Mendenhall encouraged by team's resilience


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PROVO — Heading into this week’s matchup with Middle Tennessee, BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall is eager for this week’s game, seeing it as both an opportunity to get out of the losing skid and as an opportunity to claim a win at a very key time for his team and its season.

“I think first and foremost it’s how bad our coaches and team want to get out of the skid and want to improve, want to commit, want to execute, want to practice, and how hungry they are to put in the work to make that happen,” Mendenhall said during his weekly coach’s show.

Mendenhall said he likes the effort he’s seen from his players this week and is encouraged with the mindset they’re carrying and their will to execute this week as they take on the Blue Raiders.

“Our guys are resilient, they're optimistic, they know they need to improve, they’re getting a very clear idea, or more clear idea, of where their strengths are, where their weaknesses are,” Mendenhall said, “so the specificity of their training is getting better and I think as they apply that this will end.”

Mendenhall spoke of the team and how each player and coach has an individual perspective and reason as to why they’re playing, or coaching, football at this time and that those reasons are what motivate and push them through the adversity the team is facing right now.

Mendenhall reflected on the 2010 season when the Cougars started 1-4, including losses to Utah State and Nevada, and is encouraged that this season will provide similar lessons for the team to learn and grow.

“I’m encouraged by our team, there are all kinds of great lessons to be teaching them, and I’m proud of how they’re responding so far. We just need to execute in a manner, then to match their work,” he said.

Reflecting on the loss to Boise State, it is evident that the Broncos came out and played with a lot of energy and that their execution was at a high level to where that energy just continued to increase. Mendenhall said that when BYU played in Boise in 2012, BYU’s defense was able to shut down the Broncos' offense, limiting the execution, which in turn limited the energy from the team and the crowd.

“The best way to combat the energy and emotion from the other team is to just out-execute them. That over time makes that (the energy) go away,” Mendenhall said.

Mendenhall pointed out four players who he felt executed and provided energy to his team versus Boise State, including Logan Taele, Jamaal Williams, Colby Pearson and Fred Warner.

“There were opportunities in that game to draw within and make that a competitive football game and what our team is really capable of, but there were enough mistakes built in as well that just didn’t make that happen,” Mendenhall said.

The Firehouse Firestarter of the game this week was sophomore defensive lineman Travis Tuiloma. Mendenhall spoke of Tuiloma’s consistency since the beginning of the season and said Boise State learned very quickly it could not run up the middle due to Tuiloma’s play.

The soft-spoken Tuiloma, from Topeka, Kansas, by way of Samoa, said the team as a whole needs to click together more and that the defensive line is trying hard to do its part to help make that happen.

“We’re mainly focused on doing our job, making sure we secure the inside and control what we can control as a position group,” he said.

Mendenhall described feeling anxious for Saturday’s matchup and he stressed that this isn’t the same Middle Tennessee that BYU beat last season, despite turning the ball over five times. Middle Tennessee has three quality tailbacks, big wide receivers and a mobile quarterback that could all give BYU’s defense fits if the Cougars aren’t careful.

“Different team, different year, and I think that really is the message at this point,” Mendenhall said of Middle Tennessee. “This is an important game for our program as it is for them, so I think there will be a lot riding on it.”

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