Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
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Saying "I think we've gained as much momentum as you can without playing a game," BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall recapped his team's bye-week during his weekly radio broadcast from LaVell Edwards Stadium.
"I think we made the best of it, but we won't know until we play," Mendenhall said. "I think we're healthier than we were after the last opponent we played. The kids are caught up in school at a higher level, and they've gained some strength through additional lifting. We've had a chance to self-scout and really narrow in what our most productive plays are offensively and defensively, and maybe identify a few tweaks that need to happen here or there for the stretch run."
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Mendenhall discussed the unusual situation of having the team's two bye weeks in November, and attributed it to the difficulty of booking later opponents as an independent program.
"Especially in our first season as an independent," the coach said, "it was ‘do the best you can.' And I think between our trips to Ole Miss and Texas and Oregon State, and with having Central Florida come here and then going to TCU, we've done a pretty nice job of adding quite a bit of balance and intrigue to our schedule."
Although most football programs like to play their mid- season and late-season games within their respective conferences, Mendenhall explained, BYU has a major selling point in attempt to book those games:
"There's a great chance they're going to be on ESPN," he said. "They're paying attention and seeing that 10 of our games are going to be on ESPN this year. So it's a chance for exposure for their program."
"I don't see us in the future having two byes (late in the season) again. I think that's a one-time shot only. But in our schedule going out it seems like each (season) it gets a little easier to find mid-to-late season opponents and that conferences seem to be warming up to this idea of playing BYU."
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When asked which opponents he'd be most interested in playing, Bronco replied, "I'd like to have a long-term series with Stanford. I think it's a regional game that could be a great game. They have similar academic standards in terms of who they recruit, and it's a game that makes a lot of sense with two pretty unique institutions, so I'd love to see that one."
"Additionally, I'd like to play Army or Navy. And I'd like to do that on a rotating basis, maybe playing Army one year and Navy the next year and keep that going… I'd love to see our players travel to West Point and to Annapolis and not only play football but to get that type of experience."
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Mendenhall said that BYU's schedule is lined up for the next four years, but that amidst the vast changes of conference realignment, nothing is certain. "It will be very interesting to see how contracts are kept and if contracts are broken," he said. "It does change frequently and ESPN has a lot to do with bringing us new games and sometimes they, then, take the opponent that is being replaced and they find them a game. So it is just ongoing."
On how he schedules future games when BYU's conference future is uncertain, Mendenhall said "I'm planning on us being independent. I'm scheduling like we're going to be independent ... and if anything changes we'll adapt and go from there. But we're about four years out right now with our schedules completed."
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The coach also addressed the team's punting, an issue that arose against TCU when two punt snaps were fumbled and a third partially blocked, resulting in significant loss in defensive field position.
"Well, it's a work in progress," Mendenhall said. "It's interesting because there weren't any signs that it was coming in terms of the season and the other eight games we played, and in terms of how the snaps were and our punter's ability to catch the ball and get a kick off… it caught us all by surprise and I'm the one responsible for any of those miscues."
"We've paid it a lot of attention, given it a ton of work, and our kickers are punting and we're charting every kick and paying attention to that." According to Mendenhall, the punter's position is up for grabs for Saturday's game, and the two main contenders are Brain Smith and Riley Stephenson, who has filled the role for this season thus far."
"Brian's doing a really nice job. But Riley's been an excellent punter. So it's not like all of a sudden we don't have confidence in him. It just simply is that something caused that particular game to be haywire, and I'm anxious to get it corrected."
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This Saturday BYU faces the Idaho Vandals, whose punt return team ranks fifth in the nation in average return yardage. BYU is ranked 115th in punt return defense, giving up 15 yards a kick.
"Idaho's a tough football team," Mendenhall said. "In their coverage units, both on kick return and punt return, they have tremendously skilled players and ranking-wise they're doing a nice job."
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BYU and Idaho share a common opponent in San Jose State, against whom the Vandals pulled off a late win on Saturday.
"They were trailing early and there were a few turnovers, a few things that didn't go their way," Mendenhall explained. "But there's a resiliency about their team… (Head Coach Robb Akey) promotes a real tough type of football team, real rugged. And that's how they're playing. So they happened to come back and win, but they've lost a couple of very close games and they are still playing with the same effort—the same intensity— regardless of their record."
The Cougars will face Idaho this Saturday, November 12th, at LaVell Edwards Stadium with kickoff at 7:15 PM on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM and BYU (SiriusXM 143).
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Also joining the broadcast were BYU LB Jameson Frazier and his father, Danny, a former Cougar who played on both the football and basketball squads. I highly recommend you listen to the second and third segments of the broadcast, in which the two spoke about their journeys to BYU and Danny's injury struggles as a Cougar. You can listen to the entire show by clicking on the link in the "Cougar Cuts" box above and to the left.
