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PROVO — If you were to peek in on BYU spring football camp this past week, you would have seen the following scenes: wide receiver Akile Davis playing cornerback and making tackles, freshman defensive back Troy Warner catching passes as a wide receiver, slot receiver Trey Dye running the football as a halfback, and several defensive players learning the tight-end position.
What’s going on behind the football fence is anything but boring and predictable.
Halfway through spring camp, players say it’s quite the opposite.
Running back Algie Brown told media members, “You can see the excitement build even more as guys feel more confident about what they’re doing.”
This confidence players are finding comes in part from a coaching staff that is eager to explore the abilities of individual players, regardless of past positions. Players aren’t just trying out new positions similar to their own, they’re going from offense to defense, and defense to offense.
“The more guys can do, the more valuable they are to the team,” said offensive coordinator Ty Detmer. “More than anything, it’s trying to give them a foundation on both sides so that if we have some injuries, we can kind of fill in gaps as needed.”
Assistant head coach Ed Lamb said of the changes, “There’s no decision at all on whether they’ll stay, but right now we just want to explore their versatility.”
Thus far, coaches are discovering some of their players are more versatile than they could have imagined.
Slot receiver Trey Dye is one guy who has showed lots of potential when tried out at a new position.
Detmer said Dye’s exact role on the team was a question mark coming into spring camp. “What kind of a player is he, where does he fit, is he just a slot player or can he come from the backfield? So we thought, let’s move him back there and see what his capabilities are.”
After observing Dye get a few carries as a running back, Algie Brown was impressed.
“He’s really tough for how small he is,” Brown said. “He’ll fight for yards and do whatever he can to get up field.”
Detmer has discovered that in addition to being a capable slot receiver, Dye is quick and powerful in the backfield, and he breaks tackles. “As a play-caller,” Detmer said, “it’s nice to put a guy in like that, and the defense can’t treat him as just a receiver or just a running back...he’s one of the guys who will be able to keep defenses guessing.”
As far as the tight-end position, only one thing is for sure — it’s back.
The rest is yet to be determined. Both offensive players as well as guys who have only played on the defensive side are trying to get a hang of the new position.
“It’s a group effort right now,” Detmer said. “We’re kind of tight end by committee, and that’s a great thing if you’ve got multiple guys that can go in and play and we can get into two tight end sets.”
When asked whether the decision of which player should play at which position might be the source of contention among offensive and defensive coordinators and even position coaches, Detmer remarked, “The conversation is, what’s best for the team. Whether we [the offense] want them or not, we’re going to do what’s best for the team.” Freddy Woods is a KSL sports radio intern covering BYU football and basketball. Follow him on Twitter @freddycougar21.
