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PROVO — Through three games of the 2016 season, the BYU football team has seen a lot of defenses.
That includes everything from the smaller, athletic defensive tackles and linebackers at Arizona to the big, hulking defensive line at Utah.
But nothing compares to West Virginia’s 3-3-5 defense, which the Cougars (1-2) will see Saturday at 1:30 p.m. MDT at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland (ESPN2, KSL NewsRadio, ksl.com/listen).
“They come with three defensive linemen, with a bunch of linebackers that play at levels, and they rally around the ball well,” wide receivers coach Ben Cahoon said. “I think we’ll have some opportunities in the running game, but some smaller holes (in passing). But we’ve got a good plan. We feel good about it, and I think we can exploit things and still have some success.”
The Mountaineers (2-0) are coming off a bye week before making the short flight to face BYU in an NFL stadium, but their previous two games haven’t given West Virginia fans a lot of reasons to cheer. A 26-11 victory over Missouri looks nice on paper, but the Tigers are also 0-1 in SEC play after last week’s 28-27 home loss to a rebuilding Georgia. Head coach Dana Holgorsen’s squad also eked out a 38-21 win over FCS Youngstown State in the second week of the season.
West Virginia’s offense should look more familiar to BYU. Much of the Mountaineers’ offense comes from legendary BYU coach LaVell Edwards.
In two games in 2016, the Mountaineers have run 94 rushing plays at 5.1 yards per carry, to go along with 70 passing plays for 14.9 yards per completion. That’s all led to 32.0 points per game.
“They have the ability to score, and they have great athletes,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “We’ve seen a lot of great athletes in our first three games. It’s no different here. We were excited for this schedule, and we’re still excited. It’s another challenge.”
Holgorsen was mentored as a player and coach by BYU alum Mike Leach, the current Washington State coach who played rugby at BYU. Leach patterned his iconic Air Raid system after the old plays of Edwards, Norm Chow and company.
Holgorsen played for then-offensive coordinator Leach at Iowa Wesleyan with head coach Hal Mumme, and the two would regularly talk about BYU’s influence. Mumme also spent time with Edwards, as an assistant coach at West Texas A&M and Texas-El Paso.
“We still to this day have some stuff in our playbook that goes back to the BYU days,” Holgorsen said during the Big 12 coaches’ teleconference. “I was aware of it and I was dumb and young and just kind of learning the game of football at that time, but a lot of the principles in the passing game were things that all those great quarterbacks were doing back there for BYU, and we took them and stole them and maintain them to this day.”
Holgorsen also has an eye on BYU sophomore linebacker Butch Pau’u, who has led the Cougars in tackles all three games, including 19 against UCLA.
“It doesn’t look like the mission has slowed him down at all,” Holgorsen said of the recently returned LDS Church missionary. “If anything, it sped him up. That guy is all over the place. Hard to block. When you get on him, he gets off blocks.”
Still, only two teams in the Big 12 have a record without a loss — Baylor, and the league’s newest member West Virginia.
“Their scheme is really unique to the teams we’ve faced so far this year,” BYU quarterback Taysom Hill said. “Front-wise, they are smaller and more athletic, maybe comparable to what Arizona tried to do to us. But schematically, we haven’t faced a team like this.”
Hill then thought for a moment before thinking back on his five-year football career at BYU, one that included going up against former coach Bronco Mendenhall’s odd defensive schemes in practice every day.
“I’ve played a lot of football against an odd front and coach Mendenhall’s defense,” he added, “so it’s similar looks to what we have faced in the past. But this year, we haven’t faced it.”
On offense, West Virginia resembles another former team BYU has already played, according to defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki.
“I think they are a lot like Arizona,” he said. “The quarterback is similar, but I don’t think he’s quite as elusive. He’s just a really good player, and throws a good deep ball with a lot of skill that can run. I think it will be a lot like Arizona.”
