BYU Football with Bronco Mendenhall 10-22-13

PROVO — Coming off one of the most wild, thrilling games in the Bronco Mendenhall era, the Cougars look to avenge last season's 7-6 heartbreaker to Boise State this Friday at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Coach Mendenhall is still "recovering" from the Cougars 47-46 victory over Houston Saturday at Reliant Stadium. The game featured multiple lead changes, three turnovers for each team, and a last-minute drive that resulted in a touchdown from Taysom Hill to Skyler Ridley.

"At this point, I remember two plays" said Mendenhall. "I remember the pass to Skyler Ridley for the touchdown and the interception by Alani Fua."

Even though the Cougars were outscored 38-34 in the first half, they were able to hold Houston to eight points in the second half and pull out a rare win in the Bronco-era when trailing after halftime and the third quarter. BYU is 6-20 when having trailed at halftime and after three quarters, but is 4-4 in the last eight such games.

Bronco Mendenhall described why BYU has been able to win these games lately by quoting John Wooden. "To win games on the road against good teams, you have to have players that are at their best when their best is needed."

BYU punter Scott Arellano was named this week's Firehouse Subs Firestarter of the Week for his performance at Houston. "I'm going to go with Scott Arrellano, our punter for the last two punts, changing field position, which set up the game-winning drive and stand. Those last two punts changed everything."

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Looking ahead to Boise State, the Cougars expect a great challenge as both teams come in sporting 5-2 records with three- and four- game winning streaks on the line. Boise State leads the all-time series 3-0 with the last two games having been decided by one point each. Both offenses are similar with BYU ranking 14th and Boise State 20th in rushing yards per game.

This week, Boise State will be without starting quarterback Joe Southwick, who broke his ankle in last week's matchup with Nevada. Grant Hedrick, the backup, came in and completed 18-21 passes and made some nice runs. Coach Mendenhall expects the Boise State offense to be just as potent. "Grant Hedrick is more like Taysom Hill. He's really active, a strong scrambler, and quick. Before Southwick got hurt, (Hedrick) came in for designed quarterback runs, running option, zone reads, carrying out fakes. Last game, he rattled off a 60 yard run. He completed 18-21 passes. The thought that all of a sudden Boise will be inept offensively; that's not the case."

Boise State and BYU are both much improved offensively from last year and Mendenhall expects "it'll be a great test for us." When asked if last year's film is even applicable with Boise State's offensive staff realignment, Bronco responded, "the systems are almost entirely different. You look at this year's film the best you can, but last year's matchup, you have some idea of personnel, but the schematic part is really not relevant."

Boise State running back Jay Ajayi is averaging 100 yards per game, something that Bronco and his defense are well aware of and will focus on limiting as a key factor in the game. "Boise would prefer to be run-first if they can. If we're not able to play strong run defense, they have you where they want you." With Hedrick being a mobile quarterback, Coach Mendenhall knows that containing him will be key this week. "After working against Houston's quarterback, who was really mobile and hurt us that way, the focus has been not only on recovering and learning from what we could've done better a week ago, but applying it right now in a short week." The Cougars hope to duplicate their rush defense success against Houston as they held the Red Cougars to only 48 yards of rushing.

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Fans at LaVell Edward Stadium Tuesday night were treated to a visit from Quarterback Taysom Hill, fresh off a record-setting performance in Houston. Hill is the first BYU quarterback to ever throw for over 400 yards and rush for over 100.

In the first three games of the season, Hill's completion rate and passing efficiency were 33% for 72.5, 35% for 68.6, and 38% for 78.8. Over his last four games, his numbers have significantly improved to 74% for 141.4, 55% for 155.7, 70% for 158.5, and 66% for 161.9. Marc Lyons asked Hill what the keys to his improvement from the beginning of the season to now have been. "I think there are a lot of things that have gone into that. Honestly, we had a lot of passing schemes at the beginning of the year that basically gave the receiver the option on what he did. That kind of inhibited me knowing when he was going to break and when he wasn't going to break. It's really hard to establish good timing when we're doing things like that. As we've progressed through the season, we've changed that. I think it has to do with our scheme and because we've changed that, it's allowed me to have better timing with our receivers and I think as I've progressed in the offense, it's started to slow down for me and we've seen the result of that.

Coach Mendenhall was asked to compare Hill to some the other players he's coached, and it was very apparent what the Coach thinks about his quarterback. "I don't think it's fair to compare any player to another. Taysom is a great person and an excellent player in his own right. He has his own style not only of leadership, but of performance. I think Taysom will stand on his own here, not only this season, but over the next few as BYU's quarterback."

The numbers are starting to prove that Hill can be effective and efficient as a quarterback and he attributed the success to timing and play-calling. "I think it was a progression. I think our timing is what clicked. We got out of 3rd and long situations, and I think we started to throw the ball on 1st and 2nd downs and it allowed us to have softer coverage and establish some easy completions early on and we kept the defense on their toes."

There is no doubting that the Houston game was definitely Hill's finest as the starting QB at BYU. He passed for 417 with four touchdowns and added 194 yards rushing. Most impressive was his poise and composure on the final drive that resulted in a perfectly thrown ball to Skyler Ridley for the game-winning score. For Taysom Hill, it was all part of the plan. "I always knew we were going to win that football game and I knew that our defense was going to go hold them and that we were going to have a great chance to do it. These are the things that I've prepared for. When I went out there, I wasn't nervous, I felt really prepared and that goes to our coaches for getting us prepared for a situation like that."

For the Pocatello, Idaho native, this week's game is a chance for the Cougars to continue to improve and also a chance to remove the taste of last year's bitter defeat. "That was a tough one. Our defense battled and played extremely well; they played more than good enough to win and that was a tough game to lose. We've put a lot of preparation into this week. We want this one and I want this one bad."

Boise State rushed for over 400 yards against Nevada last week. Coach Mendenhall's teams have not allowed opponents to rush for over 100 yards very often and stated that this statistic was key to the Cougars success this Friday against the Broncos.

Going into this week's game, both Coach Mendenhall and Hill feel that there will be more points scored than last year's 7-6 score. Hill feels confident and stated the offense's goals for this week and the rest of the season. "Especially after a game like we just had, offensively, we are really confident in what we can do and what we can accomplish. As an offensive unit, right now our focus is we need to be more consistent. We came out and played really well the 1st quarter, didn't play so well the 2nd and 3rd quarter, and picked it up when we needed to in order to get the win. We need to put 4 quarters of good offensive production together."

The last time BYU scored in all 4 quarters was last year's victory at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

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In the fan question segment of the show, Bronco Mendenhall shared his thoughts about BYU's mission and how it was portrayed in the new book, "The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football" by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian. "We're not perfect and the program isn't perfect, but the intent of what we're doing is a good intent. To not acknowledge, see, or appreciate the uniqueness of what we're doing or trying to do to the best of our ability; that would be a shame, because there are a lot of cool things happening here."

Also, Coach Mendenhall again reiterated the exposure that BYU is receiving by being on ESPN constantly. "Only eight schools are seen more than BYU out of 125 Division-I football programs. When you add BYUtv, we are one of the most viewed programs of any college sport in the world."

Fans are also encouraged to attend the "Cougar Walk" Friday at 3:30 pm on the east side of LaVell Edwards Stadium to welcome the team to the stadium and to participate in one of the new Cougar traditions on gamedays. The coaches and players will be giving away limited edition "Rise and Shout" t-shirts as they make their way to the locker room. Coach Mendenhall shared his feelings about the Cougar Walk Tuesday night.

"There's so many folks that come and it's nice for not only them to recognize the hard work of our players, but I think it's nice for our players to show appreciation, shake hands, and be reciprocal, and I think that's the part I enjoy."

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Tune into KSL Newsradio Friday at 4 pm for the Cougar Countdown Show with kickoff starting at 6 pm on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM.

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Reggie Lewis is a KSL Newsradio BYU intern.

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