Kuresa set to tangle with Aggies

PROVO — Jake Kuresa has just about seen it all. He's a jack of all trades on BYU's offensive line and now that the Cougars are down two starters, he'll likely shift from where he's played guard and tackle and take over duties as the center Saturday when the Cougars host Utah State in LaVell Edwards Stadium.

This past week, the Cougars lost starting left tackle Eddie Keele for the season with a knee injury at Boston College. On Monday, coach Bronco Mendenhall suspended starting center Sete Aulai for the game against the Aggies for breaking team rules.

Kuresa will be there to pick up spot duty, and the senior from Mountain Crest says he is ready and willing.

"It's flattering that when they need something done they come to me and ask me to do it, and so not only is it challenging but it's more of a compliment," Kuresa said. "I'm not worried about it. I know there are a lot of guys on our team, if given the opportunity, could play another position. And so, playing center is just another merit badge on my Scout shirt."

Kuresa will now call out the blocking assignments for BYU's five offensive linemen, a duty Aulai performed the past three games. But barking out those commands doesn't worry Kuresa who has started at right tackle and right guard in his career.

"Coach Jeff Grimes encourages all the players to make the calls in their own mind as they see them before Sete calls them out," Kuresa said.

"Rarely does it happen that he makes a call that I haven't already made in my mind. I'd say 95 percent of the time I think of something the same he says it. We have three or four tests during the week based on our offense against their defense and we have to fill in every blocking assignment, all across the board.

"If a tight end has a blocking assignment, you fill in what the tight end does; if the running back has a blocking assignment, you fill in what the running back does. You have to know every person's blocking scheme and you are graded on that."

Grimes has cross trained his linemen, as evidenced at Boston College. When Keele, BYU's strongest player, went down, he shifted Kuresa from guard to tackle and moved right tackle Dallas Reynolds to left tackle in place of Keele and inserted Travis Bright at guard.

It's kind of like the cross training ambulance paramedics get with members of a fire department.