BYU football: Finals nearly complete; bowl test looms

PROVO — Having endured several days of stress brought on by studying for, and taking, final exams, BYU football players can't wait to get away from the testing center.

And they can't wait to get back to Las Vegas to play football again.

Today, the Cougars, who face Arizona Saturday in the Las Vegas Bowl, will hold one more practice at their indoor facility before boarding charter flights for Las Vegas. The team is scheduled to arrive in Sin City late this afternoon.

In the meantime, the Cougars have been scrambling to finish their final exams.

"All of our finals will be done by the time we leave at 4 o'clock (p.m.)," coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "This whole week is finals week for every other student at BYU. We started on Saturday. We're taking a normal courseload of finals in half the time — 2 1/2 days."

"I still have two finals to take and a paper to write before we leave," defensive lineman Brett Denney said after Monday night's practice. "I've been studying all day, every day the last three days.

"I'll be glad when it's all over and we can finally stop worrying about school. It's been hard. It will be good to get away and focus on this game."

Perhaps nobody has had a more rigorous academic schedule this week than tight end Dennis Pitta, who took three finals Monday and has three more today. "Good luck to him," wide receiver Austin Collie said wryly.

"It's been a stressful time. We've got to cram all of our finals and our studying in so we can get down (to Las Vegas) in time," Collie said. "Then we have a couple of days to put school aside and really concentrate on the game, which is kind of unusual. Throughout the year we have to juggle both. It's going to be fun. It's a burden off our shoulders once its done. Then we can finally concentrate on the football game."

Quarterback Max Hall completed his final exams Monday morning, then spent the remainder of the day studying something else — game film of the Wildcats. "I want to be as ready for this game as I have been all year," Hall said. "We want to win."

Just like last season, BYU is headquartered at Planet Hollywood, a hotel located on Las Vegas Boulevard. On Wednesday and Thursday mornings, the Cougars will practice at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. The past three seasons, they practiced at Valley High School.