BYU football notebook: Cougars struggling vs. quality teams

PROVO — In his five seasons at the helm, BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall's teams have never lost to five Mountain West Conference opponents — Wyoming, New Mexico, UNLV, Colorado State, Air Force — and fell once to San Diego State. That's a combined record of 26-1.

During that span, BYU is a combined 4-5 against TCU and Utah. In the last two seasons against the Horned Frogs and Utes, the Cougars are 0-3, having been trounced by a combined score of 118-38.

It's something that hasn't gone unnoticed by Mendenhall.

"What's happening now is the expectations, and as our program has reached here, there is now another step we need to take," he said. "It's viewed almost as commonplace that you beat the rest of those (MWC opponents) and there's two or three games a year that determine whether it's a successful season or not. I think it's a tribute to our program that we've risen to that point. Now, we'd better get to work and handle that next step. This is a valuable, but hard lesson to go through."

BYU upset then-No. 3 Oklahoma in the season-opener, but the Cougars were outplayed against Florida State at home last month. Mendenhall said he's not afraid to schedule those kinds of elite non-conference opponents in order to improve his team.

"What I will continue to do is schedule in our early season difficult football teams because this is our next step — to play against talented football teams that have excellent athletes and force our execution to hold at a higher level," he said. "It's something I'll continue to work on."

BOUNCING BACK: Though the 38-7 loss to TCU last Saturday was deflating for BYU, Mendenhall said his team won't suffer a letdown like last year's squad did after losing big to TCU.

"This team is more fun to be around than maybe any I've coached in the way they are consistently working," the coach explained. "They enjoy the game. I think my perspective is still a very positive one. As is theirs. So even though the result of that game was similar (to last year), and it is frustrating, the resolve and determination and looking forward to playing another game is probably at much higher level than it was a year ago."

BYE WEEK SCHEDULE: The Cougars didn't practice Monday, but used Tuesday and Wednesday to do some self-scouting and work on developing younger players.

Because of the bye week, the offense and defense faced each other in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday rather than use the scout teams.

Today's practice will be the equivalent of a Monday session during a game week, meaning it will be a light practice with the focus on preparing for its next contest, on Nov. 7, at Wyoming.

The players will take the weekend off while most of the assistant coaches will be out recruiting.

INJURY UPDATE: There's only one player that the Cougars still concerned about health-wise — wide receiver McKay Jacobson, who has missed four games with a hamstring injury.

But Mendenhall is planning on Jacobson returning to the lineup a week from Saturday.

"I would expect him to be full-go for Wyoming," he said.

e-mail: jeffc@desnews.com