Why BYU football will wrap up spring camp with Max Hall, Kevin Feterik-led alumni game

PROVO — With spring football rolling around the country, BYU football is closing up the final days of spring before ushering in April.

The Cougars will wrap up the spring season early, as they do most years, intending to be finished by the time the university's sponsoring institution, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, holds its semiannual general conference.

That means no more practices after Thursday. But unlike in previous years, the team won't conclude the mini-preview season with a spring game.

BYU will wrap up spring football Thursday with a royal-on-navy alumni game at 6:30 p.m. MDT. Admission is free at LaVell Edwards Stadium, where former Cougar quarterbacks Max Hall (2006-09) and Kevin Feterik (1996-99) will captain two squads of former players in an all-alumni flag football game.

No, former BYU fullback-turned-head-coach Kalani Sitake and one-time BYU safety-now-athletic-director Tom Holmoe won't make an appearance among the more than 40 alumni to take the field Thursday (though Holmoe has promised he will take part in some kind of honorary non-playing role along with current NFL players). But there will be plenty of former players suiting up.

"These guys haven't been training, so you can probably bank on a couple of hamstring pulls and stuff like that," Sitake joked of the alumni. "We'll save the stadium for the stars that will be performing that night — unless someone convinces me otherwise."

Hall and Feterik will captain Team Navy and Team Royal, respectively, on Thursday evening. Also among the returning alumni are fullback Fahu Tahi, running back Reno Mahe, tight end Chad Lewis, linebackers David Nixon and Rob Morris, and wide receiver Cody Hoffman, among others.

"It's going to be epic," Hall told ESPN 960 radio. "You're going to get me, Ben Criddle, Harvey Unga, but also Kalani Sitake and Chad Lewis and some of the other coaching staff, guys from the 90s, LaVell Edwards' guys; we're all going to be there at one time in the stadium, competing, having fun.

"It's going to be a blast. Hopefully there's a lot of scoring and big plays being made. Just to see all of those guys on the field together, if you're a true blue Cougar fan, why would you not want to be there?"

There are other reasons to show up than watching older BYU football players who may or may not get injured. BYU current players and coaches will be on hand to sign autographs, take photos and mingle with fans after wrapping up spring practices earlier Thursday.

Parking is free in the west and south lots of LaVell Edwards Stadium, and fans can enter through gates 1 and 5 on the stadium's west side and gate 11 in the southeast corner of the stadium. Stadium concessions will also be available, including the famous Cougar Tail maple bar.

BYU defensive back D'Angelo Mandell will be hosting a charity drive with Lifting Hands International, a nonprofit in Utah that offers baby supplies and other relocation help for refugee families. Fans can drop store-bought diapers at select locations at the stadium, which Mandell and his team will take to the organization for distribution.

"Seeing that they don't have every-day things like diapers, tents, clothes.I know we have a big BYU fanbase, and let's get some diapers going," Mandell said after Monday's practice. "We decided to do it at the alumni game; it'll be a great place to come, bring diapers and watch our old guys hurt their hamstrings."

As for the current team's final practice, Sitake said they'll wrap up camp on the Student Athlete Building practice field Thursday afternoon, include some live work and tackling for the younger players, and put the final touches on the NCAA-allowed 15 practices before sending the players off to summer conditioning and player-run practices before training camp in August.

With over a month of practices, the timing of a spring game isn't as important. What matters most during the college football preseason is that team's get better; and for a team like BYU that returns 88% of its production from last year, that means getting better on offense, despite the loss of star running back Tyler Allgeier to the NFL draft.

Whether the team finishes the month-long sprint to the end of spring with a sometimes ill-described "spring game" is hardly relevant, wide receiver Gunner Romney said.

"It feels like we have a spring game every day in practice. The only difference really is that it's not open for people to come see. We're scrimmaging pretty much every day, and even several days where we are full tackle.

"We get to compete and go through game-like situations anyways. It doesn't make a huge difference for us (if there's a spring game or not)."

Romney will have a few former teammates playing in Thursday's game, and he's been talking the requisite trash with some of them. But when asked if he's Team Hall or Team Feterik, the senior receiver was fairly diplomatic.

"I'm Team Whoever Wins," he said with a laugh.

One of Sitake's keys to spring camp was to keep his team healthy; and for the most part, they've done that. The only major injury involved recently returned missionary Logan Fano, the former Timpview defensive end who announced last week that he suffered an ACL injury in camp and will be out for several months.

But don't count the edge rusher who tallied 115 tackles, 20.5 sacks, two quarterback hurries and two interceptions as a senior in high school out for the season just yet, either.

"The game of football is violent and physical; even when you are trying to be careful, injuries like that happen," Sitake said. "We're looking forward to him being back and making a full recovery; he's in great spirits.

"I wouldn't count him out for the fall, either. Normally we'd announce them done for the season. But right now, I think there's a good chance he can come back, participate, and maybe get up to four games in for his redshirt year this fall. Until then, we'll keep pushing him to get better."

Overall, the team's commitment to avoiding or limiting injuries seems to have paid off — even with players like Romney, who missed three games last year while compiling 594 yards and three touchdowns to leave him just 100 yards shy of 2,000 career receiving yards.

"I think the coaches have really helped me out, limiting some of my reps and letting some of the younger guys get more reps," he said. "This is the best I've felt in two or three years. I feel completely healthy, fast and fluid. It's been my No. 1 priority."

Related topics