Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

Daily Herald sports writers Darnell Dickson and Jared Lloyd give their opinions on the hot BYU sports topics this week:

1. Where do you rank former Cougar Andy Reid among the top all-time NFL coaches after winning his third Super Bowl?

DICKSON: You mean would I rank him ahead of my Cowboys coaches (Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson)? Y’all know where my loyalties lie.

But seriously, Reid has been an amazing NFL coach. He seems like a real one, if you know what I mean, and his players really excel in his system.

Certainly Bill Belichick deserves accolades in the modern NFL era for winning six Super Bowls. It helps that he had one of the GOATs at quarterback in Tom Brady, but Belichick also did it with a variety of strengths and weaknesses at other positions. I’m seeing the same thing from Reid, who has benefited from the big-game ability of Patrick Mahomes.

Even at 65, Reid appears to be going strong and it doesn’t look like BYU fans will ever get their wish that he would come back to Provo to take over the Cougars. But one can dream, right?

Courtesy BYU Athletics

LLOYD: Winning a championship in any sport requires a lot of things to go right, but the margin of error is much smaller in sports like the NFL and the NCAA basketball tournament (as well as the upcoming expanded College Football Playoff) because playing poorly for just a few minutes can dash all your dreams.

So when a coach wins three Super Bowls in five years, you have to admire what an impressive accomplishment it is. But Andy Reid has much more on his résumé than just those titles.

In 25 years as a head coach in the NFL, his teams have won their division 14 times, reached the Super Bowl five times and reached the semifinal round 10 times. Those indicate to me a man who understands what it takes to get a team to excel consistently, which is not easy.

On a personal note, I’ve had the chance to talk to Reid a couple of times. I’ve admired how he treats everyone with respect.

I think GOAT arguments are fun discussions for those with similar interests to have around the water cooler or at family gatherings — but there is no way to truly compare coaches.

Still, Reid certainly deserves to be in those discussions because he has had one heck of a career.

2. We’re just sports writers, but how would we fix the second half issues for BYU men’s basketball?

LLOYD: I have to shake my head when I hear Cougar fans bemoaning how their team gave up big leads … as if the opponent’s fans weren’t just as upset for seeing their team fall behind in the first place.

Look, things can change quickly in basketball, particularly with teams that can knock down 3-pointers. Two stops and three treys can mean a 10-point lead is down to just one in less than a minute of action.

And there really isn’t any need to reiterate this but Big 12 teams are good. Getting down often means they are going to fight harder, not just roll over.

I’m confident that BYU head coach Mark Pope and his players know that, just as they know that a game is 40 minutes long and what matters is who has the most points when the buzzer sounds, not when they got them.

Courtesy BYU Photo

I think the Cougars have athletes who are capable of stepping up in pressure situations, but they need to do it in a way that builds the entire team. Trying to do everything themselves causes even more problems.

The key for the Cougars is to focus on playing smart basketball. That’s what I seen BYU missing when they let some of these leads evaporate. There have been bad passes, rushed shots, poor footwork on defense and failures to box out on rebounds.

Minimizing those and playing solid will result in more wins and fewer tense moments down the stretch.

DICKSON: It is a conundrum, isn’t it? BYU is good enough to get double digit leads on just about every team it plays but seems to play differently in the second half. Or maybe its the opponent that plays differently.

Certainly UCF put some magical things together in the game’s last five minutes and started making shots it hadn’t made all game. The Knights were 6 for 22 from the 3-point line and four of those makes came in the final minute of the game.

To be honest, I’m not sure Mark Pope and his coaching staff can do anything to fix this problem permanently. It might be a situation where the more you focus on it the more the players start to second guess themselves.

I think this is something the players have to work out. They are aware of it and they know what has to be done down the stretch to secure a win: Take care of the basketball and make free throws. That’s Basketball 101.

3. How have Amber Whiting and the BYU women’s basketball team been able to win three games in a row in Big 12 play?

DICKSON: It may sound corny, but the Cougars are starting to believe in themselves more and it’s made a big difference.

You have to remember that this team took some pretty hard shots emotionally when three recruits who had committed to the team made other plans in the offseason. Then Ari Mackey-Williams, an experienced guard, tore her ACL. Then returning starting point guard Nani Falatea quit the team midseason.

That forced a lot of pressure on the young backcourt and there have been growing pains. Top recruit Amari Whiting, who missed her entire senior year of high school with an ACL injury, is really starting to grow into the point guard spot and she’s been terrific lately. Fellow freshman Kailey Woolston is starting figure out how to get open against Big 12 defenses and she is a dead-eye shooter.

Coach Amber Whiting recently moved Rose Bubakar into the starting lineup and is bringing Emma Calvert off the bench, and that dynamic is working, too. The players are also figuring out the best ways to get Lauren Gustin the ball and she’s responded with very efficient scoring.

Playing in the Big 12 has been an education and the team is learning important lessons.

LLOYD: Part of what has helped BYU make this little run has been the scheduling.

Yes, the home win over a ranked Baylor team was arguably the best Cougar win all year, but they followed it up with a pair of victories against two teams who have struggled in Big 12 play. Yes, BYU went on the road to beat Cincinnati and UCF, but those two teams are a combined 23-22 overall and 7-19 in league play.

While those facts shouldn’t be ignored, the Cougars should be given credit for being more consistent.

The ball movement has been better with the inside-out combo of Lauren Gustin and shooters like Kailey Woolston and Kaylee Smiler knocking down big shots when the defense sags down on the post. Amari Whiting’s driving ability has been big as well.

But I think even bigger has been the way the BYU defense has improved. The Cougars have done a better job at forcing tough shots and giving up fewer easy looks to opponents during this stretch.

BYU can still reduce the turnovers and increase their offensive cohesion, but it’s certainly fun to see the Cougars show what this team is capable of.

4. Which new football position coach has the tougher job in 2024, T.J. Woods (offensive line) or Kevin Gilbride (tight ends)?

LLOYD: Tough is a relative term for both coaches, since they aren’t exactly coming in to find their units lack talent or experience.

If you are Gilbride, I suspect you are intrigued to see what you can do with Keanu Hill and Jackson Bowers, as well as the others in the room. Woods should have a solid core with Connor Pay, Brayden Keim, Caleb Etienne and Weylin Lapuaho.

The reality, however, is that to me there is a lot more pressure on the offensive line coach, so I give the nod to Woods. His job is to get five guys consistently playing at an elite level both individually and collectively. That’s not easy.

Except in rare circumstances, there are only a couple of tights ends on the field at once and although they do have some blocking responsibilities, their errors aren’t usually as glaring as OL miscues.

DICKSON: The easy answer would be Woods, who has to figure out why the offensive line underperformed last year despite having a probable first round NFL draft choice (Kingsley Suamataia).

But I am fascinated with the tight ends room this year. Gilbride will be without Isaac Rex, who is making a big impression on the all-star game circuit in preparation for the NFL draft. Keanu Hill is moving over from wide receiver but hasn’t played tight end before.

Then there are a couple of superstars-in-waiting in redshirt freshman Jackson Bowers and 2024 commit Ryner Swanson. You could argue that Bowers and Swanson are the top two recruits BYU has ever gotten at the tight end position.

I think Gilbride, with his vast experience in college and NFL coaching, will pick up on Aaron Roderick’s offense pretty quickly. This offense utilizes tight ends as a big play position as opposed to a lot of targets (the most catches Rex ever had was 37 in a season).

On top of all that the Cougars are going to have a quarterback battle. So I think Gilbride has his work cut out for him.

5. It’s way too early to know, but what will the win-loss records be for BYU and Utah football when the two teams meet on Nov. 9?

DICKSON: It’s difficult without really getting the lineups settled, which won’t happen totally until fall camp. We don’t even know who’s going to start at quarterback for BYU, do we? But if I had to guess, I would say the Cougars will be 8-0 and the Utes will be 0-8.

Just kidding. I wouldn’t be surprised if BYU was 6-2 or 7-1 after the first eight games with three of its first four Big 12 games at home. That’s maybe a pipe dream, but I believe in the Cougars ability to hold serve at home. As for Utah, I see a similar start of 6-2 or 7-1.

To be honest, it’s going to be great to have this rivalry in conference play and mean something in the big picture again.

LLOYD: The joys of speculation almost nine months before the date in question, but hey, why not?

The biggest question to me is just how good was the Pac-12? It’s not as simple as national commentators seems to think. They all seem to have Utah pegged as a Top 25 team, despite the fact that their out-of-conference wins in the last few years have been lackluster at best.

Will the Utes be prepared for the challenges of the Big 12? The only reference point we have from 2023 was the win Utah barely managed to get on the road against a pretty mediocre Baylor team. That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

BYU had moments where it competed well in the Big 12 but others where it completely collapsed. What was more telling: the good moments or the struggles?

Given all those factors, I’m going to say both the Cougars and Utes will be OK but not great. For that reason, I say they will both be around .500.

While a battle between teams that are 4-4 or 5-3 won’t be enormous nationally, it sure will be fun to have the rivalry back after the hiatus.

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