BYU football: Cougars expect a faster start for the offense this season

"We had a handful of interceptions and a couple of fumbles (during fall camp)," Doman said. "But it's increasingly better this year than it's been in the last three years. So I'm hoping with a senior quarterback and a little bit more experience that we'll see a decrease in turnovers. Riley's a little bit on the edge. That's okay. I'm not going to take that away from him. Maybe we will see a handful more interceptions than we saw with (former BYU QBs) Max (Hall) and John (Beck). But we might have more explosive plays than we did with those guys."

In any case, Doman is much more confident about what this offense can do compared to last season.

"I'm a heckuva lot more at peace than I was last year. I was nervous last year, and I'm nervous this year, but it's different. Last year it was the uncertainly of the unknown of what to do and how to do it," Doman said. "This year, I feel more like a player going into a game, where I know what to expect, just anxious and excited to go compete and see what they do defensively — hopefully adjust and make good calls during the game and give our team a chance. I'm looking forward to that. Our identity is different. We know who we are a heckuva a lot more than we did last year. The leadership is a lot better. Our ability to move the ball in scrimmage is night and day from where we were last year … We have more weapons. We've got guys in our offense that can do things and we're going to utilize those guys. We're going to get the very best football players on the field in a variety of ways and run our offense. Hopefully, it will be fun for the fans to watch."

email: jeffc@desnews.com

twitter: @AJeffreyCall

SLOW OUT OF THE GATES

Under coach Bronco Mendenhall, BYU's offense has generally sputtered in the season-openers. Here's a look at how the offense has fared each year:

Year Opponent Points scored Result

2005 Boston College 3 L, 20-3

2006 Arizona 13 L, 16-13

2007 Arizona 20 W, 20-7

2008 Northern Iowa 41 W, 41-17

2009 Oklahoma 14 W, 14-13

2010 Washington 23 W, 23-17

2011 Ole Miss 14 W, 14-13Season opener

Washington State at BYU

LaVell Edwards Stadium

Thursday, 8:15 p.m. MT

TV: ESPN Radio: 1160 AM, 102.7 FM