2010 NCAA Football Preview: Brigham Young
Bronco Mendenhall has done a very good job with the Brigham Young Football program since taking over five years ago. After his first season, which was more or less a rebuilding year yet still found the team finishing 6-6, he has led the Cougars to four straight 10+ win seasons. For the last four seasons he has led the team to top 25 finishes in each season finishing 16th in 2006, 14th in 2007, 25th in 2008 and 12th in 2009.
Mendenhall has taken the team to bowl games in each of his five seasons, winning three, most recently the Maaco Bowl Las Vegas against Oregon State. Twice he has been able to take the conference championship, which is no easy task with teams like TCU and Utah fielding quality teams every year. However, those were back in 2006 and 2007.
With such quality seasons it is a small wonder that there has been one thing that has been kept out of the grasp of BYU: a bid to a BCS bowl. To get there they will likely have to find a way to defeat either TCU or Utah or both. Mendenhall will have to figure out how to replace a handful of players on both sides of the ball as well.
Offense
Losing many of your skill players is never a good thing, but that is exactly what happened for the Cougars. Quarterback Max Hall is gone as is running back Harvey Unga due to an honor code violation. Riley Nelson has yet to throw more than 10 passes in his college career. No other running back on the roster had more than 55 carries or 250 yards last season. Hall could find himself backing up freshman Jake Heaps who enters BYU early from high school and was rated the #1 pro-style passer in the nation.
Whether it is Heaps or Hall, they will at least have a good line and a good group of receivers to work with. Four of five linemen are back including all-conference tackle Matt Reynolds. It would not be surprising to see Reynolds entering the draft after this season. Four wide receivers return to the fold that could make Hall’s or Heaps’ job much easier. McKay Jacobson averaged 24 yards a catch last season.
The line should help give whoever start at quarterback time to get acclimated as well as open holes for the new running backs. BYU generally likes to run the ball a lot, but if the winner of the quarterback contest can establish a relationship with the receivers they could return the pass happy days of seasons past.
Defense
Some of the toughest work that the team has in store will be in trying to rebuild a unit that was one of the better one in the nation last year; against the rush they ranked 21st and overall they were 28th. However they were 62nd in pass defense, something that does not bode well for a team that has to play Utah and TCU.
Only two starters return in the front seven, Romney Fuga at nose tackle and Jordan Pendleton at linebacker. Pendleton did okay with 51 tackles and two interceptions on the year in 2009 and will likely build off of that. There is a good chance he could end up being joined by incoming freshman Zac Stout, a very quick and aggressive player from the tough football state of California.
The worst unit from 2009 could end up being their best in 2010. In the secondary there will be three returning starters including all conference player Andrew Rich at strong safety. At 6’3” and 223 pounds he can make some hits when he needs to. last season he made 85 tackles and had four interceptions.
Luckily for BYU fans, when you have a coach the molds the team into winners every year like Mendenhall has you are going to recruit good players. Last season he had to replace most of his offense and four starters on defense and still led the team to an 11-2 record, beating three ranked teams during the year. He'll have to do it again, but he's been successful in the past.
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