In 2005, BYU suffered defeats to Boston College and TCU, sandwiched around a win over Eastern Illinois — all at home. The following year, the Cougars fell at Arizona, downed Tulsa at home, then dropped a heartbreaker at Boston College in overtime. A year ago, BYU opened with a victory over Arizona, only to follow that up with back-to-back road losses to UCLA and Tulsa.

It's been a learning process, Mendenhall said. Early in the season in 2005, 2006 and 2007, Mendenhall didn't know enough about some of the opponents, nor did he know enough about his own team.

The difference this time?

"I think I have a better idea, not a perfect idea, but a better idea right now of who we are and who Washington is," he said.

The Cougars addressed the slow starts many times during the off-season, with an emphasis on turning things around.

"It's something we talked about a lot in the winter and spring because we know if we want to meet the goals we want to get, we have to figure out a way to fix it," Jorgensen said. "We think we have. We had a great winter conditioning and summer conditioning program, better than the other years.

"We're going to be more prepared to go out and play this year than we have in the past. Early in the season the last two years, we went into those games playing not to lose. It wasn't because of a lack of effort. We have to play to win. When we play to win, it shows in the teams that we've beaten.

"At the end of the season, the last couple of years, we've showed what we can do when we play like we want to win the game," he said.

Jorgensen says the team possesses a lot more confidence than it did a year ago.

"We're a different team than we were last year. Last year, we knew we could be good, we knew that we had the potential, but we didn't quite know we were going to be good," Jorgensen explained. "This year, we already know we are a good team and that we have the confidence to go out and win.

"We won't be surprised by going in there and playing with a team like Washington — like maybe we were last year and the year before — that we know we are the better team and we should win."

As for this team's new-found early-season confidence, Jorgensen said, "I think it will show on Saturday."

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com