Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
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BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall met the media this morning in Provo, previewing the Cougars' Las Vegas Bowl meeting with his alma mater, Oregon State.
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You can hear all of Bronco's podium comments, as well as group interviews with Jan Jorgensen and Colebly Clawson by clicking on their audio links in the "Cougar Cuts" box to the lower right.
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Asked about the notion that a fourth consecutive trip to Vegas sapped some of his team's excitement ahead of the 2008 bowl meeting with Arizona, Mendenhall left no doubt that this year's group is indeed excited to face Oregon State in Vegas. He said while Arizona was a good football team, the trip's regularity combined with disappointment over losing out on a BCS bowl opportunity affected his team last year.
"I think just the opposite will be in place this year...we're playing a very good football team, a team that I know our players are excited to play... and I think that in and of itself has them kind of chomping at the bit to get back to Las Vegas and to play well. I think none of us felt like we played maybe to our full potential a year ago, and so I think that...is a motivating factor to go back and do it at a higher level."
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Bronco said the team will practice today and every day except Sundays ahead of the December 22nd bowl. He said the Cougars will practice "more" in Provo than they have ahead of previous Las Vegas Bowl games.
The coach said a bowl departure date has yet to be determined, and that the school is working with the bowl on how to best handle activities scheduled for the Sunday before gameday.
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Bronco called this season's Las Vegas Bowl game the "best" bowl matchup his team has had since he's been the BYU head coach. Mendenhall said it's the healthiest BYU has been ahead of any bowl game.
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The coach commented on the TCU/Boise State Fiesta Bowl, saying the matchup was the "safest thing" for BCS proponents, but that he "would have preferred" to see TCU and BSU play other teams.
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Asked about the 13-year span of time since his departure from Corvalis, Bronco said he knows of no ties remaining to the Oregon State program, adding that he has not been back on campus since he left there in 1996. Mendenhall re-stated that he and his wife have gotten to know OSU coach Mike Riley and his wife in the interim, and that he considers them good friends.
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Bronco said graduate assistants will finish compiling Oregon State tape today, and coaches will start work scouting the Beavers tomorrow.
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The coach talked about his playing and coaching days at OSU, calling them "hard times in Oregon State's history...everything was difficult. That in and of itself established as work ethic and an appreciation of just the nature of how hard it is to win football games, and that appreciation has never left. Bronco added that his days in Corvalis were "like a different lifetime," but that "memories were pleasant, learned a lot of valuable lessons, and I think it was a formative stage not only in my life but in my career."
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You may have already heard that the BYU v. Nevada basketball game scheduled for December 22nd in Las Vegas has been moved up--from 7:30pm (PT) to 12 noon (PT). This will allow BYU fans (and broadcasters) to see both the basketball game and the bowl game, which kicks off at 5:00pm (PT). BYU will play as scheduled on Wednesday night versus either Tulsa or Nebraska, at 5:00pm or 7:30pm (PT).
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