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By DOUG ALDEN AP Sports Writer
PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Brigham Young coach Bronco Mendenhall made his debut against Boston College a year ago and BYU played with plenty of rookie mistakes.
Ten penalties and several failures to score despite moving the ball well limited the Cougars in the 20-3 loss to the Eagles. BYU has played 13 games under Mendenhall since then and the second-year coach says he and the Cougars have changed a lot.
"I'm anxious to see how we play," Mendenhall said Tuesday.
The Cougars (1-1) visit No. 23 Boston College (2-0) on Saturday -- seven years to the day BYU last beat a ranked team. Since beating No. 23 Colorado State on Sept. 16, 1999, the Cougars have lost 11 in a row to ranked opponents, including last year's game against the Eagles when they were No. 22.
"One of the marks and one of the expectations of this program is to do that," Mendenhall said of beating a Top-25 opponent. "At this point, I have not been successful in that and I'm anxious to kind of find out where I stack up as well."
Although some notable players are gone from last year's Boston College team, Mendenhall said the Eagles look about the same as they have for the last few years -- fast, physical and smart. The Eagles rallied last week to beat then-No. 18 Clemson 34-33 in overtime, pushing Boston College into this week's poll.
"There's very little change. They have a very clear and specific identity. They're confident in their approach -- proven to work over time regardless of opponent," Mendenhall said. "I'm not sure they'll change for us nor anybody because it's already working."
Because of the long trip to Boston, Mendenhall has shuffled his weekly schedule a bit. Instead of the usual team flight the day before the game, the Cougars will head east on Thursday. Mendenhall said it isn't so the Cougars can take in the historic sites of Boston. It's because the noon kickoff Saturday is 10 a.m. local time and he doesn't want his team to be the least bit affected by the travel.
"It simply gives us a chance to get there and become more accustomed to that time and get ready to play," Mendenhall said. "It's a few hours earlier than we're used to."
After a disappointing performance in the season opener, a 16-13 loss to Arizona, the Cougars rebounded last week by beating Tulsa 49-24. Even Mendenhall had to admit he expected a little less scoring by BYU and a little more from the Golden Hurricane.
The Cougars rushed for 227 yards a week after running for just 24 at Arizona and had six different players scoring.
With such a discrepancy between the first two games, BYU is far from as consistent as Mendenhall wants the program to be. But he feels the Cougars are getting there, and are much better off than the last time they faced Boston College.
"I think we're close enough to see it, to taste it and touch it, but until we do it, we still have some maturing to do that way," Mendenhall said.
On the Net: www.byucougars.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV-09-12-06 1605MDT
