BYU football beat writer Jared Lloyd gives his grades for the Cougar position units and coaches for Saturday’s game against Boise State at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo:

Quarterback

Jaren Hall finished 22-of-37 for a career high 302 yards with a touchdown and an interception, which aren’t terrible numbers. The problem was that he struggled to get the Cougars into the end zone. He wasn’t the danger running the ball as he has been in the past and that didn’t help.

Grade: C

Running back

Tyler Allgeier and Lopini Katoa had been so reliable that it was almost shocking that the duo put the ball on the turf three times. BYU only managed 111 yards on the ground and neither back had a rush for more than 13 yards, although Allgeier did get a touchdown. This was definitely a performance those two would prefer to forget.

Grade: D

Wide receivers/tight ends

Puka Nacua, Samson Nacua, Dallin Holker, Neil Pau’u and Gunner Romney came up with nice catches and rarely missed bringing it in on catchable throws. While the blocking might have been better, this group wasn’t the main reason BYU struggled to score.

Grade: C+

Offensive line

This group struggled much more than expected to open up holes for the BYU running backs, often getting beaten to the spot by Boise State players anticipating the play. The pass protection was generally pretty good but this group also had some costly penalties that hurt the Cougars.

Grade: D+

Defensive line

As good as the Cougar defensive line was at stopping Utah State’s run game, it struggled mightily against the Broncos. Boise State rushed for 140 yards and was able to get some key third downs to keep drives alive. It didn’t seem to matter whether BYU brought three, four or five guys either.

Grade: D+

Linebackers

Pepe Tanuvasa came up with a key sack but this unit can’t be happy with its performance. It wasn’t able to fill the gaps in the run game consistently, although it did do better near the goal line to force Boise State to kick four field goals.

Grade: D

Secondary

The Cougars had some key pass breakups but also gave up some deep passes in crucial times. There were some costly penalties as well, although some were questionable. Boise State only had 172 yards passing, a third of which came on two plays.

Grade: C+

Special teams

This was about as poor of a special teams performance as BYU has seen in awhile. The Cougars bobbled a punt, fumbled the ball on a kickoff return and brought the ball out from deep in the end zone only to have a penalty push them back inside the 10 yards line. Jake Oldroyd made his field goal attempt but even Ryan Rehkow was somewhat pedestrian with his only punt netting just 36 yards.

Grade: D-

Coaching

While many fans disparaged the Cougar game plan, it’s tough to blame it for four turnovers. Boise State was much better prepared for BYU’s playcalling on both sides of the ball than the Cougars were for what the Broncos were doing. The sequences around the goal line and the fourth-and-2 call were ineffective at best, while the defense took a long time to figure out what it need to do to stop the Boise State run game.

Grade: D

Newsletter