Cougars reclaim their intensity, passion

LAS VEGAS � This isn't the same BYU football attitude we saw in Las Vegas a year ago.

Something's changed. It may not lead to a win over favored Oregon State, but it certainly can't hurt. Bronco Mendenhall finally got the spontaneous BYU team chemistry he's wanted since the end of the Oklahoma game, a feeling generated from within his ranks, hatched from among his players.

On another front ...

It took half the Utah game for a young BYU player to abandon his businesslike, traditional Cougar approach and attitude and filter into a different realm. It was one of spirited animus, survival, a pugilistic dark side that made him realize it was combat, not a missionary district meeting.

As his blood got hotter, so did his hunger for physical play. Towards the end, he wanted more. For that young player, it was an awakening.

For the rest of the Cougar team, it was part of a process, some of it witnessed against Wyoming in Laramie and against Air Force in Provo. Whatever it is, it is the opposite of their sideline behavior during the New Mexico, TCU and Florida State games.

Some say it's the seniors, seeing their careers end. Others say BYU found loud peer voices on the field, pointing to tiny cornerback Brian Logan, in a Cougar uniform for a only few months, getting after teammates in the Utah game.

Still, a few say it was Mendenhall's return to a "Band of Brothers" theme, and his team responded.

Whatever it is, it has energized the Cougars. Since losing to TCU, BYU is 4-0 and has outscored opponents 140-63.

Unlike a year ago, they aren't walking into Sin City as zombies ready to take buckshot in the head.

"There's a different feeling on this team," said defensive captain Jan Jorgensen.

Of the "awakening" of the player mentioned, Mendenhall said when that happens inside a player, football, the fight, the play means much more.

"When you are a program where you have so many expectations placed on you, if they are placed on you but are not internal, that doesn't carry the same motivation. But when it does come, internal first, to the extent you really don't care what anyone else says or does — that overrides the rest," said Mendenhall.

Ask quarterback Max Hall.

"All the seniors know this is our last game wearing that jersey," said Hall, "so we're going to play with emotion and play with everything we've got."

The Utah game was a teaching moment for some BYU players, said Jorgensen, good for some and not so good for others. "If it does in a good way, you try and get them to link whatever it took to get there to that experience.