BYU football notebook: Logan ready for team that turned him down

PROVO — In the space of a tear-filled hour last winter, Brian Logan's college football future changed from San Diego State black to BYU blue.

Logan, who had starred at Foothill Junior College, verbally committed to SDSU and former coach Chuck Long the previous fall. But when Brady Hoke replaced Long last December, Hoke and the Aztecs rescinded the scholarship offer.

Within an hour, Logan was contacted by BYU defensive coordinator Jaime Hill, and Logan eventually signed with the Cougars. Now, the 5-foot-6 junior is BYU's starter at field cornerback.

So it is that Saturday at Qualcomm Stadium, Logan will be facing Aztec players who at one time were going to be his teammates — and the coach who spurned him.

Needless to say, Logan is eager to play SDSU.

"It was unfortunate when (SDSU) took away my scholarship, but it's fortunate now because of the position I'm in right now," he said. Then he smiled. "I wonder what Brady Hoke is thinking about it?"

After Logan learned he was no longer wanted in San Diego, "I was in tears, literally, in my coach's office. He was on the phone, scrambling, trying to make all kinds of calls. I passed up so many schools to go to San Diego State. He was trying to do all he could for me. During that hour, I didn't know the reason that they took (the scholarship offer) away."

A junior college coach at one of Foothill JC's rivals informed BYU's Hill that Logan was available. "At first, coach Hill told him, 'No, I'm fine. I don't need any more corners. I'm done recruiting corners. I've got my guys.' The coach said, 'Well, San Diego State offered him, and I've played against him for two years. You might want to take a look at him.' Coach Hill said, 'OK, I'll look at him.' Then he called me. It's funny how it worked out ..."

TURNING POINT: Back in 2005, Bronco Mendenhall started his first season as BYU's head coach with a 1-3 record. That third loss was a humiliating 31-10 defeat at San Diego State.

That setback, Mendenhall said this week, was a turning point in his head coaching career.

"I don't remember many games since I've been the coach. There's a couple that stand out. That's probably the one that I remember most. I think it was 31-10," he said. "At that point, I didn't think our strategies were on track, I didn't think our coaching was on track and our personnel certainly wasn't on track. I'd seen enough to know that we had to change. Then I think we won five of our next six (games) through a hard lesson. I think that's appropriate coaching, when you have a defeat that you can see progress after that. For the most part, our program hasn't suffered many consecutive losses. If we have lost, we've kind of recovered and figured out what to do. So I think we learned a lot from that one."

NO. 500?: Informed this week that a win on Saturday would mark BYU's all-time 500th victory, Mendenhall said, "I didn't know that. That would be a fantastic thing. That would be a neat thing to be a part of."

The Cougars, who officially started playing football in 1922, are 499-373-26 (.568) all-time.

e-mail: jeffc@desnews.com