Stat Of The Week: BYU

This week's key Stat of the Week in our opinion is BYU's loss of 25 players, 14 of which were starters, to graduation last year.  This will lead to an easy Bruin victory and the obvious 2-0 start.  We have addressed BYU's rebuilding year already a few times because we think it will be that important to the outcome of the game.  The BYU offense in particular lost all its key players, including their outstanding 2nd most prolific QB in their QB rich history, their school record holding running back, and 3 receivers.  In other words, all their game breakers.  They have new additions to their OL, and despite their good size a couple are underclassman that we can exploit.  Our experienced and sack-producing DL should rattle the new Sophomore QB Max Hall much like they did Booty last year.  Get to Hall early and he will never get a rhythm going.  We just can't see any way this young and inexperienced BYU team can come into the Rose Bowl and have any success against our talented and heavily experienced defense.

On the defensive side of the ball, BYU returns 7 starters including a very strong linebacking corps that helped produce the nations #31 best rushing defense.  Their OL is young and includes a freshman and they play a 3-4-4 set. That will open up the running lanes a little bit for our backs and our OL can continue their push to become a run oriented line.  We just don't see BYU with youth and inexperience getting to BO or hurrying him that much, unless they blitz often with their linebackers (and they probably will) … in which case Dorrell and Norvell better be prepared with some quick passes to beat them.  Sure, we most likely won't get big runs like we did last week but we will be able to move the ball relatively easily.  The BYU secondary was a weak spot of the team last year.  They are relatively experienced but still not that great (#65 in the nation last year), and they are also small.  Our tall group of receivers should be able to get some good looks like they did against the small Stanford secondary last week.  They may not have as much time if blitzes are thrown at BO but again if Dorrell and Norvell plan accordingly our receivers should be getting a lot of catches Saturday.

Overall, as we said last year, BYU is in rebuilding mode and they are coming into the Rose Bowl with too many new faces to beat our experience and talent.  They will be a tougher test than Stanford but we see the same result.  Our prediction: UCLA 31, BYU 10. 

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