It’s one of the best stories of Brett Favre’s storied NFL career and luckily for him, BYU star quarterback Ty Detmer was there to help him out.

Favre, an 11-time Pro Bowler and NFL Hall of Famer, had no idea what a nickel defense was during his first few years in the league and often pretended to know what was going on when his coaches started talking about the different defensive packages (nickel, dime, etc.) in team meetings.

Fortunately for Favre, Detmer, the 1990 Heisman Trophy winner, was sitting right next to him. So after he couldn’t pretend any longer during his second season with the Green Bay Packers, Favre leaned over to Detmer and asked his embarrassing question.

“I just gotta know,” Favre recalled. “So I said, Ty, I got to ask you a question.’ Ty was about as goofy as I was. He says, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘What’s a nickel defense?’ He’s gets real quiet and says, ‘You serious?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m serious.’ He says, ‘Well, they basically take out a linebacker and bring in a DB.’ “I said, ‘That’s it?’ He said, ‘That’s it.’”

When Detmer was hired on as BYU’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under newly head coach Kalani Sitake two years ago, the former NFL player received endorsements from other former star players, including NFL Hall of Famer and three-time Super Bowl champion Steve Young.

“He is one of the two (Joe Montana) most intuitive teammates I’ve ever had,” Young told reporters. “I don’t care, honestly, that he’s been coaching in high school. “The guy understands intuitively offensive football. He can teach it, he can coach it and he can call it. I am not worried about it.”

Sitake has labeled Detmer as a genius on a number of occasions, but looking at what the former Heisman Trophy winner has done during his first two seasons at BYU has been nothing short of disappointing.

Factoring out FCS opponents as well as Massachusetts who looks and plays like an FCS program, the Cougars are averaging a dismal 18 points per game under Detmer’s leadership and play-calling duties.

This year alone, the Cougars are averaging just 12.1 points per game and rank 127th out of 129 teams in points scored. BYU also checks in at 127th in total offense and unless the Cougars had Alabama’s defense, averaging 12 points a game is not going to help you win very many football games as this year has proven.

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The Problem

Unfortunately for Cougar fans, there is not a quick fix or just one area that needs fixing. The first issue stems at quarterback, arguably the most important position in the game. Tanner Mangum, the freshman sensation who set BYU records two years ago, is nowhere close to being the player he was in 2015. The junior quarterback is playing without any confidence, starring down his receivers, completing just 57% of his passes and has eight interceptions to just five touchdown passes so far this season.

Mangum has also been bothered by an foot/ankle injury after getting hurt at the end of the rivalry game against Utah and has been trying to play through it. Injuries have also decimated the Cougars as 35 players now have missed significant playing time due to injuries with many of them being season-ending.

At the same time, during the first two games of the season, before a number of injuries took place, the offense was still out of whack as the Cougars put up just 20 points against FCS Portland State, with the Vikings trailing by just a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Bad play calling has also hurt the Cougars. Detmer has been very conservative with his calls and with a little film study, defenses can quickly figure out what the Cougar offense is going to do. Instead of throwing the ball on third-and-long and giving a receiver a chance to make a play or make the ref throw the flag for defensive pass interference, Detmer waves the white flag and consistently calls running plays that go for a couple of yards before the punt team runs out onto the field.

On top of false starts and holding calls along the offensive line as well as a number of passes dropped by the receiving corps, the combination of everything has led the Cougars to one of its worst starts in program history.

While most offensive coordinators would be fired with performances like that, it is unlikely that Sitake will do so with Detmer. But if the former Heisman Trophy winner really is a genius as everyone says that he is, he better start showing it by tweaking the offense and getting some points on the board.

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