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A final day of two-a-days on Friday, followed by a single practice on Saturday, and BYU's 2012 preseason camp will be in the books, with Washington State game prep getting underway on Monday.
Friday morning in Provo, the Cougars held the first of two scheduled sessions; the practice was closed to the media, as all practices will be moving forward and into the season.
Head coach Bronco Mendenhall said "there wasn't any easing back today; the number of (practice) periods was less, but what we were trying to get done was still (with) a lot of urgency."
"What happens at the beginning of camp is there are so many things to assess; now, it's a few things that you want to see here or there, and we'll do that again this afternoon, then one more tomorrow."
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Listen to Mendenhall's post-practice comments in "Cougar Cuts," above left. You can also hear Jason Shepherd's post-practice interviews with Romney Fuga and Ross Apo.
Additionally, Jason squares up against linebacker Brandon Ogletree in a camp-ending edition of "Shep Talk".
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The biggest change from Mendenhall's previous camps was this year's implementation of a limited-pads, almost no-hitting policy, with full pads and tackling showing up only in two scrimmages with relatively few projected starters participating.
Mendenhall says the new plan can be judged a success purely from a health and wellness standpoint.
"Not one significant injury caused by practice for all of camp," said Mendenhall. "I don't ever remember saying that, and that's really good. There are some minor injuries, but no 'majors,' so I would just say that's a great thing."
Noting that there are still almost two weeks to go until game day, Mendenhall says the team will be "building intensity, specificity and execution...we still have work to go, but we have a healthy team going into game prep...that was my goal."
"Right now, we have a full and healthy team going into game prep, with two weeks to go...as a coach and a leader, that's a good position to be in."
The coach said a deeper talent pool and competition "also contributed to the number of guys that are staying healthy; if they're out, they get passed up--we have more depth."
Mendenhall says the 2012 BYU team is his "deepest, for sure," with a talent level "equal (to), if not possibly exceeding" that of any previous teams. "We'll have to play, but I think so."
He says depth is particularly noticeable on special teams, "where there are very few walk-on players...usually, they were the heart of it, based on how hard they were trying, and they're having a hard time getting on (special teams) now, because we have scholarship players and our best players that really want to do it, and there's more of them."
"That's what I noticed just today, for maybe the first time, is that in the (special teams) two-deep--not just the one-deep, but the two-deep...it's hard to get on it, and I think that will help us."
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Speaking of special teams, asked if his team's kicking game "is the one thing keeping you up at night," Mendenhall acknowledged that "in terms of biggest concern, if there is one...it's probably that, yeah."
"Just because we haven't done much work," said Mendenhall, "and then the work we do, will not be really in live settings to know exactly where that is--and I'm just talking about kicking the ball for accuracy from whatever depth."
Mendenhall is hoping that placekicker Justin Sorensen (back) is ready to return to activity and kick in the opener, but said "the longer it takes, the more risk, the shorter it takes, the less risk, so we'll just keep monitoring that, but we're preparing other options, just in case."
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Having examined video of Thursday's stadium scrimmage, Mendenhall was again impressed by the work of the offensive line, applauding the line for being "a lot cleaner in their blocking, in terms of assignments and targeting. It gave us a great chance to see secondary tackling and linebacker tackling with kind of a mismatch between the no. 1 offensive front and no. 2 or 3 defensive front...so that was a really good thing to see."
"I thought just cleaner play in general," said Mendenhall of his overall scrimmage impressions. "There wasn't a single holding call. I was encouraged by the cleaner play more than I had expected to be, just in terms of how it looked."
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Asked about opening the season by facing Washington State head coach Mike Leach's vaunted "Air Raid" offense, Mendenhall spoke of having faced the offense multiple times while serving as the defensive coordinator at New Mexico.
"I have a little bit of a head start," Mendenhall said of preparing for the Pullman Cougars' attack, "but there's always new wrinkles, and I don't know Washington State's personnel very well, so that adds to it."
Parenthetically, in Mendenhall's first season as head coach in 2005, new BYU offensive coordinator Robert Anae had just arrived from Texas Tech, and brought the "Air Raid" with him to Provo.
"It started out almost identical," said Mendenhall about BYU's offense under Anae compared to Leach's Texas Tech scheme. "Then we kind of put in our own version as we went, and shifted more to two backs, etc., but that's how it started. The terminology, the formations, all that...certainly that helped. Man, it seems like a long time ago, but there are still some of those concepts in what we do now."
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There will be a practice but no media availability on Saturday, so today's report is the final "Camp Cougar" posting in "Cougar Tracks."
With Washington State game prep beginning with practice on Monday morning, Mendenhall said he expects to have scout teams (and as a result, prospective redshirt candidates) assigned by Monday night.
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