Mendenhall: We Look Forward to Returning Home

BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall

Opening Remarks

Good Morning. After a difficult game versus the University of New Mexico and one that I was very proud of our team in the way they came out, especially the finish of the game. We look forward to returning home to play against a very good Air Force team, it’s always one of our favorite games of the year, not only because of the uniqueness of schemes that Air Force plays with, but who they play with. I have a lot of admiration for their players and what their institution is about and just the quality of coaching. It’s really one of the highlights of the year and I’m really looking forward to it and I think our team is too.

Coach, Air Force leads the nation in passing yards allowed and has one of the best pass-efficiency defenses too, what do you see with the relationship there?

I think both of their corners are playing really well. Traditionally, Air Force uses a collective approach defensively, like they do offensively with scheme to kind of make the most of the type of athletes they have, the type of individuals. This particular year they have, I think, two corners that are playing really well. They’re a lot of zone blitz, they get nice pressure on the quarterback, they’re very innovative in what they do, but if they choose to leave their corners alone on the wide receivers, they’re doing a really nice job. I think it’s a combination of another year under their defensive coordinator, more specific in what they’re doing, better use of personnel and then two corners that are playing pretty well.

Against New Mexico you faced a lot more third-and-longs than you are used to, I guess lack of running game plays into that, doesn’t it?

I think the difference in the game itself, if you’re saying from an offensive perspective, maybe from what type of game we thought it would be, and the way it ended up being – I think New Mexico’s ability to play run defense against us. It wasn’t that we didn’t have the intent to run the ball, but we weren’t very effective and to their credit, they played us very well up front. That forced us to be more one-dimensional than what we normally are. Third-and-longs are what you’re talking about, even though we threw for a lot of yardage, the type of game we were playing is not to our liking, we’re a lot more balanced that what we’ve had.

Can you address the status of your offensive line and if Nick [Alletto] will play?

We were hopeful that Nick would play this last week, so that was a little bit of a surprise that he didn’t. Certainly that would mean, I would think, that he can play this week. Again, I was expecting him a week ago. So that will help us a lot. I held Fono Vakalahi back from the trip based on academic performance as well, so that was one less player that we had in the mix in terms of rotation. Braden Brown started his first and played his first complete game at offensive tackle. Now it’s going on week 11 and we’re thin, but with Nick back and possibly some depth coming back with Vakalahi, that gets us probably as good as we’ve been all year, at least in terms of bodies.

Give us an update on Harvey [Unga] at this point.

I think we made a wise decision and possibly prevented more damage being done, because even when we pulled him out. It will still take a couple days for him to get back to where he was to play Saturday, but I think probably by Wednesday we will reach that mark and that will give us Thursday and Friday to have him probably exceed where he was this past game and that’s probably as far as I will say.

Can you talk about having Terrance Hooks out?

It’s hard. Terrance had worked so hard to rehabilitate his other ruptured patella. He’s an emotional leader on the team, he’s a great young man, he’s a fantastic example, he means a lot – in terms of leadership – to our team. Now helping him frame, getting ready to do it again, is not easy. He’s very resilient, but I think this would test anybody’s resolve. So we’ll miss him. In terms of where we go from here, Shane Hunter and Brandon Ogletree will become the two backup linebackers for us. But it’s really not so much about them, it’s what we can do to help Terrance. From my understanding, surgery is as early as tomorrow, if possible. I think there is swelling criteria that has to be met, but basically my advice was not so much the physical readiness, but to make sure he’s ready mentally before they do it because of the rehab that has to happen – the pain, etc.

Since you became head coach you have really emphasized winning at home, playing well at home. Do you feel like you have to re-emphasize that with your team this week despite some of the home games this season?

I don’t think so. I think they certainly know where I stand, they’ve all been part of the past couple of seasons and they know what emphasis we have. The worst thing right now is to add additional pressure to that. They already know how I expect them to play, and they want to play well. We have played two pretty good teams. The first one we turned it over far too many times and didn’t play a very good football game. The second one, I think on that night, a better team beat us. And so we’ll see how we finish, but I don’t think it will be a matter of motivation, enthusiasm or intent, nor did I see that in the first two.

Coach, Riley Stevenson was punting but not kicking off on Saturday?

Yes. Coach Lamb and Coach Tidwell had made a decision just based on what they saw during the week, possibly with some of the wind conditions, etc. That Mitch [Payne] would have a little bit more consistency and being able to land it maybe more where we were hopeful on a higher basis and it played out pretty well – it worked out just about what we thought. I can’t say if that will happen this week or not, but I think certainly just similar to what we learned in Wyoming, sometimes our kickers are affected more or less by the wind, so they made a decision based on that.

Thoughts on the TCU win over Utah on Saturday night?

Holly made sure we watched it. TCU is a good football team – they are fast, they are well coached, they are very diverse and they are good in all phases. Their offense doesn’t have to carry them alone, their defense doesn’t have to carry them alone, nor do their special teams. They are good in all three phases, with good personnel, good talent, good coaching and in my opinion, they are one of the best teams in the country. I’d love to see them have a chance to play whomever they can play at whatever level they can play to demonstrate that, but I think they have a really good football team.

On that note, Bronco, is there any disappointment that most likely you won’t be able to get a share in the conference title?

It’s still too early to say because anything can happen. Over the last two weeks, all we could really work, and what I’m anxious to do is to our team reach our potential. I know what the expectations here are, I would love to finish at the top of the league every year and I think we have a very good team. I think we’ll play very well the next two weeks and in post season, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Why do you think BYU has had such success at beating Air Force?

I think that our coaches do a really nice job in the practice module during the week. We work really hard in terms of understanding their schemes and what they’re trying to do. We usually have a physical team on both sides of the ball, which helps against a team like Air Force. I think those things lead to our chance to play with a high level of execution. And I think our team looks forward to playing the game because Air Force is a unique challenge.

Why do you think you had struggles running the ball, what was New Mexico specifically doing?

I think just on that particular day, most of the time when you run the ball well or don’t - and there are exceptions with scheme here and there – but most of the time when you run the ball well, or stop the run well, it’s just man-for-man with one player beating the player across from him. And really, I think that New Mexico’s front did a very nice job of probably playing a little faster and physical than what we expected and prepared for and that was to their credit.