Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
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Speaking of his hopes to defeat TCU this Friday at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall said, "Not all my eggs are in this basket, but I'm anxious to see how our current team goes down and does. They're eager to play, they're excited to play, and they're confident and anxious to take on this team on this stage."
The coach made the comments during Tuesday night LaVell Edwards Stadium broadcast of "BYU Football with Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall, Presented by the University Parkway Ken Garff Dealers," during which we were also joined by former BYU LB David Nixon and current BYU DL Matt Putnam.
You can hear the entire show broadcast by clicking on the audio link in the "Cougar Cuts" box to the left.
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BYU and TCU have previously met ten times, at five wins apiece. In each of their last three meetings, however, TCU has handed the Cougars a loss, scoring a combined 101 points to BYU's 17.
On how he expects his team to perform Friday against the Horned Frogs, Mendenhall admitted, "You know, it's really hard to predict. I've watched TCU both on offense and on defense this year and they're a little younger in the secondary, but not less talented… [TCU is] scoring 43 points a game on average."
"It's the next game for us to improve our standing in relation to the national landscape and to improve our program. That's the way I'm looking at it."
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Mendenhall went on to explain how Friday's game fits into his long-term vision for the team: "Even though we've been consistent winners every year for six years, even though we've won six straight bowl games, on any given season there seems to be an intrigue game where it's like, ‘okay, now let's see what they do against these guys.' And this is one of those games. My approach with the team, though, isn't like that. This is our next opportunity to improve our football team to climb the national landscape. And if we don't play well, we'll learn just as much from it. But at some point, losing two or three [games in a season] won't be good enough for BYU."
"As hard as it is for BYU fans to hear, to be in a BCS game we need to be undefeated. And [TCU] has done that. As for our current stage, where we are, if we are to take that next jump, no matter how tasteful or distasteful it is, from our current situation we have to win every game to get to the top level of college football, because of lack of instance BCS qualification. If we were to win the rest of our games this year and be 11-2, that would be another great season, but quite frankly TCU has done it."
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BYU has played in Cowboys Stadium once before, in the venue's inaugural college football game and the Cougar's 2009 season opener against the third-ranked Oklahoma Sooners. After putting Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford out of the game with a sprained shoulder, the Cougars pulled off a 78-yard drive, including a fourth-and-four conversion, capping it with a seven-yard touchdown to McKay Jacobson to go up 14-13 with 3:03 left in the fourth quarter. After an Oklahoma 54-yard field goal died in the end zone with 1:23 on the clock, the Cougars held on for a heart-pounding victory.
Speaking of being able to look back on his first trip to Cowboys Stadium with fond memories, Mendenhall said, "We certainly can. I remember from even before that game there were a number of questions for even taking the game [against Oklahoma]. It was not even 50/50 for taking the game to play Oklahoma from our fanbase. The fanbase was, ‘why would you take this game? It seems like we're over-matched. Are you sure you want to take that on? It will affect our record and our ranking in the top 25,' etc. ESPN had picked two teams… and was setting kind of a marquee matchup. And that's only going to happen on the biggest stages against the best teams."
"So we chose to play that game and we chose to take this game. TCU is a former conference rival… it's in a very unique venue, it's the feature game on ESPN, and hopefully we'll play at a very high level and continue to increase the credibility of our program."
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On what he remembers of Cowboys Stadium, Bronco said, "it's the most amazing venue that I've played in. I remember one of the biggest distractions was our players in the huddle." He went on, laughing, "they were watching the last play on the big screen while they were getting the call for the new play. So they were doing two things at once."
"There was so much hype regarding the venue," he continued, "and how big it was going to be, how big the Jumbotron was going to be, etc. You could drive the buses down underneath and two buses could pass each other. Behind our bench, I remember, there was a lounge with waitresses, kind of like a nightclub right behind out bench during the game. So people could walk down from their boxes down into this nightclub while the game was going on."
On being able to take a tour of the stadium prior to its game-day arrival, Mendenhall noted, "It made a lot of sense to just go and see it before we showed up for the game. We realized it's kind of a city in and of itself, with kind of a shopping mall-type atmosphere up on the second floor."
Ultimately, though, Cowboys Stadium, with all of its uniqueness and $1.2 billion gadgetry, was a football field to play on. "Once we were there for about a half hour," Mendenhall said, "we realized that there were going to be lines and that it was going to be about the same size as a normal field, and then we could go home."
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At the conclusion of the broadcast, the coach gave his keys to winning Friday's game against TCU:
1. Offensive balance. That means being able to run it and throw it.
2. Holding on to the football is critical. That has been the major reason any of the scores have been lopsided in three years.
3. Field position generated through special teams. [TCU] has had a better starting field position than us.
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The Cougars take on the Horned Frogs at 6:00pm MST at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX. Tune into KSL Radio 1160 AM, 102.7 FM, BYU Radio (SiriusXM 143) or ksl.com, starting with program coverage at 4:00pm.
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