Regardless of what you think of Sitake, I think his in-game coaching depends heavily on analytics and also under Sitake BYU tends to play a lot of close games. BYU also gives up a lot of time-consuming drives to opposing offenses thus limiting our own offense's number of possessions mostly because BYU appears to play a fairly conservative brand of defense and rarely stacks the box even on short-yardage or goal line situations.

Here's where I lay the blame for these last 2 losses:

1) Defensive line recruiting. This is BY FAR the biggest area of concern under Sitake. Recruiting was absolutely abysmal when Lamb & Tuiaki were running things and even under Hill recruiting is still pretty average. This is the biggest area of improvement needed. This year far too often opposing teams RBs or running QBs don't even face contact until 3-5 yards from the LOS. That's just not good period. And yesterday was not the only game this was an issue. BYU also continues to be near the bottom in sacks which is another concerning trend under Sitake.

2) Oline rush blocking. Again, it seems to me that BYU has major issues just lining up and running the football. I think this is a major reason why the red zone offense has sputtered down the stretch. Arod may not be the greatest play caller but one reason he doesn't just line up and run the football is because I don't believe he thinks it's very effective. This would explain some of the questionable play calling in the red zone. Red zone TD efficiency depends a lot on the opposing defense having to account for the run. With BYU, opposing defense don't really have to worry so much about that.

3) QB play. Jake Retzlaff is a gamer but also simply does not have consistently good mechanics/throwing motion. Also, a lot of the drops BYU's receivers have are because his passes either lack touch and/or accuracy. He's been a fun guy to watch and root for but with him at QB you also have a lower ceiling. With that said, if BYU was better in the trenches on both sides of the ball, BYU would probably be undefeated because we wouldn't need to depend so often on his throwing abilities.

Overall Sitake is a great ambassador for the program but he really needs to step up in getting better athletes on the defensive line. It's actually pretty amazing BYU has won as many games as they have with such porous d-line talent. I'm sure the guys we have work their butts off and it's not their fault at all. But BYU needs way more toughness and athleticism in order to compete even in a Big XII that has no elite programs. And it might be a blessing in disguise that BYU didn't face Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl this year as that would likely have been a bloodbath.