"They have a few different players here and there," Poppinga said. "I'm sure they're going to come out with things we've never seen before. They've had three or four weeks to prepare for us. They'll come out with new things and watch film from the Utah and San Diego State games and see what was successful against us, and they'll try those same things against us."

"They're a good team," said BYU cornerback Ben Criddle. "We started off a little slow early on in the season. I think we'll definitely give them a better game this time. They've had some quarterback troubles throughout the season with injuries. If they get a quarterback that's healthy back there, it will provide a lot of stability to their offense, and they'll be more effective moving the ball."

Defensively, the Bruins are led by cornerback Trey Brown, who intercepted a Max Hall pass and returned it 56 yards for a touchdown against the Cougars in September. Defensive end Bruce Davis recorded two sacks in that contest. Linebacker Dennis Keyes, who collected a team-high 106 tackles this season, registered a team-high eight tackles against BYU.

The Cougars threw for 391 yards against UCLA's defense but rushed for only 44.

"We pretty much stuffed them in the first half," Walker told the Los Angeles Times. "They came out in the second half and made some pretty good adjustments. We anticipate if we can stop the run again early, they may come at us again that way."

In that contest, Harvey Unga rushed only five times for 28 yards — his worst rushing game of the year. He went on to become the first Cougar freshman to rush for more than 1,000 yards.

"I think they're the same team," wide receiver Austin Collie said of the Bruins. "They're good, athletic and quick. We're going to have to learn from our mistakes from the first game. I think we're a different team. That's to our advantage."

Walker knows BYU's offense is balanced and tough to stop. "I had a chance to watch them on film and I was like, 'Wow, here we go again,'" Walker said. "We're going to have our hands full."

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com