What is speed?

Seriously what do YOU think speed means? Let's chat footspeed first, then come to an understanding of what real GAME SPEED and TEAM SPEED actually mean because (and I mean no offense) fans really don't know these answers.

Is 4.4 to 4.5 speed considered fast? YES! IN FACT, that is SEC fast. Almost every player in BYU's 3 deep secondary has that kind of footspeed. More important is that BYU's CBs and Safeties are bigger than or at least average sized (ht+wt) so their PAD SPEED (PS = FS dressed in uniform, helmet & pad) is close to top end.

How many teams from the ACC, AAC, Sun-Belt and SEC are faster in the D-backfield? Not many, very few actually. How many are faster at LB when 4.6 is probably above average speed with the current group at BYU? Again, not many, few in fact. BYU has way above average FS.

It cracks me up when I read comments about BYU's purportedly slow athletes. In the last 5 recruiting classes at Alabama coming out of high school, they had only about 12 commits that ran a 4.5 40 or faster.

BYU does NOT have a FOOT SPEED (FS) problem on D.

Now what about DECISION SPEED (DS)?

The field decision side of the "speed equation" is every bit as important. DS is generally a product of mental commitment and coaching. Alabama and Clemsen have incredible coaching staffs. They maximized decision speed. But what is DS?

A player example is Jerry Rice, the greatest receiver of all time. He was so slow of foot (FS) you could time his 40 with a calendar. OK, not that slow, but he ran a 4.7 40. Yet he also ran free in NFL defenses for more than a dozen seasons because he kept faster defenders confused. He ran routes based on what he learned about who he faced. He figured them out on film long before he face them and their mental weaknesses at decision making OTF.

Great defenders make great decisions with high efficiency in short order. GAME SPEED (GS) is what matters. You can have all 4.3 guys in a Defensive backfield (FYI NOBODY DOES) but if they have not studied their opponent or worked ther brain and muscle memory in film rooms they get themselves a big old "L" on the field. FYI, there aren't more than 6-8 guys in all of FBS CFB that actually run 4.3 40's. Most of them play offense or special teams.

BYU's number of and quality of its 4.4-4.5 guys would rival most SEC programs and BYU's LB's are similarly swift, especially in ways a football athlete needs to perform. Real GS comes as a result of making good decisions fast and flying to where the ball will be after the snap. Great GS comes when every defender does his specific job with discipline. Film prep is by the third game usually far more important to the GS equation because technique is learned.

Real good TEAM SPEED (TS) occures OTF when every player is exercising their best possible GS at once.

GS = FS (or PS in uni, helmet & pads) + DS (decision speed).

TS = Sum(GS[1] + GS[2] + GS[n = 11 players])

When a fan says a player, position group or team looks slow, more often than not they think the playing personnel are slow footed, when in reality the GS for certain players are just slow at making correct decisions and thus, look slow vs opposing players.

GAME EXAMPLES: At the beginning of the season, Michigan loses to Appalachian State and Oregon in games 1&2 of the 2007 season. The team is condemned, called slow by CBS and ABC announcers. 3 months later, the same team beats the snot out of defending NC Florida in the Gator Bowl that same season, somehow got really fast. It was never about lack of athleticism for Michigan. It was about the DS part if the GS and TS equations.

Now on offense, BYU has some break away speed burners, but Katoa is not one of them. McChesnie (injured) and Alligerie do have that kind of speed in pads. But put some players in pads seem to lose it. Jackson for example was dragged down from behind by a DE in the Navy game after one catch. His pad speed needs to improve and that comes from strength and conditioning work.

One more thing. Real 4.5 40's are actually really fast and not very common among most programs. BYU has a lot of 4.5 guys for an FBS level program. In the past, some guys that ran sub/= 4.5 40's includes Cody Hoffnan, Ross Apo and my favorite long strider, Mitch Matthew's. The keep there is the long stride.

People assume FS comes from HIP ROTATION SPEED (HRS) only. But that is not the only part of the equation. Hip rotation drives the angular distance achieved between toe to toe stride measure. Speed at distance intervals comes as a result of adding the HIP ROTATION SPEED (HRS) to the STRIDE DISTANCE (SD) and that's how you find real FOOT SPEED (FS). Why is that important?

FS = HRS + SD

Tall guys like Mitch Matthew's (6'-6") did not have as high a hip rotation speed and thus LOOKED slow. But their long legs meant each hip rotation covered say 40 - 50% more distance than some 5'-9" dude with faster hips. A player with slower rotating hip motion will always look slower mechanically to the naked eye. But a tall player with their stride being longer makes up for it. NBA players never seem to look as fast as say football or baseball players and yet in foot races often are as fast/faster. Stride distance (SD) is an important component in generating footspeed.

FYI - Overall BYU actually has top 15 TEAM SPEED (TS) and if you ask most coaches, that has been the case for most seasons in the last 40 years. Rarely has BYU lacked good FS. In poor showing games or overall bad defensive years like last season, DS and poor play calls were the issue, not foot speed.

Great TS occurs when ALL speed components are aggregated in every player OTF for every play. In the NAVY GAME BYU had two poor decision plays put of nearly 60. Teams with only 1 error every 20 plays are going to win a lot of football games. GS and TS matter. I suspect Troy has good FS. GS may be a different story. Also Size matters. You can have great FS, and DS but if you get knocked on your butt by a good offensive player/or the other way around, speed doesn't matter, you are out of the play.