Brigham Young Cougars Season Preview

Bronco Mendenhall enters his seventh season in Provo and is attempting to put together another fabulous season. Last year was a bit of struggle, as they finished 7-6 after thrashing UTEP 52-24 in the New Mexico Bowl.

Gary Crowton was the Cougars' coach back in 2001 and they averaged over 40 points per game that season. They finished 12-2 and were ranked No. 25 at season’s end. Mendenhall then took things over and is 56-21 through six seasons.

His first season was not easy. He went 6-6, but followed it up with consecutive 11-2 seasons before he put together a solid 10-3 campaign in ’09.

Aerial Attack

There were plenty of growing pains for quarterback Jake Heaps, who came in and played immediately as a true freshman.

Riley Nelson was out for the season after a getting injured against Florida State, and Heaps took over from there. 

Heaps was among the top quarterbacks according to rivals.com coming out of high school. He finished the season with 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions, along with 2,316 yards in just 10 starts.

His New Mexico Bowl performance was outstanding, and he was awarded as the MVP for his 264-yard, four touchdown gem.

Also in that game, Cody Hoffman hauled in 8 passes for 137 yards and three touchdowns. Hoffman led the team for the season with seven touchdowns and 527 yards.

McKay Jacobsen had a solid season, catching 37 passes for 410 yards, but scoring only one touchdown. He is still a proven threat as a possession receiver.  

Struggles No More

The backfield had two studs perform well in the New Mexico Bowl.

JJ Di Luigi (5’9”, 190 pounds) is an incoming senior who ran for 98 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. He led the team with 917 yards and eight touchdowns.

He was outran in the bowl game by the now-sophomore sensation Joshua Quezada (5’11", 211 pounds). His 101 yards and one touchdown propelled him into a legitimate backup role for the Cougars.

Quezada is more of a downhill runner than JJ, but they will both benefit from running behind fullback/halfback Bryan Kariya. Kariya can block, run and catch passes out of the backfield. In fact, Kariya was fourth on the team in pass catches with 21. 

Brick Wall Up Front

The Cougars' offensive line will be one of the finest in college football.

They are not great pass blockers, but they are tremendous run blockers. They gave up eight sacks against Florida State, but then allowed only 13 the rest of the way.

Left tackle Matt Reynolds is the best of the bunch and is among the top ten tackles who were selected for the Outland Trophy.

BYU struggled mightily during the regular season in total offense, ranking just 73rd and averaging 366 yards per game. They struggled a season ago under center, but look for Heaps to improve upon those numbers in year two. 

Defense Better Rise Up

The defense was the unit that stepped up in the offense's absence, ranking 24th in the nation and allowing only 330 yards per game. In their 3-4 defense, the defensive ends need to have better pursuit on the ball.

Matt Putnam only had two sacks on the whole season, and Eathyn Manumaluena only had 2.5. The top newcomer on this team looks to be Hebron Fangupo, who played at USC two seasons ago in a backup role.

Jordan Pendleton was injured and only played in five games the entire season. He is now back and healthy, so look for him to team up with Brandon Ogletree as one of the better linebacker duos in the nation. 

The pass defense did not get burned often last year because they were losing in most of their games. That will change this season, and the corners better be ready because they may be thrown at a lot.

The two safeties have experience with Travis Uale, and Daniel Sorensen is back from a two-year mission and had 18 tackles back in 2008.

Drama's Forecast

The first four games are against solid competition. On the road at Ole Miss and Texas is not exactly Cupcake City. In fact, they will be favored to lose both of those games (3 points favorite against Ole Miss).

The following weekends, they will play a sneaky-good Utah team in what will be the two schools' 87th meeting. The game is also known as the “Holy War,” and you know BYU wants revenge after last season’s one-point loss.

This will also be the first contest in which they are not in the same conference. Utah has moved to the Pac-12 and BYU is now an Independent team.

The following week they get the defending Conference USA champion Central Florida Knights. UCF is not going to be as potent as they were last season, so I give a slight edge to the Cougars.

The rest of the schedule is a vacation, outside of trips to Corvallis (Oregon St.), Arlington (TCU) and Honolulu against the Warriors in the season finale.

I foresee the Cougars getting in a ton of shootouts, and they will win the majority of them.

Still, this schedule will cost them a game or two, and had they stayed in the Mountain West Conference I would have them pegged for third behind just Boise State and TCU.

Predicted Finish: 10-3

Predicted Bowl: Armed Forces Bowl