Week two of spring practice begins

PROVO, Utah -- The BYU football team donned pads for the first time in March as it started week two of spring practices.

After going through warmups and working on position-specific drills, the team ended with two 11-on-11 sessions. Playing with shoulder pads on Monday the players were able to be more physical in the trenches than the past three practices.

"I think that we'll be much improved from where we were a year ago, but we still have a lot of work to do," head coach Bronco Mendenhall said of the offensive line. "Our pass game is contingent on protection right now. We want our defense to throw as many possible looks at the offense as we can."

Those defensive looks proved to effective today as the offense was unable to score during the team drills. The defense forced a fumble early on and also broke up several passes.

"We're trying to get everybody on the same page as fast as possible," defensive coordinator Nick Howell said. "Right now we're experimenting with the secondary. It's about getting the best four guys on the field and finding that combination."

The offense had its best shot at scoring when sophomore receiver Colby Pearson snuck past the secondary on a deep route, but he wasn't able to secure the long pass.

The Cougars conduct practices on Wednesday and Friday.