BYU football: Matt Reynolds will be left tackle — period

PROVO — BYU's All-American candidate Matt Reynolds will stay at his left tackle spot regardless of who's playing quarterback this season, coach Bronco Mendenhall said Tuesday.

Because the Cougars have a left-handed quarterback (Riley Nelson) and a right-hander (Jake Heaps), Reynolds switched between left and right tackle during fall camp to protect the QB's blind side, depending on which quarterback was taking snaps.

On Monday, Reynolds, who has started every game the past two years at left tackle, said he is comfortable playing both positions.

But during Tuesday's Mountain West Conference teleconference, Mendenhall said Reynolds will remain at left tackle.

"Our plan is to keep him at his normal spot. There might be potential, as we've talked about in the past, if there is a dominant rusher for an opponent on one side or another. But right now we have even ruled that out. So you can expect to see him just in his normal spot."

PREPARING FOR THE RIGORS OF THE ROAD: BYU's opening-season opponent, Washington, hasn't won a road game in three years.

To help his team when it visits Provo on Saturday, Huskies coach Steve Sarkisian has taken aggressive measures to buck that trend.

Sarkisian recently led his team on a mock road trip.

"We're just trying to get better at everything we're doing," he said. "Obviously, we didn't perform as well as we would have liked last year on the road," he said. "So we tried to mock a road game.

"We stayed at another hotel in town that wasn't our traditional home hotel. We went through our Friday walk-through as if we were going on the road. We went to our hotel. We had our meetings. We woke up and had our meetings again. We got on the bus and went to the VMAC (Seattle Seahawks training facility). We put on our road uniforms and simulated a mock game on the road with substitutions and everything (locker room, how we warmed up.)

"We're just trying to expand our comfort zone, and get guys comfortable with being on the road so we can play to the best of our abilities," Sarkisian said.

TWO QUARTERBACKS?: Everyone knows that BYU plans to play both Nelson and Heaps at quarterback this season. But, could the Cougars, as Sarkisian suggested this week, play both at the same time?

"I doubt it," Mendenhall said. "They both play quarterback, and as you know, my philosophy and my temperament isn't to throw out tricks and gadgets. So most likely you will see both quarterbacks leading the team separately."

Cougars' season-opener

Washington at BYU

Saturday, 5 p.m.

LaVell Edwards Stadium

TV: CBS C-HD Radio: 1160 AM

e-mail: jeffc@desnews.com