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As BYU prepares for Friday night's home meeting with Middle Tennessee, the Cougars are pulling up the rear in the national passing stats--unfamiliar territory for a program credited with helping to introduce high-octane aerials to the modern college game.
Offensive coordinator Robert Anae, who as a lineman blocking for some of the school's most prolific quarterbacks in the 1980s, is acutely aware of the struggles and the stats, and acknowledges that ranking 123rd of 123 FBS teams in pass efficiency is "kind of a sign of the stage of where we're at right now."
"The pass game has not been effective," said Anae after Tuesday's practice, "and the run game has been spotty as well. It has got to be tightened down on all levels."
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Quarterback Taysom Hill has yet to record a 40% completion rate in any game this season, completing only 40 of 114 pass attempts (35.1%) with a single touchdown and three interceptions.
Anae says the fault is certainly not Hill's alone, noting that the offensive line and receivers in particular also need to do their jobs at a higher level.
"It has got to start with protection," said Anae. "A lot of the time Taysom has been harassed, and if that's a consistent deal for a young quarterback, he's not trusting what's going on down-field, and he's barely trusting what's going on in front of him."
Anae said that "symptoms of an ailing offense start with your guys up front; that's football--it really does start in the trenches."
"Before we jump to conclusions about Taysom Hill, we have to grow as an offensive unit. Pass efficiency is a characteristic of where we're at."
About the pass catchers, and BYU's anecdotal increase in the team drop-rate through three games, Anae said "any drop is never acceptable. Right now we're looking for guys to take charge of that part, and show up and be guys. When you get a chance to make a play, make a play."
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BYU is running more plays at a faster pace than any other team in the country, but the suggestion that slowing down might benefit Hill or the offense is rejected by BYU's play-caller.
"We'd still have the same problems" with a slower pace, Anae said on Tuesday. "It would still be an efficiency deal, in my opinion. Whether you go fast or go slow, that's a team-culture thing. It's our job right now on offense to execute, whether you go fast or slow."
"If you have the same symptoms in one tempo, they're certainly going to follow you in the other."
Hill said the pace of the team's offensive improvement has been slower than the pace of play on the field, and that is going to have to change for BYU to dig out of its 1-2 start to the season.
"There needs to be some urgency in the way we go about things," Hill said after practice, "and there definitely has been, but the execution portion of things needs to start to catch up with how fast we're going on all levels."
Head coach Bronco Mendenhall, in our weekly one-one-one conversation, said Hill's current struggles are not down to his performance alone.
"I love Taysom's leadership," said Mendenhall, "I love his accountability and I love his resolve. He's becoming the catalyst for others looking to (see) how hard to work."
"When our offensive front, our receivers and running backs make the right decisions and execute at a level similar to Taysom, it'll reflect better on him."
"I do believe we're accomplished in the team-culture part of going fast and going hard," says Anae. "Guys are really trying. The execution is not there."
"The goal is to get better. When it flips on and looks magic, I don't have a timetable. I do know that the players are committed."
Anae knows there is a certain danger in automatically assuming that play volume will equate to productivity. While most of 2012's fastest teams did score a lot of points and win a lot of games, the two teams which ran the very most plays per game and took the fewest seconds between plays both ended last season with losing records.
"The implication is to confuse activity with results," Anae says, "and that is certainly what we're not trying to do."
"One piece of the puzzle is heading in the right direction...the other piece is not where it needs to be."
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You can hear interviews with Anae, Hill and running back Adam Hine in "Cougar Cuts," above left.
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