BYU football: Bronco asks team to lift its game

And today, they rest.

Spring football is done at BYU as players finish up final exams and enter an off-season conditioning run through June heading into August's fall camp and the 2009 season-opener against Oklahoma in Dallas.

So, what got done?

On Friday, as it all concluded, parents of players milled about with their sons, and coaches visited with friends and those relatives. BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall and others signed autographs.

It was a session, like many of past Aprils, that saw a few players sitting out with injuries, including receiver McKay Jacobson, linebackers Vic So'oto and Misi Tuitama, tackle Nick Alletto and corner Brandon Bradley.

On the other hand, this spring gave two other receivers a lot of reps, guys like O'Neill Chambers and Luke Ashworth, candidates to replace Michael Reed and Austin Collie.

Chambers is bigger, stronger and could be better than Reed; Jacobson is faster than Collie.

It was also the successful debut of running back Malosi Teo, who signed with UNLV before going on a mission. This Teo kid turned some heads among the new faces. Former Bingham star Jordan Pendleton got a solid look at outside linebacker, his first legitimate chance to see playing time since high school.

"We pretty much have our two-deep set," Mendenhall told reporters.

The most important story, however, is four new starters on the O-line. In this regard, this was a spring session similar to John Beck's senior year, when the Cougars went through a makeshift offensive front with three stars nursing the aftermath of surgeries.

This is a spring without a BYU spring game. While that's bad news for as many as 15,000 fans who usually make it a ritual this time of year, in the big picture, it's better that the LaVell Edwards Stadium field had its extreme crown flattened out and workers put new turf to root.

Also, (yawn) the game hasn't been much of an event the past 10 years. To think the Cougar Club used to charge admission is laughable.

Perhaps one of the most important developments since BYU left the Las Vegas Bowl is the self-evaluation BYU's staff has made of itself and how it can better prepare the Cougars for what will be a challenging season this fall.

On the heels of that, this BYU team responded.

"This team is hungrier, more excited and likes to play the game more so than any team other than that second team that went 11-2," said Mendenhall.

Everybody with a job needs periodic reviews. And when a football staff with a 32-7 record the past three years goes looking for warts and pimples, the tweak/polish factor is valuable.

As Mendenhall likes to illustrate, BYU football had a high standard before, and with recent success, expectations are back in the win department.