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PROVO — "BYU Football with Bronco Mendenhall" aired in front of a raucous crowd Wednesday night in the President's Loge at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Coming off a tough loss at Virginia, Coach Mendenhall addressed the game and gave his assessment on what he learned about his team after watching the game film and what was the difference in the game.
Addressing the new "Go Fast, Go Hard" offense, Mendenhall defined what he thinks each phrase means and how the Cougars can improve. "Fast is simply the tempo, that's how quickly one play is finished and the next one is started. That is completely different from going hard. Hard includes from the time the ball is snapped to the time that play (is) done.
Bronco also expounded on the balance required between the number of plays run and the effectiveness of the plays ran. "The intent isn't to sacrifice quality for quantity. The intent is to get both. I thought on Saturday there was more of the quantity focus than the quality the focus this week in practice has been each and every play that is run being run at a higher and more impactful level. Hopefully our execution will reflect that."
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Looking ahead to Texas, Coach Mendenhall admitted that the one point loss at Texas in 2011 still bothers him. However, he is looking forward to playing Texas this year and has all the respect in the world for the Texas program and Coach Mack Brown.
"Texas is very fast. They prefer to have as many athletes on the field as they can at a time." Coach Mendenhall also talked about the similarities between these two programs, "Confidence and tradition you're seeing two programs that are not only expected to win a lot but do win a lot. We know for us at BYU, 10 game minimum is what qualifies for a good year and Texas has a very similar standard."
Regarding his relationship with Coach Brown, Mendenhall said, "I think he's an ethical man, I think he has strong morals, he runs a great program and he's an excellent leader. He's looked up to for advice by a lot of the head coaches in the college community. I consider him a friend."
When asked what the key will be to beat Texas this week, Mendenhall responded, "Third down (conversion). Being better on third down offensively will be instrumental for us to win."
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Next on the show to talk about the new traditions being started to help enrich the BYU Football Gameday experience this year was the Assistant AD for Marketing, David Almodova. The biggest announcements were the Cougar Walk, the newly formed Cougar student section called the ROC (ROAR OF COUGARS), and the different themes for each home game this year.
"The Cougar Walk will start 2 hours and 20 minutes before kickoff. The team will be dropped off at the northeast corner of the stadium and we hope to have a lot of fans out there for that." The team will be led by the drumline through the fans surrounding them into the stadium. This week's Cougar Walk will start at 2:40.
Also announced was a change to the seating arrangements for students this year at LaVell Edwards Stadium. There will now be a new consolidated student section in the southeast corner of the stadium known as the "ROC". Seating is now determined on a first come, first serve basis is expected to get the stadium rocking on Saturday.
Finally, Almodova shared the themes for each home game that he hopes the fans will embrace. The Texas game will be a navy blue-out followed by a royal blue-out for the Utah game. The Middle Tennessee State game will be a white-out and the Georgia Tech game will be a sectional game.
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Coach Mendenhall also said that NFL scouts have been impressed with Sorenson and that an NFL personnel director recently said that they would "take him right now if not for anything else for special teams. He would start today for them."
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Highlights from the fan question segment:
On the team tradition of starting any workout, practice, game etc. with a prayer. "Some of our first captains were Cameron Jensen and John Beck. They chose before every workout and team meeting to start with prayer. That was instituted by the players."
On this year's biggest challenges with regards to this team
- Loss of players to injury, especially in the secondary
- Managing scheme and games with the up tempo
- Gauging where the team really is offensively
On which players will surprise fans the most this year:
"The surprise is already out a little bit, but Uani Unga at inside linebacker. Already, the game he played against Virginia is one of the best, if not the best I've seen from an inside linebacker since I've been coaching here." Outside linebacker Alani Fua and slot receiver/cornerback Eric Thornton were also praised by Coach Mendenhall as players to watch to emerge before the end of the season.
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Reggie Lewis is a KSL Newsradio BYU Intern
