BYU football: Cougars take on WSU Cougars

BYU’s season opener will pit Cougars against Cougars as Washington State flies south for ESPN’s broadcast of the center-stage game Thursday evening.

You’ve got two teams: one’s been talked up as a could-be-incredible offensive team under WSU’s new head coach, Mike Leach; the other has history as a strong defensive team and a projected starting line of 10 returners out of 11.

BYU vs. Washington State

Game Notes

• BYU (0-0) vs. Washington State (0-0)
• Date: Thursday, Aug. 30
• Time: 8:20 p.m. MDT
• Site: LaVell Edwards Stadium
• TV: ESPN
• Radio: 102.7 FM, 1160 AM (Pregame on 103.5 FM)
• Series Record: BYU leads 2-1
• Last Meeting: BYU won 50-36, 9/15/90
• Kickoff Weather: Partly cloudy, temps in the lower 80s

The nation’s biggest concern for BYU is whether or not they can take on WSU’s “Air Raid” offense, which has their quarterback sitting pretty on the field with four wide receivers and one running back on his beck and call.

BYU’s head coach Bronco Mendenhall even ticked off his largest concerns with the pass-happy offense:

“The number of times the ball goes in the air, the number of snaps that you have to defend, sometimes the tempo in which you’re defending it, how the field is spread with really good athletes and a really experienced and successful coach in moving the football … I’m not sure where you could point to and say where (Leach) hasn’t had success offensively and where they’ve struggled, so we think they’ll be good even though it’s the first game.”

The potentials are endless for WSU’s offense, but when it comes down to WSU’s offense versus BYU’s defense, Provo’s Cougars are confident.

“It’ll definitely be our defense and how we’re able to slow down their passing game,” said junior wide receiver Cody Hoffman, “because we all know, with Mike Leach, they’re going to come out throwing, so it’s just a matter of how much they can slow that passing game down for us.”

One thing is for sure – there’s going to be a lot of throwing.

That’s not too big of a surprise when you have the flashy quarterback-receiver pair of Jeff Tuel and Marquess Wilson on your side. The WSU senior and junior have a history of 61 connections for 1,097 yards and seven touchdowns.

Because of that dynamic duo, BYU will have its hands full. But rather than give in to the pressure of covering the all-stars, Mendenhall will deploy players like any other game.

“It’s our execution against theirs,” Mendenhall said. “It’s more of our 11 against their 11 rather than one guy to defend.”

The latest talk of the town concerning BYU is the team’s depth. With the blessing of returners in so many positions, the team has actually come across a rare problem: there are too many “or” positions.

“Probably the most depth we’ve ever had (on the offensive line),” Mendenhall said. “And that’s a good thing … just kind of reflective of the depth of the program. There really aren’t many (positions with injuries). You could go from any position on offense to any position on defense, and we just have good depth. So, that’s probably … why there are so many ‘or’ (positions) at different places, or if they’re not, there could be.”

Even Michael Alisa, the junior running back who had quite the debut last season, has a few back-ups who are very capable of taking over at any time.

“Right now, they have me as the feature back, but there are very qualified running backs behind me, and anyone of them could step up at any time and easily contribute and make big plays,” Alisa said. “So it definitely takes a lot of pressure off me, but we’re all just going to play as hard as we can and contribute as much as we can.”

Until Thursday’s showdown, BYU will continue to practice hard and expect the best.

“Your first game is always one that you love to win and play well in,” Mendenhall said. “This is just another good opponent in our opener that we’re preparing for … There are some surprises, I’m sure, that we haven’t prepared for, and you adjust the best you can on game day.”

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