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A constant theme from the 2012 BYU Football season has been quarterback play--and quarterback health.
Tuesday night's season finale of "BYU Football with Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall" spent a lot of time on the Cougars' season-long QB quandary, in addition to a look back at last week's loss at San Jose State and the upcoming regular season-ender at New Mexico State.
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Traditionally, BYU fans might look at the schedule before the season and pick a few teams the Cougars will easily beat. Those teams have often come from the WAC -- but at least one of those teams proved to be a handful. San Jose Jose is one of three WAC teams either ranked or receiving votes in Top 25 polls this season, joining Utah State and Louisiana Tech in that category.
San Jose State scored 20 points (which ended up being all it needed to win) in less than 20 minutes of play. Mendenhall said the Spartans were able to do a few things that caught the Cougar defense a little off guard. SJSU even borrowed a few plays from Oregon State, and again the BYU secondary was exposed.
Mendenhall said he was as strong with his team at halftime as he has been all year. Looking back at the tape, he's not sure that the team was inspired to give an acceptable effort throughout the game, but he thought that his players executed better during the game's final 30 minutes.
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This season has been a well-documented anomaly in terms of BYU offense. At the helm for most the season has been a battered Riley Nielson, who again limped away from a loss on Saturday. Mendenhall has said the senior is "probable" for Saturday's game at New Mexico State but Nielson hasn't taken a snap in practice yet this week.
Mendenhall has long believed that defending a team with a mobile quarterback is a tough task, but now understands better than ever how necessary it is to keep that quarterback healthy when he's on your own sideline. Mendenhall said dodging hits by going down or getting out of bounds can mean much more than taking on a linebacker for a few extra yards.
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Coach Mendenhall sited two things the offense needs to do better going forward: hold on to the ball and capitalize on trips to the "blue" zone. BYU will have one final chance to get things in working order before the bowl game on December 20th. This week's opponent is a one-win New Mexico State team that has yet to beat an FBS opponent all season.
Mendenhall welcomed wide receiver Skyler Ridley to the program this week. Ridley spoke of being heartbroken after last week's loss and even shared some advice for aspiring wideouts. The entire coach's show is in "Cougar Cuts," above left.
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