PROVO -- Tuesday morning the BYU Football team received an invitation to participate in the 2005 Pioneer Pure Vision Las Vegas Bowl, scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 22. Director of Athletics Tom Holmoe and head football coach Bronco Mendenhall addressed the media at an 11 a.m. press conference.
Early this morning, Coach Mendenhall and I received a telephone call from Tina Kunzer-Murphy, Executive Director of the Pioneer Pure-Vision Las Vegas Bowl with an invitation to be the Mountain West Conference representative. Coach Mendenhall and I readily accepted. We are very excited to be back in the bowl game business -- to be in Las Vegas representing the school and the MWC. The game will be played on the 22nd of December. It will be a great opportunity for our fans, our students, and our alums, to watch the team, support the team and have a great time in Las Vegas before the holidays. I'd like to say that I'm very happy for Coach Mendenhall. I commend him on a job well done, in bringing this team to a bowl game, in his first year. We're grateful for the players that have worked so hard to get to this point. I think the bowl game is a standard in college football, and though there might be a fine line between being in and being out, this is a great opportunity for our student-athetes. They are chomping at the bit to have another game to have another month of bowl preparation practice. It's great for the program to have a bowl game for recruiting purposes and it's great for our students, fans and alums. So with no further ado, I'd like to turn the time over to Coach Mendenhall.
Bronco Mendenhall:
As Tom has mentioned, we did receive a phone call this morning at 9:30. It's one of the best phone calls I've received yet, not only as a professional, but as a person. I'm so thankful to our football players for the effort they've put in achieving one of the marks we laid out at the beginning of the year. And that is to be in a bowl game and also to win a bowl game, which is the second part of this. With our player's efforts and with our coaching staff's efforts they have aligned us to give us a chance to do just that. The other goal that we've reached was to have a winning season. We fell short of our third goal which was to have a conference championship, but two close overtime games have showed us just how close we are. Our program is heading in the right direction, we're gaining momentum and optimism, I'd say daily. And not only does an increased practice opportunity accelerate the process, we intend to go to the Pioneer Pure-Vision Las Vegas Bowl with the intent to win and play well. So the mark of getting a bid is just the first step, what we do with that is now the next part in terms of accelerating this program in the matter in which it needs to be moving.
I'm thankful for our administration. Most importantly I'm thankful for the support of our fans, for making LaVell Edwards Stadium the way it is and traveling as well as we do. But I want to make it clear that our football team earned this right. This is something they aligned themselves with -- in their work, with their execution and how they played. I'm proud of them for that and we look forward to making the most of this opportunity. As I said, we are playing post-season for the first time since 2001. It's the first bowl game played in the west since 11 years that our fans can travel and get there easily. They can play in the sun and they can watch a quality football team play post-season, which I think is a tremendous opportunity. It's great timing with our football program. With that, I'd be happy to address any questions you have right now.
Q: How many practices will you get? And how important is it as a first-year staff to have those practices for developing your program?
A: Every chance we get to practice and be together in this setting is critical. Not only is it important to develop our coaching staff, but we have a lot of quality, young players as well. So not only do we grow and develop our players that have played the entire year, we have a chance to specifically at parts of practice focus on the young players. And, it's similar to spring practice in some manner. There will be a unique practice schedule we'll employ. The model we're going to use is more important than the number of practice opportunities, I'm concerned with the number, as what we do during those [practices]. We gave our players off until Monday. We'll start practicing not this upcoming Monday but Tuesday and continue up until the day we play the bowl game. And they'll be modified practices unlike what you've seen so far on the practice field during regular season. That will be the case all the way up until Thursday prior to our game. Our last week will reflect normal preparation, but up until then you'll see a different model.
Q: So that's about 20?
A: You're talking close to 18, as I have calculated, but the way we're going to handle what I consider practices, you could make it up to 20.
Q: Coach did you have a chance to discuss this news with your team? And what was their reaction?
A: I was very disappointed, I met with the team yesterday at 2:30 with the hope they would be hearing it directly from me as you're hearing it directly from me. That's the way I would have liked to orchestrate it best. I thought that the announcement would have been made by that time. As soon as I got off the phone at 9:30 this morning I had an email ready and I just hit send. I wanted to make sure the players would know in advance to this [press conference]. I'm very sensitive to that. They're the ones that put all the work in; they're the ones that should have known first. And again, the meeting yesterday was to present that but I wasn't able to pull that off in the matter that I'd hoped. As I met with them, we had a chance to put closure to our last game, which is very important, and to set the standards for what goes on from here. And so it was a productive meeting nonetheless.
Q: You talked about it's nice for the fans to travel such a short distance and it's nice for the team knowing that they don't have to go very far and it's a place that's very familiar to them.
A: Our team would go anywhere to play another game. This just makes it better that it's in the sun and it's close. But in the minds of this football team we'll go play wherever and whomever we can play continue to improve. We feel the same, as the coaching staff.
Las Vegas is close, so our fans can get there. We're talking 130,000 LDS members in that area already existing as a support base. And I expect it to be a sea of blue. Even though we're playing off site, that's my expectation and that's what I think will happen.
Q: Do you know yet, as far as injuries, who you will have back for the bowl game?
A: It appears that Nate Soelberg will be back. Even though there are casts on both hands at this point, it appears that we'll have him back for the game. It appears that we might have lost Michael Reed, however. A broken thumb, a plate and six screws from my understanding, so it looks like that he could be lost for the game. The rest have been assessed and updated already to this point.
Q: When will you know your opponent and how important is that for your preparation process?
A: Who the opponent is is not important at all to me. That we're playing is what's important and that's what I'm focusing on. I wouldn't expect to know until after this week's games. There are a number of scenarios that have been presented to me, but the focus again -- as it has been the entire year -- is on us. We'll play somebody, but the focus is on improving our football team. And for most instances this season, we've done that without regard to who we were playing. And that'll be the same for this one.
Q: The last few years of not being in a bowl game, you guys have had an opportunity to really concentrate on the recruiting at this time of year. What will you do to make sure you're still on top of that?
A: We'll practice with a modified staff; we'll recruit with a modified staff. Through this first week after Thanksgiving, we'll recruit with a full staff on the road and hold practices with a skeleton coaching staff, so to speak. And then there'll be a modified format for recruiting at practice. Not until the week right before we play will we have our full coaching staff in effect to coach the team, and so our practice stretch will reflect that also.
There are certain positions we have to recruit and there are certain positions we have to develop on our team. So, making those things co-exist is one of the most important decisions I have to make. But our practice structure and recruiting structure will reflect that to allow those to co-exist to move our football program ahead in both areas at the same time. I wouldn't want to disappoint one at the expense of the other and so that's one of the critical decisions on the design we're working on.
Q: I know you've talked about team and emphasized team all year. But how satisfying is it that you're team has made it into a bowl game this year, with you as head coach?
A: It's just the beginning. There's no sense of end in mind. This is just the beginning of many more. The Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl winner will be the champion from this point on. And what better way, as they're getting ready to move into that role, for us to get ready to go into that role as well. So, again, this is just the beginning of that process. I'm gratified that I was able to help this team reach a few of our first marks. But the measures that we really are after, in terms of continued success at a higher level than we are even at now, are yet to come.
I appreciate your time, and I'll remain after for any questions directed at Tom or myself. Thank you.