BYU football: Cougars making strides at stopping the run

PROVO — Following a demoralizing loss to Utah State three weeks ago, BYU's defense was giving up an average of 259.2 rushing yards per game, which ranked 120th out of 120 FBS schools.

Stopping the run had been a staple of coach Bronco Mendenhall's defenses throughout his tenure as BYU's head coach, but at the time, it sure didn't seem like it would be a characteristic of his 2010 defense.

Yet, since Mendenhall took the drastic step of firing defensive coordinator Jamie Hill and replacing Hill with himself the day after the Utah State loss, the Cougars have become a run-stopping team.

And a pretty good one at that.

Two weeks after holding San Diego State to only 53 rushing yards and a week after holding TCU to only 108 yards on the ground, BYU's run-stopping renaissance continued against Wyoming Saturday inside LaVell Edwards Stadium.

From start to finish, BYU held Wyoming to just 63 rushing yards — the Cowboys finished with 173 yards of total offense — and aside from one play, the Cougars consistently stuffed the 'Pokes at the line of scrimmage.

"I think the biggest change for us the last three weeks has been a change of attitude," middle linebacker Shane Hunter said of his team's new-found ability to stop the run. "Coach Mendenhall has been out there — he's been working with us — and he's changed the whole culture of the defense to an attack-style defense.

"We love that, we relish that. It's just an opportunity to just fly around and play football."

BYU's defense definitely flew around and played football against Wyoming.

Granted, the Cowboys have one of the worst offenses in all of college football, but the Cougars nonetheless flew around and made plays.

That was especially true at the line of scrimmage, where BYU had a whopping 12 tackles for loss.

"That's our strength," said BYU cornerback Brian Logan. "Coach Mendenhall said when we went to practice on Monday that our strength is stopping the run. It just goes back to practice. It looks just like practice. Not only are we not allowing guys to cross the line of scrimmage, but we have to pull them back.

"If we don't, there's consequences after practice."

What would those consequences be?