BYU Offense Looking For Explosive Plays In Fall Camp

PROVO, Utah – Explosive has not been a term that has been used to describe BYU football very often in the Kalani Sitake era.

The best offense BYU has had since Sitake became the head coach, was in Kalani’s first season in 2016.  That year BYU averaged 29.8 points per game, which was good for 62nd in the country.

Last year, BYU averaged 27.2 points per game, ranking 79th nationally.  The 2017 season was an outlier for the Cougars where they were in the bottom 10 and averaged 17.1 points per game.

Needless to say, BYU needs more points this season if they want to make progress in 2019.

Explosive plays will help BYU’s cause in getting more wins this season and through one week of fall camp, offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes is pleased with what he is seeing so far.

“So we’ve really tried to emphasize a couple of things and areas that were our weakest points last year, one of those was explosive plays,” said Grimes.  “We’ve charted it every day and we’ve had as many as 19 in one practice and the fewest we’ve had is seven and the average is probably 11 or 12 per day.  Which out of 60 or 70 snaps, the ratio is better than at any time since I’ve been here.”

Jeff Grimes notes:

– BYU has had 10-11 explosive plays a practice out of 60-70 total plays which is the ratio the offense is hoping for.

– BYU was 6-0 when 41% or better on 3rd downs in 2018. 1-6 when worse than 41%. Well then.#BYUFOOTBALL

— Jarom Jordan (@jaromjordan) August 8, 2019

Passing plays are usually considered explosive if they are more than 25 yards and explosive rushing yardage is in the variety of 10 yards or more.

That’s a positive sign for BYU’s offense as they are the only program in college football that opens up the 2019 season against four teams from Power Five conferences.

Some of the players that will be looked upon to provide those “explosive” plays include quarterback Zach Wilson, running backs Lopini Katoa, Ty’Son Williams, tight end Matt Bushman, and wide receivers Talon Shumway and Gunner Romney.

In three weeks, we will see if the explosive production continues against rival Utah at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.