BYU football: Russell Tialavea returns for senior season after unexpected mission service

“Seeing the players return home from their missions has been an amazing experience for me, as a head coach, and I’ve been lucky,” said Mendenhall. “There are unique challenges in managing all of those numbers and the conditioning elements for the players coming and going, but I think through the last seven years that we’ve shown some sustainability, credibility and consistency in managing all that and still performing at a high level and I’m excited to do that for the kids too. That’s not just for the program — it’s for the kids coming back to something that is worth coming back to.”

We’ll start learning soon enough just how well Tialavea will perform for his final year at BYU starting with this coming spring practice session. While his prospects are up in the air at this juncture, it’s a relatively good bet that — at the very least — he’ll be giving better interviews.

Email: bgurney@desnews.com

Twitter: @BrandonCGurney