Thoughts from the WSU-BYU game

Photo by Deseret News

BYU 30, WSU 6

After months and months of anticipation, it is so great to start off the season with a win against a BCS opponent, even if it is just Washington State.

As confident as a lot of the fans (myself included) were, I started to get legitimately nervous as the kickoff approached. And the first drive for each team did nothing to put out that fire of nervousness. But BYU's defense and offense both took over the game.

Now that the first game of the season is over, I can start moping around the house, because the next game (vs. Weber State) is more than a week away.

Anyway, here are some thoughts from the game:

• For the first time in a long time, the BYU secondary lived up to a great amount of preseason hype. I constantly read how amazing and deep the secondary was going to be, and they look very solid against Mike Leach's offense.

• It takes time to learn Leach's offense. Not to take anything away from BYU's defense, but WSU's lack of execution is one of the reasons it won't look this bad again this season. They don't face a lot of defense as good as BYU, and they will learn the offense. It. Takes. Time.

• That said, BYU only allowed 224 total yards from WSU. To give you an idea of how awesome that is, you should know that last year's defense - which was really good - gave up 90 MORE yards a game. And this was against a team with a top-35 offense last year. That's impressive.

• Riley has to be more careful . . . probably. I know he was motivated by some of the comments from WSU people during the week, but for heaven's sake, Riley! Please stop leading with your head so much! Every time I saw it last night, I was frightened. I know he's tough and that's Riley being Riley, but with all of the concussion stuff we hear about and what happened to Jason Street from "Friday Night Lights"? I just think he should be more careful. Also, I wouldn't hate it if Bronco took Riley out when we're up 24 points with 4 minutes left, but that's just me.

• If Cody Hoffman is going to be hurt this year - and it is only one time in the season - aren't we glad it was last night? We clearly didn't need him to win that game (and I think we're a lot closer to 40 points if he's healthy), and we definitely won't need him against Weber State. He can rest and be healthy for the Utah game - and we'll need him then.

• Speaking of WRs, how about that Skyler FREAKING Ridley?!?!?! Think it's safe to say we were all surprised to see he step up the way he did, right? His touchdown surprised me, but everything he did afterwards is what really surprised me. I didn't even know he'd see the field.

• Back to Riley, his goal is a completion percentage of at least 70%, and his completion percentage last night was 69.4%. His QB rating was 154.3, which is very solid. Hopefully, he'll keep it up.

• Kyle Van Noy is very good at playing football.

• We have a pass-catching tight end again - even if he does look at little bit like Uncle Jesse from "Full House." Great job by Kaneakua Friel last night.

• OH! And Taysom Hill! That was awesome!

Things look very good for this season. What did you think of the game?

Cougaracity Game Predictions: Wash St. @ BYU

Game day is upon us, and it's time for our picks for the game tonight, so let's do this:

Preston Johnson (@prestonvjohnson)
Washington St. goes to Provo to take on BYU this Thursday in the season opener. Washington St. has a new, familiar coach in Mike Leach taking over the squad. We all know his offensive mind should help the Washington St. offense grow and improve... eventually. Right now, however, in the very first game of the season with a new coach, on the road, against a tough BYU defense, I don't expect that Washington St. will be able to recreate that firepower that Leach consistently showed us at Texas Tech. Senior Jeff Tuel is the strength of the offense at QB, but he has young talent surrounding him at WR and it will probably take some time before they are firing on all cylinders. The Washington St. defense has recently switched to a 3-4 due to the lack of talent on the defensive line and I expect BYU to exploit that. BYU should rush for 200+ yards and control the ball for the majority of the game. Final prediction: BYU 38, WSU 17

Jake Welch (@jraywelch)
I would love for this to be the barn burner that everything thinks this game might be but the first game of the season is always a little slow out of the gate. The first few series will yield few points and both teams will have miscues. After a Riley Nelson interception that will lead to the entire west side of the stands calling for Taysom Hill, BYU will bounce back and have a 14-10 lead at half. BYU will hold the lead and the "Air Raid" offense won't fully click for the Cougars in red. Final Prediction: BYU 28, WSU 17

BOLD STATEMENT: Watch for really weird things on special teams. I'm not going to say what exactly, but watch out for them.

Scott Gower (@smg1981)
Even though Washington State has spent recent seasons in the cellar of the Pac-10/12, I've heard a lot about the other Cougars' offense. Their offense was actually good, and they went out and got one of the best offensive minds in Mike Leach. He's a great coach and all, but how much could he possibly improve an offense - by Week 1, mind you - that was already good last year? My guess is not much. It's a complicated offense that takes time to master. And as good as their offense is, I think BYU's defense is better. And BYU's offense? Much better than WSU's defense. Our offense isn't typically explosive during the first game of the season, but it will get the job done. I think the running game will play a larger role than people think. In fact, we might semi-rely on it to get the offense going. Final Prediction: BYU 34, WSU 20

Daniel Anderson (@d_anderson11)
BYU beats the Mike Leach-led Cougars, 27-17. Leach, offensive wizard that he is, hasn't had enough time to get things going well enough to overcome BYU's stout defense. My guess is that Mike Leach forgot there was a thing called defense, and BYU, despite significant rust, is able to move the ball on Riley Nelson's sheer force of will. Alisa will score, Nelson will score, and Cody Hoffman will have touchdowns. Kyle Van Noy will grind the bones of Washington State running back Carl Winston to make his bread.

Steve Pierce (@steve_pierce, @postjimmer)
Based on recent history, this is a pretty optimistic prediction. After all, remember what we were all saying at this time last year? ("Jake Heaps has had a full summer as the starter. The offense is going to be ridiculous. We're going to hang 50 on Ole Miss.") The fact of the matter is, BYU has developed a nasty habit of starting sloppy (with a few exceptions) in the Mendenhall era. And for some strange reason, I'm actively deciding to ignore all that precedent with this prediction.

I do think that Wazzu will be able to score some points and have some success with their new "Air Raid" system. They have talented receivers and a solid quarterback, and they'll chuck it enough times to break open some big plays against a still-unproven Cougar secondary. However, this will still be their first game under Mike Leach and there will likely be several kinks to be ironed out, which should limit their effectiveness -- not to mention that BYU's front seven should wreak absolute havoc in the backfield and in the flats. They'll have to throw it deep, and they will -- I just don't believe they're quite ready to do it consistently enough.

On the other side of the ball, I'm choosing to believe in Riley Nelson and Company. There's simply too much depth and talent at the receiver position for Wazzu to realistically bottle up BYU's passing game, and if the running backs can establish themselves early as well, look out. I simply don't believe the Pullman Cougs will be good enough defensively to contain what should be an athletic, experienced, and much more self-assured BYU offense in its second year under the leadership of Nelson and Brandon Doman. And if Leach's "Air Raid' isn't quite off the ground yet, that should result in a win (albeit possibly a close one) for our guys. Final Prediction: BYU 34, Washington State 28

Wash St @ BYU: The WSU Football Blog Prediction

Hello all, LucasCoug from WSU Football Blog here. Man, I cannot believe game day is almost upon us.

I really think this BYU game is going to serve as a huge measuring stick for how much the program has changed under Leach in just 9 short months. While it's tough to peg this game as a must win for our post season aspirations, given how daunting our schedule becomes in weeks 7-12, we truly need to make it that far with a minimum 4 wins.

BYU won ten games in 2011 and returns plenty of starters this year. That being said, their 2011 opponents had a combined 90 losses last year, and even with lots of returning players from a double digit win campaign, they clearly aren't thought of too highly from a national perspective as they didn't tally a single vote in the pre-season polls.

Conventional wisdom says whichever team wins 2 of 3 phases in a football game (Offense, Defense, STs), should win most match-ups. I think we have them beat on Offense and they have us beat on Defense. Word out of Provo is BYU had to have open try-outs on campus recently because of an injury to their Kicker. Couple that with solid production from Furney and Bowlin, and I have us winning this phase of the game.

Lastly, let's consider coaching staffs as the XFactor. While at New Mexico as DCoord, Bronco Mendenhall and the Lobos lost to Leach/TTU all three times they squared off by a combined score of something like 125-30.

Wazzu 38 - CTRBYULDS 24

Player of the Game: Logan Mayes