Mendenhall: It Should Be Fun

Click to watch the video.

BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall

Opening Remarks

Good Morning. We’re excited to be home after another road trip versus San Diego State. I think our team showed a lot of grit and determination from beginning to end and found a way to win another Mountain West football game on the road. We are excited for another occasion to rise too, would be the way I would say it. There’s be a lot of attention that will be on our game versus TCU, I think as there should be – two very good opponents have a chance to play and compete for a conference championship. I think a positive sign is that GameDay will be coming, I think that is earned, I don’t think it’s a selection at random. And I think that both TCU’s program and our program now have played at a level where there is enough intrigue about what’s happening with our programs that we have been selected for that game; much like I would view being selected to play versus Oklahoma. So I think it’s another positive step in terms of recognition. I think it will be a great football game with two very good teams playing in a great atmosphere. I anticipate a sell-out game with just a lot of emotion, so it should be a lot of fun.

A lot of things are out of your control with the broadcast, but you have an ESPN entity coming in and saying this is important, but yet the conference partner that you have are all squabbling. I know this is totally out of your control, but do you have feelings about that?

I do have feelings about that. I think one of them is just a level of perception and a level of really understanding what’s going on and what’s at stake when you consider maybe the major entity that covers college football, recognizing the value of this particular match-up and really going out of their way to find the very best way to draw attention to it. You would think that that would be a philosophy held by others, especially our partners. If that’s not the case, I would be alarmed to think there is something wrong.

Bronco, you have coached in this league with and without TCU. What have they brought to the league as you have coached against them and what prestige have they brought?

I think they have brought a number of things. If you talk about on the field they bring speed and athleticism and a unique style of play. They are one of the most aggressive and best defenses in the country on a year in and year out basis, and so that in and of itself is a compelling reason to watch them. Then we look at their offense with multiple speed players to route, the offensive formation in motion, the option, and throwing the football, it is a dynamic style of play that way - with very good players. And so it creates a lot of challenges both offensively and defensively and then you look at their return game and they always have an excellent returner and so they are a fun team to watch. If you talk about their prestige, anytime you have a program that is winning nine or more games a year and has consistently, that becomes worth noting. And I think that’s where the national recognition starts to play in. And so, besides the current teams in the Mountain West that were doing that, you added another one now, which there are enough of those teams now that I think have propelled our league, at least into a higher level of recognition, otherwise there wouldn’t be the GameDay crew coming to Provo. There wouldn’t be three teams in the BCS rankings or the national rankings. And not only is it happening uniquely, but now it is happening consistently over the last couple of years, so I think what we have is a chance for our team to go and improve.

Can you talk about what your program learned from last year’s game at TCU?

I learned a lot of things. I am trying to remember exactly the sentiments, I remember how I was feeling going into the game that some of the attention was starting to affect not only myself as a coach, but our players. And I think we had maybe a false sense of security that we were a little better than what we were. I think because we had beaten TCU the previous two years, possibly some of the luster had come off playing against them, where maybe our players didn’t respect what they were capable up to the level necessary. And then I remember a very volatile start and looking at our organization, realizing that we hadn’t been in that situation much over the previous couple of years – playing from behind. Really, they challenge from beginning to end and then our execution not holding to respond and so I looked hard at possibly how I was preparing our team and realizing that even though we had tremendous success and hadn’t been playing from behind in most circumstances we better start training that, knowing that the league is better, that the teams we are playing are better, and on that given day, we could not be playing well. So in a nutshell, those are the things I remember looking back on it.

Looking back at that [last TCU] game, what has changed, what is different now?

I wish I could predict at a higher level. I think we’ll find out on Saturday if anything has changed. They are two different teams now, the coaches are the same, but teams change on a year-by-year basis. So I’m not even sure that we’ll even know after we play this Saturday other than their personnel differences. And each team has a different chemistry and identity on a year-by-year basis. But if you’re looking at styles of play, those are very similar, which they have been for the past four meetings. I think you might find more similarities than differences. Those games have been split 2-2, with the variety of different types of games and scores mixed in. So I am not sure what I could say might be the same or what might be different other than this one is played at home rather than on the road and they are two very good football teams playing and the outcome might be the only way to answer that as to what’s changed. I hope the outcome will be what’s changed, but it’s too early to tell that right now.

Without giving away your game plan, what can you do to slow down [TCU defensive end] Jerry Hughes and to keep him from having the kind of game he had last week?

I’m not sure other than there are some things you have to do. If Jerry’s actually able to know it’s pass, and be able to come off the ball like he would like to, it’s very difficult for any one player to be able to block him. I know there are teams that have used running backs to chip them, I know that there are teams that have used max protection. We’ve liked to be able to play offensive football the way we are accustomed with no change, that would be the ideal, but most likely that’s not going to happen because I think he is an exceptional talent. But TCU in general does a lot of things besides just having one player, their collective is very good. I know our offensive staff is already working and started early this morning to get a plan together, but I’m not sure I can take it any farther than that.

Will McKay play?

Good question. I’m not positive yet, I could probably answer that by tomorrow. I know he’s hopeful and was kind of targeting this game for one he might be able to return for. I didn’t leave him out on purpose, I just forgot, but probably by tomorrow I can give you an accurate answer other than I know he is hopeful.

Does any extra attention get paid to [wide receiver Jeremy] Kurly this week as far as the return game?

I think you have to. I know this that when they put in the quarterback a year ago, we had a hard time tackling him. I think that when he returns the football, he is in a very similar position. He has the ball and he has face and he is difficult to tackle. On the airplane ride home from San Diego State I saw his return against Colorado State, making five or six players miss. I think we wouldn’t be wise unless we had some kind of plan to make sure that we could at least limit the way he touches the football, and I’m sure that TCU on the other hand has a return game that uses him in multiple ways to make sure he can touch it. So there will be a strategic pull back and forth there.

It seems TCU has made you their rival. Is there an emotional component that needs to be acknowledged there?

I think we acknowledge it because they have clearly made it so. From what I understand they have a blocking dummy or something in their locker room with our helmet on it or et cetra. I don’t think that happens unless there is some respect, as I would call it. But I was also asked by San Diego State’s radio people if we acknowledge that game as a rival game because they had been asked that by Wyoming and by Air Force. I think possibly the tradition of the program being so good over such a long amount of time has provided that target. To give the motive for each particular team on why, I couldn’t do that, but I think to acknowledge that any further wouldn’t be wise.

Coach, in the CSU vs. TCU game, there were 14 TCU players that ran the football. As a defensive coach, can you speak to the level of tough certainty that their offense brings in terms of the variety of options.

We share a similar philosophy in us throwing to a number of different receivers, they use the same philosophy running with different ball carriers, which makes it more difficult – who exactly do you key in on? There are different styles of running so it’s difficult to keep up with inside runner, outside runner, spin runner, shake runner, vertical runner and the different speeds and tempos you hit. I think the way they are benefited most is the speed they can sustain with the number of people touching the ball. So with those type of players rolling through and fresh hands touching it, you might argue that they use continuity and lose a given player for having a feel for it. The system is designed to just keep fresh bodies coming at you. Again, you have to play scheme rather than personnel, which limits what you can do, but I think that’s what we are doing on the offense as well. And if you focus on Dennis on a third down, then the ball could go to Harvey. If you focus on Harvey then the ball could go to [Andrew]. If you focus on [Andrew] then the ball could go to Spencer. If you focus on Spencer, then the ball could go to Luke, etc. And so I think that’s why our third downs are more effective and I think that’s why they are good on offensive as well.

You said after Oklahoma, I’m kind of paraphrasing, ‘We didn’t think we could execute a typical defensive game plan, we had to do something different.’ TCU, is it that kind of team where you get the same kind of sense?

I have the same sense of what they do that kind of limits that option. There are elements of option football, there are elements of five wide receivers and throwing it, elements of two back, running. You might see, it might not be as recognizable, but there might be one thing that we might be able to alter within our normal plans versus any of those things that they do. But the volume of the different things they do, if we really focused on that approach, we wouldn’t be able to play normal defense well enough to be able to have a chance to win the football game. We’ll have to pick and choose what we think they do best, possibly have a change up to that, but we’re going to have to limit that on how well they execute.

Can you just give your assessment on Andy Dalton, and what do you think of their quarterback?

I usually, much like I gauge our own quarterbacks, I gauge it by number of wins and championships. And so if you go by the number of wins, he has been very effective. Stopped short so far of a championship season, but I think they are on track obviously this season being undefeated and being in the top 10 in the country. And he finds a way to help them win a lot of close games against great opponents. Clemson would be an example, Boise State in the bowl game would be an example, beating the University of Utah a year ago, those are just ones that stand out to me. But he is multi-faceted and he throws the ball well enough to make you defend for a throwing quarterback. He scrambles well enough to make sure that your scrambling lanes are sound, and he can run the football well enough. Any time you have a quarterback that can do those things, it is really a headache for a defensive staff.

Talk about how big the home-field advantage is, and then also, do you know anything about the field conditions?

I don’t know about the field conditions, but I would expect it to be similar to what it’s been. I’d like to say that it would be remarkably improved, I didn’t think that would be in place until a year from now, but I hope it’s improved than what it has been. But really I haven’t given really much thought with that.

And as for home-field advantage, I think it has been documented over the past couple of years we certainly can be beaten at home as Florida State proved. But I still think it’s a great advantage. I believe winning 19-of-20 or 18-of-19, something like that, it is just fun to be supported by our own fans.