquote Under Wraps here Scott actually a bit of a a chess move if you will playing chess versus playing checkers that's just that's a personal opinion on that matter uh Mark Paris the feeling after this game compared to the first game last year is a night and day difference completely agree was 14 nothing last year remember BYU opened the season last year going right down the field punched it in for seven nothing lead on Sam Houston State and then the rest of the game muster just seven more points it was a it was a really Hollow feeling last year against Sam Houston no such luck it's a good feeling coming out of this one I really really liked what I saw from BYU uh Josh Glenn seven of 15 on third down against an FCS school not ideal yeah you don't want to be sub 50% on third down I I get that but the bigger number three of four on fourth down and the funny thing about it is colani actually got conservative at times and it bit him in the butt remember they had a fourth and three if I recall when uh they had will faren missed that 36 yard field goal you think K regrets not going for it there uh they were 75% on fourth down I'll take it and by the way one other note BYU that first drive two fourth down conversions on that I think the fourth down conversions on that drive or as much a statement to colani from colani to his own team as it was to Southern Illinois he said we're gonna be aggressive we're gonna push the envelope you guys get the job done that was a message I think made early on in this game and I think the team resp responded very very positively overall uh Brandon Clark curious what was like to have a headset on offense and defense I'll defer to Connor's thoughts on this when he joins us on the podcast because he was there hearing the calls uh come from Jake who had the headset in his helmet so I'll defer that answer until next week on that one Brandon I I like that uh let's see here Spencer Spencer Gonzalez by the way a new member of our lockdown cougars Insider group literally mid game Spencer had a great chat with you appreciate your feedback you are you were really welcome to be with us and I'm glad you joined mid game uh love the Unis I thought it was a good uni combo I agree with him on that much to prove on the rest sure there is plenty to prove because once again this is the weakest opponent on paper BYU's one and0 there's 11 more games to go folks and trust me level of difficulty it ratchets up to another level beating next week against SMU so I I feel like there is as uh Spencer says there's plenty to prove and I like that I like the fact there's plenty for BYU to work on going forward here uh let's see here other comments no way this kind of game occurs in the Big 12 how does this translate to the Big 12 that comes from Danny uh that's a good question I don't think we'll really know until they take on Kansas State I think BYU just looking at the at paper right now because if you paid attention Wyoming got absolutely curb stomped by Arizona State in their opener by you should be feeling pretty confident I think right now going into that game against Wyoming up there in laramy now playing on the road versus playing at home that's two very different things but uh really I think I don't think the answer can be addressed adequately adequately Danny until we actually see them take on a big 12 team and that will come on September 21st when they take on uh the Kansas State Wildcats uh Matt Moon I'm actually impressed we overd delivered on expectations handily beat the spread and put up a good amount of points I want to see the o line dominate a little bit more they didn't complete dispel all the negative talk he says LJ Martin is good I I no disagreement on any of that I don't think anything of that wrong I think that Connor will tell you he he he doesn't think that that offensive line performance was anywhere near what he wanted it to be but there's still plenty of work uh to H to go and I'm sure that BYU they're not going to walk out of that uh team room after that game thinking you know what we're we're good we we figured it all out we're we're Geniuses that's not going to be the mentality of this team so I thought it was a very solid performance all right uh got time for one more comment here I'm just going to scroll through here uh okay good one here we'll finish up with this from Tyson I have a lot more faith in the team after tonight I know that we have a tough schedule speaking of BYU but I now believe we can make a bll game if we can stay healthy it's a very underrated point there BYU came out of this game so far as I know with no major injuries it's been a relatively injury free Camp as well Sans the injury uh to Joe Brown with his knee that is a positive thing if BYU can remain healthy they're gonna have a Fighting Chance down the stretch and obviously we'll see how it all shakes out uh next week Friday game SMU 5:00 mountain time kickoff we'll have plenty of coverage in the week to come once again I'm going to go back and watch this game tomorrow speaking of Sunday it's actually probably going to come out uh Sunday when you guys he and or watch this but I'll have a full recap for you guys on our Monday Edition the podcast podcast of my film review I do it every single game I go back and watch it in its entirety and write down stuff that I see and learn from a second viewing of the game if not a third because I seem to rewind a lot in those film reviews but nonetheless we'll have plenty for you guys on our next Edition officially our Monday edition of the podcast so big thank you as always for all of your support once again over a hundred different messages of reaction cannot thank you guys enough we are building a really really strong Community here with lockon cougars and it's all thanks to all y'all so appreciate all of it I really do and thank you once again for making lockon cougars your first View and or listen of the day and of course thanks to all of you who are everyday with us right here on the lockon Cougars podcast