BYU Cougars Football: Team hunting for a new secondary leader

PROVO — There's plenty of attention focused on the quarterbacks and the race to become the next starter during BYU's spring practices.

But what about the quarterback of the defense? The Cougars are looking for a replacement there, too.

Scott Johnson, who manned the all-important free safety position last season, has graduated. "We've lost Scott, who was the brain of our defense," said senior kat safety Andrew Rich. "That free safety position is so vital."

In recent months, BYU has said goodbye to two other top safety prospects — Shiloah Te'o, who was dismissed from the team last October for violating team rules, then transferred to Washington; and Craig Bills, who started one game last season as a true freshman and recently left for a mission.

Meanwhile, Rich is seeing limited action this spring because he's coming off ankle and shoulder surgery, but he vows he'll be healthy for fall camp in August. "No question," said Rich. "I'll be ready to rock and roll. After having these surgeries, I feel good, much better than I did (at the end of last season)."

That leaves several players vying for playing time, including junior Steven Thomas and senior Landon Jaussi at free safety and junior Travis Uale and redshirt freshman Jray Galeai at the other safety spot.

"There's a pool of players there. I'm not sure, quite frankly, who's going to emerge," said coach Bronco Mendenhall. "I'd really like to find two other players, of that group of four, that would be able to fill out our two-deep. We'll have to see. But so far, they're making their calls well and they seem to be in position. That position for us, the free safety in particular, has to orchestrate what the defense does and make plays."

2010 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE: The Mountain West Conference released its 2010 football schedule Monday afternoon, with BYU opening league play on Sept. 11 at Air Force.

An early conference game, against an option team like the Falcons, is what caught Mendenhall's eye when he first saw the schedule. "It's a very unique opponent, and a conference opponent, very early in the season," he said. "So not only do we have to be very prepared to play conventional teams, we will have to do the extra work, probably in fall camp, to make sure we can handle that part."

The Cougars visit TCU (Oct. 16), host Wyoming (Oct. 23), entertain UNLV (Nov. 6), travel to Colorado State (Nov. 13) and host New Mexico (Nov. 20). BYU then concludes the regular season at Utah (Nov. 27).

The Cougars' bye comes the weekend of Halloween, on Oct. 30, like last season.