before the season started.

The defensive line doesn't have a lot of talent. It almost all went up North. I like Batty, he plays hard. I like Nelson, he does the same. Bagnah and the rest are doing their best. I am not calling them out. They have far exceeded my expectations. But look up the recruiting numbers for our D-line. It has been horrible until last year.

Our offensive line is a make shift group. Etienne has far outplayed his last two years at this level. He was a project who is finally starting to pay off. Lapuaho has been pretty much a constant, he is a Utah State transfer. Jatta was a transfer. Keim is an in house guy who has more than paid his dues. Pay is another guy who has been around. Mitchell has been good despite the fact that he was a 2 star guy. Where is the highly rated Spencer Fano? Gone. About the freshman All-American Campbell Barrington? Or 2016 commit Jaren Kump? These are the guys I expected to be leading our OL and yet here we are playing well with the guys we have. Slowly we need to build our pipeline back up. Guys like Brown and Thomason should start to make an influence sooner than later. Obviously the two 4 star guys this year will contribute in a big way when they get to Provo.

Our QB room has been poor. We once had recruit Zach Wilson, recruit Jaren Hall and transfer Baylor Romney who played in 3 consecutive seasons for us.

Now? We have starter Jake Retzlaff in his 2nd year in the program. Fennegan who is in his 3rd year but was never really going to start. Bohanon who was a hired gun for a year. Hillstead who is in his first year with us. And a few guys from the last two recruiting classes. Basically no one we recruited to be a starter out of high school at this point is even vying for the job.

Defensively? We got Taggart to transfer! Woohoo! Not sure why Tuiaki didn't recruit him in the first place. Jack Kelly and Margue Collins from Weber State of all places. Crew Wakely and Jakob Robinson from Utah State. I believe Tanner Wall was a walk-on. These are not blue chippers.

These are the reasons that I was down on the team to start the season. So for BYU coaches to lift this group (and all credit to the players as well) to a 9-2 record is amazing. They have done an amazing job. Could they be better? Of course. Any coach can be in hindsight. But to take this group to 9-2 is incredible. If we want continued success we need this to transfer even more to recruiting (and yes transfers like Taggart definitely count towards that).