Media Day Highlights and Quotes

BYU athletics and BYUtv hosted BYU Football National Media Day on Tuesday, July 12. Below are listed several highlights and quotes from the event.

BYU Football Media Day Highlights

• Learned football coach Bronco Mendenhall signed a three-year contract extension through the 2013 season.

• The ESPN family of networks will air at least 10 BYU regular season football games in 2011.

• Nearly 60 members of the media attended Football Media Day, including Andrea Adelson of ESPN.com, Brett McMurphy from CBSSports.com and Vicki Michaelis from USA Today.

• ESPN was represented at Football Media Day by analyst Trevor Matich, reporter Holly Rowe, vice president Dave Brown and coordinating producer Mikel Minor.

• BYUtv conducted 11 live chats — including thee in Spanish — and produced three hour-long shows for Media Day. Two of the shows were also simulcast live on ESPN3.

• BYUtv’s  hour-long Legend’s Roundtable featured Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer, ESPN’s Trevor Matich, Super Bowl MVP Steve Young, College Football Hall of Fame Coach LaVell Edwards and NFL linebacker Bryan Kehl. Sophomore quarterback Jake Heaps and senior offensive lineman and Outland Trophy candidate Matt Reynolds also participated in the roundtable.

• BYU football was featured on ESPN College Football Live, including interviews with Bronco Mendenhall and Steve Young.

• KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM / 1160 AM, 1320 KFAN, 1280 KZNS and ESPN 700 all broadcast live from the BYU Broadcast Building on Media Day.

• All Media Day programming on BYUtv was simulcast on BYU Radio and Sirius XM.

• Bronco Mendenhall, Jake Heaps and Uona Kaveinga were interviewed by Holly and Rowe and Trevor Matich for ESPNU.

• Jakes Heaps participated in an ESPNU College Football podcast.

• The first day after the BYUCougars.com relaunch, people from 43 countries visited the site. That number increased to 105 before Media Day.

• BYU Athletic Communications and Marketing posted 37 blogs and 42 videos

Quotes

Justin Sorensen on his unicycle ability: “It started the summer between fourth and fifth grade.  I was at my cousin’s house and I was all by myself. They had an old unicycle with a flat tire and I rode it for something like twelve hours.  In fifth grade I rode it to school everyday, rain or shine. From there it just escalated and at age 12 I competed in the national championship in Washington. It’s just been a big part of my life ever since." 

LaVell Edwards on independence: "It's a whole new ball game.  Bronco is a very sharp young man and is a very good football coach. He will figure out ways to keep his kids motivated and keep them going in the right direction. Things can get real tough if you get off to a slow start and you aren't playing for a conference championship." 

Bryan Kehl on Bronco: "Bronco is a one of a kind guy. I have said this many times in many different circumstances and my opinion hasn't changed: Bronco is the best football coach I have ever been around. He is just an all around great coach and we are just lucky he chose to coach football. I think he could have been an excellent coach in any sport because of the way he leads men. He is not a guy that loves being the center of attention but he loves coaching young men to success. As long as he continues to coach I know he will be successful." 

Ty Detmer on BYU recruiting: "I think BYU has missed out on a lot of recruits, including LDS recruits, to schools like Notre Dame and Stanford because they have so much more exposure on the national landscape. Now I think we will be able to get some of those kids and attract more non-LDS kids because they will get a chance to see this team on national TV like I did in high school. I had the chance to see BYU play for the National Championship and in a few other games. I didn't know anything about the school, Utah or the LDS Church, but I knew they threw the ball, and knew that would be perfect for me. Seeing BYU on TV made a huge difference for me during my recruitment and I am sure it will make a difference for other kids as well."

Romney Fuga on the 2011 season: "I would say we as a team are more committed than ever before to perform on the field. We aren't focused on a conference schedule or a conference championship because it’s more about the national scene. We set the expectations for ourselves and we set them higher than anyone that watches or follows us. We expect to win and dominate every game and I think we are capable of that."

Jordan Pendleton on playing Utah and Utah State: "It's huge for us to beat Utah State and Utah this season. We take pride in winning the in-state rivalry because we always want to be the best team in the state. To lose to both teams last year really fuels our fire for this season. We hadn't lost to Utah State in years before last year and they just came out and played better than us. We never want to lose to any team, but especially not to our in-state rivals."

Matt Reynolds on media day: "Its nice to have a media day in Provo so we can bring in more players to interact with the media. This year we have a wide variety of players and I think that gives the public a more well-rounded focus of how the team is feeling heading into the season. It's also nice to have all the focus on BYU and not on a conference or any other team."