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

Quarterback

Jake Ratzlaff showed he can run but the biggest question mark for him is his decision-making. His first throw was an interception and he only had six yards passing in the first half. He’s still got a lot of growing to do to be ready to be consistently effective at the Division I level.

Grade: D+

Running back

Aidan Robbins started with a big run, while LJ Martin had a couple of nice carries as well. When there were holes to run through, the Cougars did OK. The problem was there were limited holes and since BYU fell behind, it couldn’t run as much.

Grade: C-

Wide receivers/tight ends

BYU had too many drops but there were also a lot of passes that weren’t on target. Kody Epps caught a deep ball and Isaac Rex had a touchdown on a trick play, but this group could’ve done more.

Grade: D

Offensive line

BYU had above-average success on the ground, but most of it came on the first drive when the Cougars gained 70 yards on the ground. It took until the game was out of reach to double that total as the line continues to be inconsistent.

Grade: D-

Defensive line

The Cougar defensive line again struggled to identify the play and either set the edge or fill their gaps. Too often they found themselves out of position, giving up chunks of yardage to Iowa State. Tyler Batty had a sack, but also had an unnecessary roughing the passer play.

Grade: F

Linebackers

AJ Vongphachanh led the team with eight tackles and there were a couple of stops behind the line of scrimmage, but as a unit this group was ineffective. It frequently failed to shed blocks or make plays.

Grade: F

Secondary

Crew Wakely and Ethan Slade were again among the team leaders in tackles but this unit failed to make much of an impact in either the run or the pass game. It often took poor angles or missed tackles, while also failing to find the ball in the air.

Grade: F

Special teams

Two kickoffs fumbles early were brutal for the Cougars and the BYU punt coverage gave up a big gain after the Iowa State returner initially muffed the kick. Some nice kickoff returns in the second half and Ryan Rehkow’s punting nudged this grade up a little bit.

Grade: D-

Coaching

The Cougars can’t say they were surprised by the deficiencies in all three phases because they played similarly the week before. To win games against decent teams, BYU needs to out-execute opponents and they aren’t even close to doing that consistently. The coaching staff needs to shoulder a lot of the responsibility for that.

Grade: F

Newsletter