Defensive dominance is key to BYU's turnaround season

PROVO — It comes as no surprise that BYU's offense is among the nation's leaders in total offense, scoring offense and passing offense.

But who would have guessed the Cougar defense, which has held opponents to 55 points in the last five games, would be this good?

Bronco Mendenhall and his coaching staff, that's who.

"They're not exceeding my expectations," BYU's coach/defensive coordinator said of his defensive players. "They're performing and getting better week-in and week-out. That was what we had expected them to do."

The defense is a big reason why the Cougars are riding a five-game winning streak going into Saturday's contest at Colorado State.

How much has BYU's defense improved over last season? Just check out the national statistics.

In 2005, BYU was No. 50 in turnover margin (.17 per game), No. 91 in total defense (417 ypg), No. 83 in scoring defense (29.3 ppg), No. 91 in total defense (417 ypg), No. 51 in turnovers gained (22), No. 104 in pass defense (269.33) and No. 105 in pass efficiency defense (144.75).

In 2006, the Cougars are No. 1 in turnover margin (1.50 per game), No. 19 in scoring defense (15.6 ppg), No. 59 in total defense (325 ypg), No. 18 in turnovers gained (20), No. 73 in pass defense (206.5 ypg) and No. 17 in pass efficiency defense (103.46).

Yet Mendenhall doesn't care much about the national rankings.

"What I pay attention to are the points allowed and turnovers," he said. "Those are the things we emphasize with our defense. We've stressed to our players from the beginning, that it's about the points and it's about the wins. The rest of it is not so relevant as far as I'm concerned."

It's obvious that Mendenhall's decision to switch from a 3-3-5 scheme to a 3-4 alignment is paying dividends.

"Everyone's comparing us to the 2001 team (which posted a 12-2 record and won the MWC title outright)," said linebacker Bryan Kehl. "That team didn't have a defense that could stand next to ours. I think this is a special BYU team. I've never seen anything like this in my time at BYU. The confidence is skyrocketing. It grows week by week. That phrase, 'Defense wins championships,' I love it. That's what's going to do it for us this year."