BYU not taking E. Illinois lightly

PROVO — For the past nine months, since the day he became head coach at BYU, Bronco Mendenhall has worked tirelessly to overhaul his players' mind-set and performance.

Then, in the season-opener Saturday at LaVell Edwards Stadium, the Cougars managed to score just a field goal in their 20-3 defeat to Boston College. In the process, they played a lot like the teams that suffered losing records the past three years.

Can BYU avoid allowing doubt, and past failures, to creep into their heads?

"To me, the past is in the past," said tight end Daniel Coats. "I can't remember none of the games last year and I don't want to remember none of them. We're all focused on this new year and everything coming up."

What's coming up this week is a home game against Div. I-AA opponent Eastern Illinois. Given what happened against the Eagles, the Cougars are taking nothing for granted. While Labor Day is a holiday for most people around the country, they have plenty of work to do.

"Our focus now," Mendenhall said, "is on our team and making sure we perform at a higher level than we did today."

Saturday's result was, obviously, not the start Mendenhall was looking for, but he and his players remain optimistic about the direction of the program.

"I know the principles behind the scenes are right, I know the expectation is right," Mendenhall said. "Ultimately, the gauge is manifest when you play. I was hoping to see it at a higher level and I'll continue to work until it is. But I have no misgivings about the direction or the expectations or the principles. Ultimately, my charge is to get them to perform on the field in relation to those principles. I won't shy away from it."

"This is not a team that's going to quit," said linebacker Cameron Jensen. "I'll take that upon myself personally. I'm excited to see how this team responds on Monday."

For all of the talk about BYU's new offense, it didn't come close to meeting expectations in Game 1.

"It's disappointing," said running back Curtis Brown. "I'm not going to settle for how we played today. Nobody is. We're going to go out Monday and work hard. This is a first step. We can talk about how great we're going to be and all that, now we have our starting point. Our destination is still a Mountain West Conference championship and a bowl game. This hasn't held that back from reaching that destination. We just have to focus and eliminate the mistakes. We lost the game for ourselves."

Yes, the Cougars were their own worst enemies. Holding penalties stalled several possessions.