Deseret News | BYU football: Cougars look to fill depleted secondary

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BYU football: Cougars look to fill depleted secondary

Eugene | 6:25 a.m. March 22, 2008

While filling the void of departing seniors on the defense might not be easy, coach Mendenhall has proven he can pull excellence out of the players he has. I'm not worried about it one bit. Thanks, Bronco, for restoring the winning tradition of Cougar football.

Jaws | 9:14 a.m. March 22, 2008

Replace the entire secondary that was horrible to begin with? Does anyone else hear the music from Jaws?

#10 scoring defense in a very weak conference makes me shrug my shoulders and think 'so what'.

Speed and athleticism | 9:52 a.m. March 22, 2008

We lost a lot of experience but I think we have a lot of raw speed and athleticism that isn't typical in a BYU secondary. Pendleton, Pittman, Howard and Bradley are examples of great athletes that just need some time on the field. Fortunately, they will be playing against one of the best offenses in the country for the next 5 months as they face the Cougar offense in drills and practice.

Comments continue below

BYUTexan | 10:24 a.m. March 22, 2008

Here's to seeing Bradley kicking some serious butt in that secondary. And a rampaging So'oto

Huh? | 10:56 a.m. March 22, 2008

Jaws, they were 10th in a conference that is known for high scoring. These guys were very good, not great but as a whole they were very good and it is trying to be that good as a hole. Sure there was not a pure athlete among them but those four guys were solid in almost everyway. I would take them together over one very athletic safety or CB. It was their ability to work together and not blow coverages all day long.

You guys are crazy | 11:55 a.m. March 22, 2008

They were #10 in the country in scoring defense and you guys sit here and act like thats nothing? That means there were 158 teams worse than them. I remember when BYU had a crappy defense and all of their victories were from outscoring the other team. Last year all of their big victories (UCLA, Utah, TCU) were because of their defense. Additionally, both of their losses fell upon the heads of the secondary.

I find what Bronco has done with the defense amazing.

YO, read the article! | 12:03 p.m. March 22, 2008

They were 10th in the COUNTRY on scoring defense, not in the conference. Replacing that will be difficult, but I feel pretty good about who we have. BTW there are only 9 teams in the MW Conf total.

Anonymous | 1:20 p.m. March 22, 2008

Jaws knows that it wasn't the conference ranking, he just pointed out that the competition isn't stellar. I agree, but also disagree. Their D was staunch. BUT, the reason the D was so good was thanks to the front 7. Success against the pass doesn't necessarily mean you have a good secondary. That front 7 was punishing and fast. They shut down the run and forced teams to pass, then blitzed like crazy. Rarely did those DBs have to cover anything one on one. When they did, they weren't great. Replacing them shouldn't be too tough. In fact, they need to be better than last year's squad because the front 7 won't be quite as good.

LV Cougarfan | 3:34 p.m. March 22, 2008

The defense has been everyone's concern during this offseason, but I don't think it's going to be as much of a let-down as some people think. Anonymous brought up how tough last year's front 7 were, and I agree with him. BYU's front 7 this year should be pretty tough as well with 4 of those 7 returning. BYU always has a deep pool of talent at linebacker, so I'm not too worried about the new guys in those 3 positions. I also agree that the guys that will be competing for those secondary spots have a little bit more speed and athleticism than BYU has had at those positions in the recent past. The only supposed "obstacle" for the secondary is lack of experience. I remember last year that the "lack of experience" question mark hung over the head of a guy with the #15 on his jersey, and he turned out okay. He got a lot of reps during the off-season and it seemed to work, so hopefully Bronco uses the same strategy with the inexperienced DBs.

SJ Bobkins | 5:08 p.m. March 22, 2008

Isn't it great that you have to look hard for experience problems? With so many defensive 2 deep players back and all but one offensive starter, any team I follow would be very happy. BYU has better recruits coming in to fill the holes than we have ever had starting the safety and cornerback positions. It's a great day to be a Cougar. With Bradley and G Pittman having a tough time making the first team, there is no question the talent is there and with the best defensive back coach in college football good things are coming.

NevadaCoug | 5:20 p.m. March 22, 2008

Those talking about the front 7 being the key are dead on. Any quarterback can destroy a secondary if he's given time to throw. It's up to the front 7 to make sure he doesn't get that time.

Hey JAWS | 6:35 p.m. March 22, 2008

If your going to make comments you need to know your stuff. Actually the linebackers rarely blitzed. In fact, they should have blitzed more; they were way too conservative. The cougs are going to be tough on both sides of the ball and there is a good chance they will run the table for the third consecutive year.

BBKing | 8:09 p.m. March 22, 2008

Jaws seems to play to common perception. I would compare what we did against both Arizona and UCLA. What point total did our defense hold their offense to? And what did their offense do to some other pretty decent teams, such as USC. In fact, I could be wrong but I believe our defense held both UCLA and Arizona to lower scores than USCs defense did.

That is a pretty good sign.

And they did that with 4 walk-ons. I am hoping, and hear that what they have in the stable right now is actually better than last years crew. Let's hope.

Vernal Roid | 8:18 p.m. March 22, 2008

BYU always seems to get it done since French left.

Schumann | 10:45 p.m. March 22, 2008

Cougars all the way! I'm so looking forward to the season even though spring practice just started! Bronco will have the defense back up and strong in no time its just the experience that will take the longest!

Everyone is dissing on the weak conference and only tenth in the nation defense well compare four walk ons thats a team effort. The only love utah found was in the the one man Weddle he indeed is great but unfortunately for them one man can't take on 11!

Kudos to Bronco for restoring the program and pushing it up each year!

go cougs!

BYU still plays sports? | 11:07 p.m. March 22, 2008

I thought they dropped their sports program. Just forward thinking I guess.

Fui | 2:35 a.m. March 23, 2008

They were poor. We all know that. They were all walk ons, BYU had no option but to play them. I like Pendelton in High School, but isn't he supposed to be on a mission? I heard the coaching staff down there encouraged him not to go so he could play cause they would be in such need of DB's. Interesting. I guess we'll see what happens. Let's see if the secondary can make some noise this year

DUH | 7:27 a.m. March 23, 2008

Jaws you have been ready far too many comics. 10th in the nation is pretty good.

BYU still plays sports? is another nasty, negative, bitter Utah fan making their all too common childish comments on a BYU blog. Grow UP!

#10 would mean something | 9:14 a.m. March 23, 2008

#10 in the country in scoring defense would mean something if everybody played each other. They don't so it means that BYU plays in a very weak conference. Big Deal.

Re:BYU still plays sports? | 9:55 a.m. March 23, 2008

It's so fun to see Ute fans hurting so much that they think they can crash a Cougar party with an idiotic comment like they dropped their sports program. Whatever it takes to make you feel better about your consistent third and fourth place finishes in the weak MWC. Anyway,back to the article, BYU's secondary looks very promising. The athletes coming in look sensational. Hill is the best secondary coach in the nation and now it will be great to have him full time at Def-Coordinator. Bronco understands this program and how it should be run. He is a fantastic leader and head coach. BYU should run the table again but it won't be easy. It never is. GO COOOOOOGS!!!!!!!!

Re: Re BYU Still playing sports? | 12:19 p.m. March 23, 2008

Haha, get over it. Utah fans hate BYU and always will. It's so pathetic how sensative and argumentative and defense Zoobie fans get when Utah talks trash. They do it because it gets the best of you. ha

Scoobie | 12:32 p.m. March 23, 2008

The secondary has always been the sore toe on BYU's defensive foot print. We never seem to be able to get more than one or very rarely two great backs.....and usually the safety positions are our burn zone..... even coach Edwards couldn't tight fit those key positions. Hopefully Coach Mendenhall can somehow find a way to rectify this long lingering problem......and may I say CONGRATULATIONS COACH ON MAKING THE DECISION TO FINALLY TURN OVER THE REINS AS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR......

Scoobie | 12:53 p.m. March 23, 2008

Ref: Ref: Re BYU Still playing sports? (3 refs????)
Well Utey, since you can't seem to consistantly put winning seasons together in the MWC there just doesn't seem to be much else for you to do. I don't mind if you talk trash....that's probably your best performance but...... it does get old after a while............ listening to same old song,....The Utey Tootie.

Db | 7:09 p.m. March 23, 2008

It also helps quite a bit that the new secondary will get to learn against one of the best O's in the country.

One would think... | 10:29 p.m. March 23, 2008

One would think the liberal domination of modern state schools would require that the U of U demonstrate sensitivity to the feelings of the local aborigionals, feminists, peace-nics, and campus communist club, by foregoing sports in lieu of an anti-mormon studies and armpit hair braiding center at the UofU.

It sure makes a lot more sense than continuing to pretend that anything but socialist domination of the world is important.

But, I guess there are still a few living normal (non-anarchist) alumni to suck dry. Those folks require the illusion of maintstream university activities

Anonymous | 11:46 p.m. March 23, 2008

The secondary has definitely improved and I think it will be fine. I'm much more worried about our O-line. After loosing Grimes as the O-line coach we definitely took a step back last year. Our run game came from Unga's amazing vision, not good blocking. And how many times did we see, "Blind side blitz, FUMBLE!"

Two would think... | 11:52 p.m. March 23, 2008

Thank you for that. As the socialist movement continues to threaten sports with its everyone is equal bull, it is good to see that some aren't blinded by what we hear.

Defensive Rankings | 8:19 a.m. March 24, 2008

While it's true that the seventh best defense (in scoring, yards allowed, etc.) isn't necessarily better than the eighth, it IS important to compare how defenses and offenses stack up against the rest of the league. Jaws, you do realize that BYU will still be playing in the MWC next year, right? I may sound like a commentator, for which I apologize, but a team with the best offense (in scoring) and best defense (in scoring) will probably win the conference. Even better, if they have a positive scoring margin in each game, they'll go undefeated. Didn't the Cougs run the table in the Mountain West for the past two years? So maybe rankings and statistics are indicative of a team's success... Weird...

Scoobie | 9:42 a.m. March 24, 2008

Ref: One and Two would think
May I join the club by pointing out an amazing fact....... Title IX, a concept well appreciated at Land Grant Universities has done so much for improving BYU's Defensive secondary and bringing such parity to the MWC. I can scarcely bare the compitition that such a socialistic movement has done for our little private school.

That's a good point | 4:45 p.m. March 24, 2008

I never thought about the O-line not being as well coached this year. Maybe the coach will shape up and they will do a little better. I think the whole quarterback blind side blitz fumble thing was more a fault of the lead blocker. If the guy in the backfield can learn to block during pass plays, that should help things quite a bit more.

Another thing, as my football coach used to say: "Just keep your mouths shut, and let the scoreboard do all the talking." Utah fans could really learn from that statement.

Zoobie 55 | 12:53 p.m. March 25, 2008

Will the new green secondary learn fast enough to put up with the likes of Northen Iowa, Washington, and UCLA? Any BCS dreams will require it. Here's hoping the new secondary members are quick studies. Until then we'll have "exciting" baseball to cope with.

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