Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
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Nine days ahead of their season-opening game with Washington State, the BYU Cougars have moved into game-prep mode, with Tuesday morning's practice being the first featuring the offense and defense facing scout-team opponents.
The helmets-and-shoulder-pads session was also the first of what head coach Bronco Mendenhall called "basically three extra" practices added to a traditional game-week format.
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After being told to avoid hitting offensive players and admonished to keep them standing in all prior practices except for live scrimmages, BYU's gameday defenders are now "wrapping, and basically tackling every play," said Mendenhall after practice, "which is how they train all year, other than fall camp."
"They got plenty of physical work today."
Quarterback Riley Nelson says the shift to a game-week mentality means the team is "ready to roll...it feels like a bye week a little bit. (The season-opener) will be here before we know it."
You can hear the entire post-practice media sessions with Mendenhall and Nelson in "Cougar Cuts," above left.
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The assignment of players to scout teams revealed a number of newcomers who have earned a spot on the active game-prep roster.
Asked to identify some of the program rookies who bypassed scout team, Mendenhall named corner Micah Hannemann, LB Jherremya Leuta-Douyere, RB Jamaal Williams and WR Dylan Collie.
"None of those are determined all the way yet," said Mendenhall. "But if I had to lean, it would be those four." The coach said return missionary freshman DL Bronson Kaufusi is also in the mix to play right away, while fellow linemen Marques Johnson (juco transfer) and Theodore King (true freshman) have been placed on the scout team.
Mendenhall named sophomore Ammon Olsen as the scout team QB, all but ensuring Taysom Hill's status as an active--and possible third-string--quarterback in 2012.
In addition to scout team designations, there were a few notable personnel notes released today. WLB Kevan Bills, who spent much of camp as a third-stringer behind Kyle Van Noy and Ziggy Ansah on the weakside, underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL this morning. He injured the knee last week in practice.
DB Cameron Comer has left the program, replace by veteran corner Robbie Buckner, who was not part of the initial 105-man roster due to an offseason surgery. After seeing third- and fourth-string reps at both corner spots during the first week of camp, Comer stopped showing up at practice.
Terenn Houk has been moved from wide receiver to tight end.
On the injury front, Mendenhall says presumptive starting right end Ian Dulan (back) "is projected to maybe start practicing early next week"; the coach says he's comfortable playing Dulan with only a few days of practice prep, as long as he is medically cleared.
Kicker Justin Sorensen is still not kicking in practice; "really no change" in the situation, according to Mendenhall.
"Obviously, the sooner the better, but once he is able to kick, then I'll just assess how accurate he is, how comfortable he is, and what his range is."
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Mendenhall said his team's tactical preparation for the Pullman Cougars leans extensively on head coach Mike Leach's most-recent game tape; "it's all Texas Tech...there's a copy of the (WSU) spring game floating out there somewhere, whatever you can learn from that."
"He's had so much success doing things the way he has done it, with very little change year in and year out... I guess you kind of bank it off of that."
Of Leach's 'Air Raid' offense, Mendenhall says "I have a good understanding of the system and what they do; that doesn't make it easier to stop. I have a really nice idea (because) we played (Texas Tech) three times at New Mexico, so that helped, and having Coach Anae here certainly helped." While serving as UNM's defensive coordinator, Mendenhall saw the Lobos go 0-3 against Texas Tech, while being outscsored 115-33.
Interestingly, Mendenhall coached against Leach in his Texas Tech debut (the 2000 season-opener), with the Red Raiders prevailing 24-3. The following two meetings found the "Air Raid" harder to stop: Tech won 42-30 in 2001 and 49-0 in 2002.
Also notable: Leach has only been a head coach at two FBS schools; he will have faced a Mendenhall-coached defense in his first game for both programs.
"Again, I don't think it's a matter of teams not knowing what they're going to do," said Mendenhall of the unique challenge. "It's just that the concepts are really well established and really well thought out--hard to stop."
Note: Robert Anae was BYU's offensive coordinator in Mendenhall's first season as BYU's head coach, in 2005. Anae's previous stop had been as the offensive line coach under Leach at Texas Tech; Mendenhall has said BYU's offense at the start of the 2005 season was "almost identical" to Leach's 'Air Raid' attack.
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BYU's nickel defense was a regular feature of camp practices, and Mendenhall Tuesday said "I think so," when asked if it was 'safe to say' his team would play a lot of nickel in the opener.
"They have a lot of good athletes, all playing at the same time," said Mendenhall. "I think it would be good to match speed and athleticism."
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Nelson notes now, with Riley on--
The team's state of readiness:
"I feel good. I'm excited for this week, to get some work done, then next week play the game. Hopefully it's a continuous increase in execution as the season goes on. I'm happy where we're at right now; it's hard to gauge against your own defense...but we're content."
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How playing an opponent (other than your own defense) can make things easier on the offense:
"(Student assistant coach) Max (Hall) was talking about this earlier, that when you get to the game, everything is more open. I'm hoping that happens; I think it will."
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BYU's defense:
"I definitely trust in our personnel, our athleticism, our speed and our tenacity. Are we going to shut (Washington State) out? Yeah, that's a possibility; is it a likelihood? Probably not, because when the ball's in the air that much, it's hard to cover athletes. But I expect our defense to play well."
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Prospects of an opening-night shootout:
"It would be (a surprise) to me; I don't foresee that, but it very well could happen. Our defense is pretty nasty, and with the ball being in the air that much...(we) maybe cause some turnovers, strip the ball out."
"The only way I foresee a shootout is if the ball is turned over a lot. If there's good ball control, I think it will be an average score."
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Offensive line cohesion:
"Really good. We're still getting better, and we're still gelling as a unit...really, there are still position battles going on, but I feel more and more comfortable so, I'm happy with it."
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Photo: Courtesy David Almodova, BYU Athletic Marketing
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