Kyle Van Noy watch... BYU/Virginia 11:30 PT on BYUTV ESPNU.

You may have no interest... I've been lambasted a few times for suggesting people check out a BYU game. Last year I suggested it for the chance to watch two guys: 1- Ziggy Ansah 2- Kyle Van Noy. Ansah was a top 5 pick that wasn't even looked at as an UDFA possibility prior to last season. Van Noy has been well known since high school on the west coast, but finally put it together last year.

BYU's defensive coaching is quite tricky.... and they have never come into a season opener where they didn't use their best defensive players in a way that highlighted everything they can do. They watch film on week 1 opponents and then put their guy in a ton of different places to let him go wild in game 1.

So.... last year we got to see Ansah and Van Noy go nuts in week 1 and then continued to adjust and do the same all year.

If you want to see a future all pro...check out Van Noy today. He'll line up at OLB, Safety, "Lobo" (the position invented for Urlacher at New Mexico, but called Cougarback at BYU or KatBack at a lot of other schools). He'll also move up to a rushing defensive end, and will stunt and delay blitz and do zone blitz drops into coverage. I expect a big game. Regardless of the end result... they should put on a good show from Van Noy at least. There are a couple of other guys to watch. Cody Hoffman is a future NFL receiver. About 6'5", great hands, and great speed. Will remind you of Joe J. I think in the way he demands the ball and bounces after the first hit.

Also.... Taysom Hill is a guy that Harbaugh recruited hard at Stanford to be the "next Andrew Luck", but he is more like Tebow that can throw. A friend of mine trains him. Taysom is NFL sized at QB, but runs a 4.4 even after blowing an ACL last year, and has a good arm. He can throw like a decent QB, but his running is quite a thing if he's fully back as I've been told. He went on a church mission and Harbaugh's promised scholly was gone when he returned, so he went to BYU.

Hopefully I'll get to update on Van Noy this year like last. I think he's going to be a really excellent pro in the right defense. In all honesty, the Seahawks 'd' is the most perfect fit for him, and I hope they do what it takes to get him. If not, I just hope he doesn't end up in SF, St. Louis, or Arizona. He can be a terror. He looks smallish, but destroys guys that are bigger than him, and his speed is very deceptive. He's like Bruce Irvin, but with a ton of experience in coverage, and has played at DB, LB and DL pretty seamlessly. He knows the game well.

Update: Hoffman is out. Dangit. There is a freshman named Pili that is a LBer. I hope he gets in. His mom and I are co-teachers. I hope he gets some playing time. He was a highly rated kid coming out of high school in Vegas. Could be a future NFL'er if his family history is any indication. She's a great person to work with, and we are running a cool pilot program for students together. So I would love to see him play and play well for her sake. I'm working in a Poly school now, which is cool. Lots of relatives playing today.

Van Noy played well and was disruptive. Hill sucks. The ACL tear seems to have destroyed his throwing motion and confidence. Van Noy deserves to go to a team with a good offense. After playing in the craphole BYU program with zero offense for 4 years, the guy REALLY deserves it. He has to carry 22 guys every week. Poor kid. I hope he makes it out of the year uninjured and gets a chance at a great NFL career.

I like Van Noy a lot. I think he'll be long gone by the time the Seahawks are on the clock at the draft.

I didn't get to see this game, how did Virginia look? Just asking cuz that's Oregon's opponent next week.

Virginia... absolutely, positively sucks. They are awful. Which doesn't mean much for BYU obviously. You guys will steamroll them. Their run defense is poor. Their pass defense is slightly better, but it won't be against Oregon. They have one decent player, and it is their defensive end who is like 6'8" and gets some pressure and knocks down passes, but Oregon will have zero issue scheming away from him. You'd probably want to be disappointed if you didn't put up at least 45 points on them, and I'd be disappointed if they scored twice on your 'd'.

I think it will be a cakewalk. I look forward to seeing what a team with a good offense does against them. Having an offensive coordinator who is competent will mean a lot, and you obviously do. The QB will be rattled within about 3 series with the way you guys attack. Then it will just snowball. That's my bet. If the line is less than like 28, you could probably make some good money on that game. Haha.

The one thing about Van Noy that plays in the Hawks favor, is that many LBers that stick around are expected to improve by leaps and bounds, and if they don't do much better in their senior year, then teams assume they have hit their ceiling. They don't take into account that some guys want to stay and help their program get through what would be an awful year without them. They feel a connection to teammates and their program. Van Noy is that kind of guy.

Remember how far Matthews dropped in the draft? A lot of guys thought he was just a system guy, or that he had already peaked in college. He has been a much better pro than many predicted. I think Van Noy has a very high ceiling, and he could easily be there in the 20's or even later because he is considered undersized. The thing Ziggy had going for him was his size and athleticism. He was a world class sprinter that happened to weigh 270-ish and is like 6'5" and has just started adding bulk. Van Noy is a tweener, much like Pat Tillman was, and Tillman was told he was too small, and just went and dominated at safety since he was too small to play LBer. I think a smart team would draft him high, but his size and sticking around for 4 years may hurt his stock actually.

Good luck against Virginia. You won't need it... but I hope you demolish them... if for no other reason than to show BYU's AD (Tom Holmoe) what an idiot he is for re-hiring Robert Anae to be offensive coordinator after firing him 2 years ago. Sheesh.

SharkHawk":36mewoci said:

Virginia... absolutely, positively sucks. They are awful. Which doesn't mean much for BYU obviously. You guys will steamroll them. Their run defense is poor. Their pass defense is slightly better, but it won't be against Oregon. They have one decent player, and it is their defensive end who is like 6'8" and gets some pressure and knocks down passes, but Oregon will have zero issue scheming away from him. You'd probably want to be disappointed if you didn't put up at least 45 points on them, and I'd be disappointed if they scored twice on your 'd'.

I think it will be a cakewalk. I look forward to seeing what a team with a good offense does against them. Having an offensive coordinator who is competent will mean a lot, and you obviously do. The QB will be rattled within about 3 series with the way you guys attack. Then it will just snowball. That's my bet. If the line is less than like 28, you could probably make some good money on that game. Haha.

The one thing about Van Noy that plays in the Hawks favor, is that many LBers that stick around are expected to improve by leaps and bounds, and if they don't do much better in their senior year, then teams assume they have hit their ceiling. They don't take into account that some guys want to stay and help their program get through what would be an awful year without them. They feel a connection to teammates and their program. Van Noy is that kind of guy.

Remember how far Matthews dropped in the draft? A lot of guys thought he was just a system guy, or that he had already peaked in college. He has been a much better pro than many predicted. I think Van Noy has a very high ceiling, and he could easily be there in the 20's or even later because he is considered undersized. The thing Ziggy had going for him was his size and athleticism. He was a world class sprinter that happened to weigh 270-ish and is like 6'5" and has just started adding bulk. Van Noy is a tweener, much like Pat Tillman was, and Tillman was told he was too small, and just went and dominated at safety since he was too small to play LBer. I think a smart team would draft him high, but his size and sticking around for 4 years may hurt his stock actually.

Good luck against Virginia. You won't need it... but I hope you demolish them... if for no other reason than to show BYU's AD (Tom Holmoe) what an idiot he is for re-hiring Robert Anae to be offensive coordinator after firing him 2 years ago. Sheesh.

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Thanks for the report bud. The only thing i'm worried about is going all the way out to the east coast. We went to Tennessee a few years ago, but this is the farthest trip I can ever remember UO taking.

Should be another blowout though.

It won't be a hard trip. The problem today was weather. There was a 2 and a half hour delay because of lightning, then the game started back up right as flooding rains hit. The humidity and heat were ridiculous before the rain started. As long as it isn't too hot, then no worries. I know the travel and the high temps wreak havoc with some teams. You could beat them with the third stringers playing though.

Kyle Van Noy is an outstanding player and I would love to have him on our team. But, I don't think he'll drop out of the top-15 picks in the 1st round. Yes, he is a little undersized to be an OLB in a 3-4 defense, but he has good size for LB in a 4-3 defense. He is listed at 6-3 245 lbs. which is about the same size as Broncos OLB Von Miller and Rams OLB Alec Ogletree.

If the experiment of Bruce Irvin playing strong side LB works this year, would you still want to draft Van Noy? If Irvin plays well at SLB, then I don't think KJ Wright will be re-signed which will leave a void at weak side LB. If that scenario plays out would you rather draft Van Noy or Alabama LB C.J. Mosley to be our weak side LB? Van Noy is a stud pass rusher and incredibly athletic but has very little experience in coverage; while C.J. Mosley is a less athletic player but much more instinctive LB.

Yes, I still take him. I take best player available regardless of position. That's the way I'd always draft. Van Noy is in coverage a lot when playing Cougarback. They didn't use him there much yesterday....he held the middle zone because Watford kept trying to drop over the middle. He was in coverage a lot his first two seasons but he is also a guy you can hide all over and not suffer a massive dropoff because of his speed and strength and smarts.

I think the height and weight are a bit misleading. He's built skinny, which was the knock on Bobby Wagner too. Kyle isn't built like Von Miller. He's built like Kam. He can be used all over. If we see this year the getting chewed up over the middle by te's yet again (rememeber last drive by ATL)... Then I claw up to get a guy that can blitz, rush off the end, control the run game and run with te's and slot receivers over the middle and close it down. I see no evidence that we have closed the middle and we need it done. If that means more LBer hybrids then so be it.

SharkHawk":2ptgu1cj said:

... if for no other reason than to show BYU's AD (Tom Holmoe) what an idiot he is for re-hiring Robert Anae to be offensive coordinator after firing him 2 years ago. Sheesh.

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Wow. Did Bronco not have much of a say in the matter? I know BYU is a little bit different than many places, but it would suck if Anae was forced upon Bronco. Or did Bronco ask for him, and Holmoe was dumb enough to agree?

Bronco asked for a new offensive coordinator, and his only choice was really Anae, due to BYU's crazy new hiring rules. They are out of this world ridiculous. Seriously, the only other guys that are qualified to be an assistant head coach/coordinator or eventual head coach for BYU right now other than Bronco are 1- Robert Anae 2- Darrell Bevell 3- Ken Niumatololo. Neither Bevell or Niumatalolo would move into an OC job at BYU as it would be a huge step down from OC in Seattle and Head Coach at Navy. So that leaves Anae. The only jobs I can see Bevell or Niumatololo taking at BYU would be head coaching jobs, but they'd have to find a lot more money, as it would be a paycut and they locked Bronco up for 3 more years, so that money is GONE until then. The guy who was in line to take the job (Brandon Doman) was fired by Bronco this past season because he got in a flap with their QB of the future (Heaps) and then balked at running a defensive back in Riley Nelson out at QB every week.

Bronco has his favorites, and is slowly Gary Crowton-ing the program into the ground. The one hope was always that Andy Reid was going to take the job as his "semi-retirement gig" and it seemed like it was going to happen, until KC grabbed him, and it was obvious that Bronco was the only choice.

Bronco then needed to find an OC and the only guys qualified were Aaron Rodrick, but no way he was coming back to BYU after they shortchanged him last year when he showed up to sign a contract, and then it was Anae's job or nobody. Anae had to assure Bronco that he'd run more uptempo to appease the Cougar Club and that he'd take over the entire offense, because Bronco couldn't be bothered. He really is a good defensive coach. He gets a lot out of his talent (or lack thereof) and runs a super clean program. But the best offensive mind they had was Lance Reynolds, and he retired, which meant they needed somebody that would run the show. Anae was the one and only available option considering the requirements. So there he is... back running the show. It's sad when you limit yourself to such a limited set of criteria. Seems to run counter to the whole mission of the university when you require job candidates to meet qualifications that are so off the charts ridiculous that you close the door to guys that used to play there that want the job (like Ty Detmer for example).