Cougars ready for challenge of facing Longhorns


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PROVO — The BYU Cougars returned to practice on Monday after a season-opening victory at UConn last Friday night. Up next for Bronco and the boys is a trip to Austin, Texas, to face the Longhorns on Saturday.

BYU’s signature win last season was against Texas at LaVell Edwards Stadium, when the Cougars crushed the Longhorns 40-21. In that game, Taysom Hill ran for 259 yards and scored three rushing touchdowns. That performance has obviously stuck with Texas, which has been very vocal about having this year’s BYU game circled on its calendar.

Despite all of the talk of last year’s game, Bronco Mendenhall doesn’t believe it is very relevant.

“That will be the story all week of what happened last year,” Mendenhall said. “I don’t think from a coach’s perspective that will affect the outcome of the game at all … ultimately we still got to get prepared and play a football game. We’re anxious to play; I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

If one thing has changed from last season, it’s how Texas views the Cougars. When asked if he thinks Texas respects BYU, defensive end Remington Peck said it should.

“If we don’t, I don’t know why we wouldn’t,” Peck said. “I believe it’s going to be a different game this year, a different team. I feel like they came in a little bit last year a little cocky, felt like it would have been an easy game and it’s not going to be that way this year. So we’ll have to prepare the best we can.”

While BYU continues to prepare for Texas, it is also trying to address some issues that came to light in the win over the Huskies. BYU committed a Bronco-era high 15 penalties for 150 yards. While admitting that they need to clean up the penalties, coach Mendenhall said it’s not as detrimental as you would think.

“Really not too drastically,” said Mendenhall when asked if wholesale changes need to be made to lessen the number of penalties. “I’m sure there will be plenty that want blood from that, but much like I thought there’s tons of aggression out there, and I’d rather have that and bring it back than the penalties being because of lack of technique or lack of effort or being lazy … it’ll be easy to bring those back.”

The other glaring problem in the season-opener dealt with the kicking game. The Cougars missed their only field goal of the game and failed to kick off deep consistently.

When asked where he thought his kicking game stood, Mendenhall said there’s work to be done.

“A little bit behind where our offense and defense is. We have kickoff work to do in terms of how deep and where we place it and we have some coverage work to do; more on kickoff than on punt … we have some work to do.”

In regards to kicking the ball deep, BYU may have some help on the way. Mendenhall said that Andrew Mikkelsen could be back for this week’s game and returned missionary Corey Edwards has joined the team. Both have shown a strong leg and the ability for deep kicks.

When asked if both will travel to Texas, Mendenhall said, “I’ll travel whoever can kick it a long ways.”

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This week’s game also includes the return of several BYU players from suspension. Running back Jamaal Williams, cornerbacks Rob Daniel and Jordan Johnson, receiver Devon Blackmon and defensive lineman Marques Johnson will all make their season debuts at Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium.

Williams, who was second on the team last year in rushing yards with 1,233, said it was tough to watch the team play in the season-opener, but that’s the past and he’s looking forward to Saturday.

“It was a little weird,” Williams said. “It’s a new week, I finally get to play and I’m ready to go help my team win.”

As for how the suspended players dealt with missing the game, Mendenhall said they all have handled it the right way.

“They were unselfish, they were accountable, they knew what they did and they’ve been working really hard.”

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Texas head coach Charlie Strong announced on Monday that starting quarterback David Ash will miss this week’s game against BYU. Ash, who suffered from concussion symptoms last year, reportedly suffered another concussion in the team’s season-opening victory over North Texas.

Sophomore Tyronne Swoopes will start for the Longhorns on Saturday with Jerrod Heard as the backup.

BYU has seen some film on Swoopes, and even though he’ll be making his first collegiate start, the Cougars know they’ll still have their hands full.

I thought (David) Ash was a really good player,” Mendenhall said, “but it is the University of Texas … so we’ve actually seen his (Tyronne Swoopes') film through the spring game; (he) played some in the bowl game. (He’s) so fast and athletic and big, exactly what you’d expect from a really quality program.”

As for how the defense feels about playing a new quarterback, Remington Peck expects Texas to still be dangerous.

“Obviously injuries are a tough deal, everyone deals with them. I think they’re still going to bring everything they have, and they’re a good team and we’ll just have to prepare the best we can.”

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You can listen to post-practice audio from Bronco Mendenhall, Jamaal Williams and Remington Peck by clicking on the links in “Cougar Cuts,” above left.

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