During fall camp, BYU's defense has been affected by a variety of injuries — linebacker Matt Bauman entered fall camp with a bone contusion on his foot after a scooter accident, for instance — but backups have come in and been assimilated relatively quickly.

"The system allows for guys to step in," Nixon said. "More than anything, the credit goes to our coaches. They prepare us and give each guy enough reps to be ready. The coaches spend as much time with the third-string guys as the first-string guys, coaching them up. That's one thing I love about our coaching staff. They understand the importance of each player and the contribution they have to make to the team. You see the third team getting just as many reps as the first team. You see the third team go against the first team. Anytime you get quality reps against the first team, it's only going to make you better."

Mendenhall is constantly looking to improve his team, both collectively and individually, in areas that he focuses on — position-mastery, execution and competitive will.

The approach is working.

"I think you now start to talk about program maturity. Is a program defined by its individuals or is the program defined by how it develops players?" Mendenhall said. "That will be a great test as to where exactly we are. We believe we have great, young talent. What will be scrutinized and what will be evaluated is if the program is ready to just simply plug in new players that have been developed, that have been taught, that have been directed towards leadership and just need experience and opportunity."

BYU 2008 schedule

Aug. 30 ... N. Iowa, 4 p.m.
Sep. 6 ... at Washington, 1 p.m.
Sep. 13 ... UCLA, 1:30 p.m.
Sep. 20 ... Wyoming, 1 p.m.
Oct. 3 ... at Utah St., 6 p.m.
Oct. 11 ... New Mexico, 4 p.m.
Oct. 16 ... at TCU, 6 p.m.
Oct. 25 ... UNLV, noon
Nov. 1 ... at Colorado St., 4 p.m.
Nov. 8 ... San Diego St., noon
Nov. 15 ... at Air Force, 1:30 p.m.
Nov. 22 ... at Utah, 4 p.m.

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com