BYU football: Intern's days are long, mundane, educational

Poppinga isn't the only former Cougar who is an intern on the staff. Former defensive lineman Shaun Nua (2002, 2004) is an intern with the offense.

"It's great to have them," said coach Bronco Mendenhall, who started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Oregon State 20 years ago. "It's so much fun now to have players that wanted to come back, wanted to coach and were inspired by what their experience was here and they want that again. They're willing to come, and a lot of the reasons they want to coach is because of how it was done, what their experiences were."

Both Poppinga and Nua have made an impact on the players, Mendenhall said.

"To see the young players looking up to them ... there's a different feeling when the knowledge, compared to one of those guys, it might get in deeper, faster, when it comes from those guys."

Cougars on the air

BYU (7-2) at New Mexico (0-9)

Saturday, noon

TV: The mtn.

Radio: 1160 AM, 102.7 FM

e-mail: jeffc@desnews.com