BYU football: Building Y.'s secondary will take time
"It's not a sprint, it's a marathon," is how Mendenhall puts it.
"There is no cavalry," Hill said of when it comes to placing a new secondary on the field. "There is no rush. We have a lot of time and they're going out there and performing well. We won't worry about a starting lineup until sometime in August."
The Cougars finished 11-2 with a bowl win in crossing the 2007 finish line with a secondary comprised of four athletes who walked on before earning scholarships.
Mendenhall likes to point out this shows where his program has progressed — that players are capable of plugging holes in short notice and performing at a high level.
Hill is the sort of coach who just as soon have no names or numbers on jerseys, establishing a core of players who are interchangeable as Nike socks on a daily basis. If one guy goes down, another steps in and it doesn't matter if he's big, fast, tall or short.
In the meantime, there are bodies who play in first-team positions every day. Scott Johnson and Brandon Howard are the corners and Kellen Fowler and David Tafuna or Jordan Pendleton are the safeties. But G Pittman, Gary Nagy, Brandon Bradley and Brannon Brooks get work at corner spots and Snow transfer Andrew Rich, Steven Thomas, Chris Warner and Jameson Frazier are among faces used in the safety positions.
"We're competing. We struggled a little bit (Friday), but we're fine other wise."
The biggest challenge for Hill with BYU's secondary is preparing players to recognize what's going on in a game setting — who is attacking them how and why and what to do about it.
"I think we've come a long ways," said Pittman, a freshman. "We've learned our positions and I'm really confident in our practices this spring. I'm really confident the way things have gone and will be in the fall. It's very competitive between the ones and the twos and coach Hill is all over us to get better."
Said Hill, "The biggest thing is getting the younger guys to understand how to play the game. They know their responsibilities, they know where they're going, now, they have to ask themselves, ' how do I play the game, what kind of moves is the offense making against me, what kind of calls are they making against me,' it's the game within a game."
Hill said the veteran guys are obviously doing better than those who just got here — and he won't break down guys individually for the press.
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