BYU use to use the 4-3 with four large lineman, although they have sent a lot of DE's into the pros. They tend to be quick on the flanks. However in recent years, BYU's read and react, bend but don't break philosophy became very stale. It became so predictable that any good offense could defeat it. Furthermore, BYU has such respect for the forward pass - I mean they live by it - that they respected opposing quarterbacks way to much and subsuquently made them look all that much better by giving up a lot of undernieth grabs on 3rd down. In other words, the bend-but-don't-break philosophy led to a lot of 80 yard scoring drives that ate clock. OUCH! Not good for BYU! What's worse is that all the bending kept them on the field and their offense on the bench, not generating any cohesion or rythm.
The new philosoly counters the notion that you need a big powerful line to fend of 300 lb lineman. GT is really setting up in a 4-3 but size wise fields an extra OLB/speed rusher to pinch in from the DE position. In other words, call it what you will TECH is doing many of the same things with personnel. They don't put four behemouths in the trenches either.
What you want now against a rushing attack is to take the lineman off their feet and make piles while the linebackers and safeties plug the gaps. It's difficult to get through the pile in those instances so you have to spread the line and go wide. But that's where the speed at OLB and a monster-back comes into play. There are great ways to defeat these plays. Misdirected counter traps can be effective. Also play action passes can work and there is always the halfback or end around pass, Bilbo will probably launch at least one of those tonight and I'll bet it works for a big gain, TD or interception (because BYU should but may not anticipating it). Hey if a dumb sportswritere can figure it out, Crowton and Mendenhall can. But I still think it's a good idea if Bilbo has the right receiver on a fly. The only problem there is BYU's corners. They really are exceptional cover guys 1 on 1. Well it will be interesting, but don't assume that the size advantage is impossible to neutralize. Air Force has defeated many much larger teams by playing small, fast and taking men off their feet at the get go. If they can do it, any good group of athletes can. I wouldn't be surprised to see Tech get 300 yards rushing as BYU is new at this. But with Mendenhall coaching, I also wouldn't be surprised to see BYU limit Tech to less than 100 yards on the ground. UNM was outsized and outmanned with the most marginal of D-1 players all last year and gave up about 115 ypg as I recall. A 115 yard game isn't enough first downs to control the clock agaisnt a BYU. Tech needs at least 225 yards on the ground and 60 plays.
