Mendenhall: We Haven't Reached Our Potential Yet

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BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall

Opening Remarks

Good Morning. After watching the game film and just kind of verifying thoughts on the game, I think it was one of the cleanest games we have played this year in all faces – offense, defense and special teams. Our team looked fast, we looked fresh and we played really physical. I think the University of Wyoming showed signs of just game number nine maybe, through the course of the year playing really hard and maybe that caught up with them a little bit. But our team executed and played at a really high level and I was proud of the way they played and really proud of the way they prepared by our coaching staff. I think it sets a nice tone for the remainder of this season and looking to improve our football team and see how much progress we can make with the time remaining.

When you experience losing like New Mexico has, how hard is it to get your troops ready for a daily practice?

It is difficult – I think it’s difficult to get your coaches and your players ready for a daily practice. At some point there has to be, the term we use, ‘simple successes.’ Those then kind of ignite the fire and keep the program motivated and let everyone in the organization know that there is a tangible result to the work and at some point you have to have a win to substantiate what you’re doing or along the way your players might lose faith either in yourself as the leader or credibility of the schemes and what you’re doing. I can’t speak for their program, but having been at New Mexico when we won three games, and then four and then five, and knowing how hard it was to win just

one more each year, it took a lot of extra energy, not only by coaches, but I think everyone in the program needs to remain positive and keep going.

Can you talk about the linebackers and how they have progressed through the course of the season?

I would say that our front seven in general, and I know you can’t take out a single game because we did not play well, nor did I prepare them well up front for the Florida State game, but since then if you were to say, are we getting good pressure on the quarterback? That answer is yes. Are we playing excellent run defense? I think we are. And the consistency in how those guys are playing is reflective of upperclassmen. And so Matt Bauman, in terms of leadership and where he fits and how he directs the front, he has much more presence than he did a year ago. Shawn Doman, Terrance Hooks are providing a nice kind of combination of the buck linebacker spot. Coleby Clawson is having a phenomenal year at the will linebacker spot. Our down three players, Romney Fuga, if you put Russell Tialavea with him and then Jan and Brett are consistent every game and then Jordan Pendleton is performing well for a first-year starter at a pretty critical position. I think if you were to look game in and game out at that unit, you’re going to have a great idea of how they are going to perform week in and week out. And I think now that we have been able to look a little closer at who we are and what we’re able to do and having used the bye week I think we’re even leveraging them even a little higher level than what we were prior.

Coming off a big win like you had with Wyoming, how do you prepare now for a team like New Mexico?

It would be maybe different if our philosophy wasn’t already established. And I talked with our seniors as well as our team going back two weeks ago after our game against TCU. Just to remind them that our program’s goals don’t have much to do with our opponent, it’s how good can we get our particular team. And that will be the focus this week and the next week and the next week. We haven’t reached our potential yet, we’re moving forward and I think we have moved forward in every game in some capacity. So the idea now is, from how we have just performed, how is it possible to improve that and where can we target to push to improve our program.

Talk about Max Hall’s play overall and how he is able to bounce

back.

I was really impressed. Max plays great especially when he’s having fun, he has fun when he’s playing well, so it’s kind of a combination. When I came up to him in the game, in the middle of the third quarter and told him we were pulling him out he said, ‘But I’m having so much fun!’ That is really an element that is easy to forget about, especially in a big game or the scrutiny that a quarterback faces at BYU. Somehow if I can continue to help him remain in that place, I think I would be coaching him a lot more effectively because everywhere else he goes there is the expectation, I’d love it to be here when he has the expectation, but he wants to have fun doing it. I don’t remember through the course of the game, I just watched it again; I didn’t remember an incomplete pass, I know that there were two of them, but he was very accurate. We ran the ball so effectively that they had to have a safety drop in the majority of the time, which makes our passing game really open. But he was throwing on time, he had good protection, he was accurate, he was scrambling, he was having fun and the only thing he didn’t do was slide, so we’re still working on that.

Do you have any thoughts at all on the big TCU vs. Utah game and what it means for the conference and everything else?

I think what Brett just told me is that GameDay is going to be at Fort Worth again this week, which he also showed me that they were in Air Force for the Air Force-Army game, which is a great thing. We have some quality football programs in our league and now that the nation at large is having a chance to see, or at least recognize that. And now with TCU being ranked as high as number four, it is an awesome thing for our conference. I think it will be a great football game. I think they are two good teams and as you know, I can’t predict well, not even when we play. But I think it’s the kind of thing that the conference is deserving of, whether it’s us against TCU, TCU against Utah, ourselves against Utah, it’s deserving for the nation to kind of stop and pay attention to that game, and I think that’s what’s happening.

In winning the conference goal that you have, does that have you pulling for Utah?

Hard to answer that one. Just rather than to get caught up in who I will be pulling for, I am more interested in the strategy – I think it’s going to be an interesting match-up and I’ll leave it at that.

What is it about this year’s team that they are able to play so well on the road?

Not so much about this year’s team, but they are very similar to the previous year’s teams. They like going on the road, it’s a nice break from campus life. They get along so well – it’s fun to see them rooming together when we bed check them, or coming into meals, there is a camaraderie that has developed and maybe an increased focus sometimes. But also a break from the local perspective on how our team is. So I think they really look forward to having fans in different areas come out so they can talk with them at the firesides or after the game and I think maybe that’s helpful on the road, but I don’t feel much a difference than the past three.