BYU Sports

The Cougars held their Tuesday night football practice under the lights at the outdoor practice facility, and afterwards coach Bronco Mendenhall pronounced it one of the better ones of the season.
“ All the way from the game against TCU, the practices are even better than what they were. This team practices really well. They are optimistic, they are working hard, they are playing really physical and I really like the way they are performing,” he said.
Mendenhall said the reason for the increased urgency is simple.
“Any time you are faced with adversity, you have to make a choice,” he said. “So I think that is part of it. I think seeing the close of the season getting closer. It is almost like running the 400 meters, where you finish that last bend, and it is not easy, but you know the tape is close, so you dig down deep and the end is in sight as well. That motivates a lot of people and there’s a lot to play for still.”

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Perhaps the biggest news to come out of practice is that offensive lineman Nick Alletto is banged up a bit, and was limping noticeably.
Mendenhall said Alletto has a problem with a small muscle in his calf and is “probable” for Saturday.
“This is relatively new when I found out about it,” Mendenhall said. “I am not that worried yet, so I will look at how practice went, and will have an answer for you by Thursday if he is not able to play.”
Special teams ace Tucker Lamb is back practicing with the team, and will play Saturday.
Running back Harvey Unga was held out of practices Monday and Tuesday, “but he is expected to play and play full speed,” Mendenhall said.

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Although McKay Jacobson is healthy again, O’Neill Chambers will remain BYU’s primary punt returner. Mendenhall said that although Chambers doesn’t seem to know what a fair catch is, and even though he fumbled on one return against Wyoming, he likes what the sophomore is doing and will stay with him.

Some surprising news out of the BYU athletic department today for those of you who follow more than just Cougar football and basketball.
Women’s golf coach Sue Billek Nyhus announced her resignation today.
Nyhus, who is also an excellent golfer with several major tournament championships to her credit, is stepping down immediately.
She will be replaced on an interim basis by former Cougar quarterback Robbie Bosco.
"I’m grateful for the chance I’ve had to coach at BYU for the past 11 seasons. I’m honored to be one of a select few who have been fortunate enough to be an athlete, a coach and a BYU Hall of Fame inductee,” said Nyhus in a BYU release. "I want to express appreciation to my assistant coaches and the student-athletes I’ve had the opportunity to coach.”
Nyhus took over the program in July of 2001. She was named Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2007.

BYU’s seniors won’t let the team look past New Mexico this weekend, even if the Lobos are 0-9 and have been blown out of a large portion of those games.
That’s what quarterback Max Hall said in his weekly teleconference today.
“New Mexico obviously has not had the season they wanted to have, and they’ve had some bumps along the way. They have lost some games they should have won. We are not going to take them lightly, though,” Hall said. “We feel like they are going to be well-prepared, and they are going to come and play us as hard as they can. They played us hard last year.”
Reiterating what he said before the Wyoming game, Hall noted that the seniors are starting to realize the end is near.
“Really what it comes down to is us seniors decided we have three games left in the regular season, and then a bowl game, and then we are done. We are outta here. We are done with college football and done with BYU as far as playing goes,” he said. “We just want to take advantage of every second we have left, and really play as hard as we can every time we get a chance to step on a football field.”

Like most of the other Mountain West Conference football coaches today, BYU’s Bronco Mendenhall spent a lot of time answering questions about the Utah-TCU game, which will be played five or so hours after the Cougars take on New Mexico.
Regarding TCU, Mendenhall said the scary component this year is that the Frogs’ offense has seemingly caught up to its excellent defense.
“I think they are just executing at a really high level, with a quarterback that is more experienced, and they make very few mistakes,” he said. “They have explosive players, athletic players, good schemes, and a diversity where they can run and throw the football.  “And then they aren’t doing any of the self-destructive things that make it hard to score points. So all that is what makes them a really capable team and why they are playing so well offensively.”
The coach said TCU’s offense is no longer overshadowed by its defense. At least it wasn’t when the Frogs ripped BYU 38-7 last month in Provo.
“This particular year, when you look at how their offense is playing, any of us who have played against them will note that both sides are probably equal, the way I would see it this year. And their special teams are strong as well.
“Traditionally though, when you think of TCU, you think of defense. So I think they have done a nice job of after not winning a couple of conference championships, and assessing what they had to do to return to the top of the league. I think that wasn’t so much from the defensive side as it was the ability to score more points.”

I will have more of Mendenhall’s comments from the MWC teleconference later.

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall confirmed in his MWC coaches teleconference today that kicker Justin Sorensen, the former All-American kicker from Bingham High, is back in Provo rehabbing after injuring his ankle while on his LDS Church mission in Georgia.
Sorensen, who played as a freshman last year before leaving, has been at the MTC in Provo for about five weeks.
“He was on his mission, he was talking to someone investigating the church and stepped back off a curb and twisted his ankle, an ankle he had hurt previously,” Mendenhall said. “It was pretty severe damage, and so it wasn’t something the doctors or surgeons felt comfortable doing out there, knowing that he was a kicker performing at a Division I level.
“So he returned home to get surgery, and I think he is rehabbing in the MTC rehabilitation, and then he will go back out as soon as a certain threshold is met and he can do what he needs to do on his own.”
According to a report in the Daily Universe, Sorensen was on medication for a probable spider bite when he injured his ankle, and that might have been the reason for the fall.
Sorensen was 1-for-3 on field-goal attempts last season. He was mostly used as a kickoff man, making 79 kickoffs for a 66.5 yard average. He had 32 touchbacks.