BYU not overlooking winless Savannah State


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PROVO — Coming off a 42-23 win over UNLV on a cold night at LaVell Edwards Stadium BYU now sets its sights on and begins preparations for its final home game of the season this Saturday afternoon versus the Savannah State Tigers.

Despite Savannah State’s 0-11 record BYU’s players and coaches are determined to keep focus heading into this week’s matchup not only for the team’s sake, but also for the 26 seniors who will play their last home game in front of the Cougar faithful.

BYU head football coach Bronco Mendenhall explained that he doesn’t want to reminisce too much with three games still remaining on the schedule, including the bowl game in Miami, but emphasizes that the team and coaching staff does want to ensure a great finish and experiences together for the seniors.

“They’ve been resilient, I think they’ve been hard working, and I think they’ve accomplished a lot and I’ve really liked their leadership through a lot of unique challenges this year," Mendenhall said of the seniors.

Linebacker Michael Alisa, one of the 26 seniors, has had a career at BYU full of experiences both on the offensive side and defensive side of the ball.

“It’s been a real honor playing for BYU and I’ve really enjoyed my time here," said Alisa. “I’ve loved the program, I’ve loved the coaches, I’ve loved all my teammates I’ve had through the years, and LaVell Edwards Stadium will always have a special place in my heart."

Senior defensive back Skye PoVey says that besides wanting to get another interception and find the end zone for a defensive touchdown before the end of his career at BYU he also just wants to keep winning.

“It’s a good time to get hot and try to go in with some momentum into (Cal),” he said.

Defensive lineman Travis Tuiloma recognizes the contributions these seniors have made to the team as well as the help they’ve given him and knows this is the time to play hard for them.

“It’s definitely a fun time but also it’s a bittersweet because it’s been so much fun looking up to the older guys and helping them out with their last season here,” he said.

In order to keep on the winning track and send the seniors out with a win in their last home game, BYU will need to maintain its focus on offense and defense despite facing a much-lesser opponent this week.

“We’re going to have to work hard to make sure it’s just like any other week,” said Alisa. “I think it might be easier for guys to look at their record and see that this isn’t the best team we’ve faced this year and we take them lightly but it’ll come down to leadership to make sure the guys keep after it and don’t take them lightly.”

Mendenhall wants his team to look at this as a chance to improve and says he is anxious to see other players who haven’t seen the field much this season can get involved this Saturday.

Savannah State was shut out at home last week by North Carolina A&T, but Mendenhall doesn’t want to quantify what his defense does this week, but rather focus on the effort it displays: “I would like to see us play really hard and really fast,” he said.

The great play of linebacker Bronson Kaufusi has been a welcome improvement on defense the past three games. He was named this week’s FBS Independent Defensive Player of the Week after recording a career-high nine tackles and tying career-highs with three tackles for loss and two sacks.

Mendenhall explained that three weeks ago the coaching staff determined what it feels now is a good mix for Kaufusi with him playing both a mix of down as a defensive lineman and up as a linebacker. Mendenhall says the change is what has led to his improved play.

“He’s been emerging as a force to be reckoned with and I wouldn’t be surprised if teams start paying more attention to him and making sure that he gets two guys on him every play,” said Alisa of Kaufusi’s play.

Offensively, the Cougars had a solid performance against UNLV racking up 592 yards of total offense to reach 42 points while going 4-4 in the red zone. Despite the improvements senior wide out Jordan Leslie says the offense wants to show more.

“We didn’t come out and play like we wanted to against UNLV and we kind of want to come out and show how dominant our offense can be,” he said.

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Mitch Davis

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