Mendenhall: Anxious to Finish Our Season

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BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall

Opening Remarks

Good Morning. After what I thought was a productive bye week, we’re anxious to finish our season. During the bye week a lot of positive things happened: certainly increased health both mental and physical was part of the process, our players having the chance to catch up on some schoolwork with a slightly lighter practice schedule, a lot of self-analysis in terms of our schemes that can be done and accomplished and a little bit of a head start against Wyoming. Also now we have a chance to possibly gain one extra practice day of a heavier nature this week going into the game, and again that will be specific to Wyoming, but I think the benefits of that will help us going down the stretch. The conference race as with standings and rankings, etc. now they start to become relevant. After eight weeks of play you can kind of get an idea of what kind of teams people have, how they’re playing, what their character is, what their chemistry is, what their identity is, and then certainly four more weeks will just add to that, but the picture becomes a lot clearer now as to what our league looks like and maybe the nation at large, so it becomes an exciting time in college football.

How do you assess the mental and physical state of your team at this point?

Physically, it’s the healthiest we’ve been and I would say mentally it’s the healthiest we’ve been other than maybe going into the Oklahoma week. It was a great chance to reflect on what we’re doing well, what we’re not doing well, have a chance to visit with certain players - especially senior leadership – and give them a chance to express their thoughts, become kind of unified and optimistic and motivated for the next four games, and so I think the bye week really came at a good time.

You’ve played against these new coaching staffs now once before with Brady, now you get Dave. What have you noticed on film that Dave has brought to Wyoming?

Similar to what Brady has brought to San Diego State, there is just more confidence, more of a sense of purpose, more urgency, more determination, more grit and no quit. So these teams, even though they are not dominant in terms of their record at this point, every team they play it seems like they have a great chance to win the football game, usually to the end, sometimes right up to the end. But I think what they have brought is that urgency, that confidence and maybe that determination to get things better, and it shows by the way that their players are playing.

What are your findings lately, your introspection?

Just a couple of things, maybe. Really, if you look at an offensive perspective, I think we’re very very efficient and I have been very impressed with how we are playing on third downs. In the situations where we are not playing well on third downs, that’s when our model kind of breaks down in terms of how we assigned offense, defense and special teams. And so TCU did a really nice job in limiting us. And basically what we’re best at – third and medium – we were able to get to that situation, I think, 15 times and yet we weren’t able to convert with nearly the accuracy nor identity that we’ve had before.

So third down appears to be critical offensively for the most part rounding that out. Defensively, I really like the way we’ve played through six out of the eight games and the other two, two different stories. Big plays in the pass game against TCU our big plays in general, seemed to directly tie into our points allowance, we need to get a handle on that. And then really, I learned a lesson with Florida State in just making sure we remind ourselves and harp on the fundamentals within the practice structure, and I probably departed a

little bit too early from that at that point in the season. So I think the first had a lot to do with how I designed the practice structure and the second one was simply balancing balls in plays to get over our head, gadgets and over the top that changed the game. And with our identity in terms of recovery speed, that’s not something that we can do.

In a general sense of managing the program, after a bad game like that, the outside roles kind of clamors for some kind of change. In contrast, do you find that your program needs to remain consistent?

I think that consistency is the hallmark of maybe, at least what people view as myself as a leader and maybe as our program and possibly at some point they’ll get bored of the consistency, but we’re not going to change for the sake of change nor are we going to change when we’re having the success and as long as I feel like we’re moving forward and improving, I don’t intend any radical changes. We probably are more thorough in our analysis week to week in any program certainly that I have been a part of and maybe more than any other and

I don’t think anyone can be any harder on our program than myself, so if I see a need to change, then I would, but until then we’ll just keep winning games and hopefully competing for conference championships and playing a full season, etc.

What can you do defensively to cut down on the big plays that you’re giving up?

I think a lot of it is just execution and concentration. As again, six of the eight games I am very comfortable for the way those have gone and if you look at the identity of the two games we have lost, quite different in terms of nature. So to say that there is an increasing or a looming problem or an uncorrectable problem – I don’t think that’s the case. And while many get tired of hearing me say this, execution still had a lot to do with our last setback versus TCU. Not only in the secondary, but in terms of pressure, in terms of coverage by the linebackers, etc. But in between that, there were a lot of really positive plays, etc. So concentration, execution in itself will be the

main thing. And when you give up a one-play drive, whether it be in a pass play or a long run, etc. those things change momentum very quickly, so that’s the main thing we have to do is just keep focused.

What are you taking out of everything you are seeing in the conference race?

I think there is some good football teams again. What’s fun to watch for me is the San Diego State, Wyoming, Air Force combination, and there is some good football being played there. A lot of times people outside of the league only mention ourselves and TCU and Utah, but it’s fun for me to see some of the new coaches having success, and some of the kids playing with more confidence and some of the changes they have made there as well, so I think it’s fun.

Can you just give us an assessment of what you have seen on Wyoming’s offense and what you see on tape on defense?

Their defense is playing really well, very similar in strategy and scheme to what they have been the last number of years. They are a three-four team that likes the zone pressure, very physical and disruptive and they have quite a bit of experience on our defensive line and so I like their defensive strategy. In fact, there are some similarities, they are probably more aggressive in terms of numbered pressures they send than us, but there are a lot of similarities

concept-wise as to what we do, but I like the way they play on defense. Offensively, they are very innovative. Dave has brought a lot of unique ideas that they had success with at Missouri and they have some youth at the quarterback position, but certainly the ability to create. I think what they’re lacking in consistency they’re making up for to stay in football games with enthusiasm and scheme and the defense playing well enough that they can take chances here and there. And possibly score their points in spurts rather than from beginning to end is what I see. But a lot of scheme and strategy things that are pretty unique and hard to defend and I think as they continue to have

one year, then two years, then three years, those jumps in addition to personnel and scheme-wise, they are going to be very very good. And then special teams-wise, I think they are solid. As you have probably already seen, they have a rugby-style kind of punter and they use that very effective and so the reason I think they play everyone they’ve played close, with maybe the exception of a half against (early in the season) Texas, their defense is playing well enough and their offense is capable enough to where they’re in every game, and I think their players know that and that’s why they are playing hard.