BYU football: Cougars looking for fresh start following rough weekend

PROVO — It was a tumultuous weekend for the BYU football program.

First, the Cougars (1-4) lost their first game to Utah State in 17 years, and in the process, they lost their fourth consecutive game for the first time in 17 seasons, marking their worst start in 37 years.

Then, on Saturday, coach Bronco Mendenhall fired defensive coordinator and secondary coach Jaime Hill. Mendenhall will assume defensive coordinator responsibilities, as he did from 2003-2007, when he served as head coach and D-coordinator for his first three seasons at the helm. Today, Mendenhall will address the issue of Hill's firing during his weekly news conference.

Meanwhile, there's no break for the Cougars. They are preparing to take on San Diego State (3-1), which is off to its best start in 29 years. The Aztecs are coming off a bye week after destroying Utah State, 41-7. That same Aggie team dismantled the Cougars last Friday in Logan, 31-16 — and it really wasn't that close.

"We've just got to come back and get after it because we're playing a really good team in San Diego State," freshman quarterback Jake Heaps said Friday night. "If we don't wake up and bounce back from this, it'll be a rough Saturday next week. We've got to get up and move on. We've got to take it stride, work every single day and continue to get better as a team."

The last time BYU dropped four straight games, Utah State also handed the Cougars their fourth loss in that streak. Ironically, the next team BYU played was SDSU. The Cougars ended their slide with a 45-44 win over the Aztecs in San Diego.

However, if BYU plays Saturday the same way it has the past few weeks, its losing streak will likely extend to five straight games. That hasn't happened in 40 years — that season, in 1970, the Cougars opened with a 1-6 record and finished 3-8 under coach Tommy Hudspeth.

Against USU, the Cougars scored only two touchdowns and dropped nine passes. BYU's defense allowed 434 yards to the Aggies, including 242 yards rushing.

The latest statistical rankings paint an ugly picture of where the Cougars sit in the national landscape. BYU is near the bottom in numerous categories (out of 120 teams): scoring — No. 114 (15.2 ppg); total offense — No. 96 (312.6 ypg); passing offense — No. 80 (192.8 ypg); rushing offense — No. 94 (119.80 ypg); pass efficiency — No. 118 (91.94); total defense — No. 101 (433.4 ypg); scoring defense — No. 87 (28.8 ppg); rushing defense — No. 120 (259.2 ypg). BYU is No. 28 in pass defense — No. 28 (174.2 ypg).