HEAD COACH BRONCO MENDENHALL
Opening comments:
We are excited to get back to practice. Our players have had a nice break in terms of Thanksgiving and have had a chance to focus on their school work, which we will be managing at a very high level as finals weeks in next week. Our players will have to have their finals done Monday and Tuesday. Most of the teachers are being very cooperative in helping them manage that, which again is our primary concern to make sure they finish strong.
Secondly, I would like to see them finish strong on the field. I think we have a very worthy opponent in Arizona and from the early calls I have made to other coaches they have been very impressed with their talent especially in how they are moving the ball offensively.
We are anxious to return to Las Vegas. We have an advantage from that perspective in that we know the routine. There is a familiarity there and there aren’t unknowns in terms of game-day management but also practice management and logistics. In relation to the first year going to a bowl game and now having a different familiarity will work to our advantage.
Can you talk about the Las Vegas Bowl taking you over TCU and if you feel like that was a good choice?
I view it as a compliment. I can’t speak for them but I think I’m guessing when they had a choice I think that the way our football team has played over the past three years has generated a lot of excitement and a lot of respect and I think a strong partnership with the Las Vegas Bowl. Even though TCU did beat us and finished higher in the conference, I think there is a lot less risk for Las Vegas to know who we’ll bring, how we’ll play and what kind of team we’ll have.
A BYU football team has never won three-straight bowl games, can you talk about how significant that would be for your program?
I think it is just one of the next things as our program continues to improve. I think there has only been two other times in the history where we have won 10 games over three-straight years. When you consider that and you consider the first time it has ever been a three year stretch of winning at home and now you have another chance to do something that has never been done here before.
The irony about that is when you are talking about he success of this program and that is something that has never been done, to me that is a pretty successful feat. I think our program is still gaining momentum, gaining progress and making progress. I think it generates tremendous optimism for the off-season program but any time you have a chance to play an out of conference opponent at the end of the year, not just the beginning, you gain credibility. That is necessary for our program to continue to move forward. That fact hasn’t been lost to our team, in fact it has been presented to our team and we are anxious to check that off our list.
Do you get the feeling that this is pretty hungry Arizona team?
I think you’ll see two hungry teams and I think you’ll see a team come in anxious to establish themselves against a nationally ranked opponent and kind of move their program forward. Then you have a program in BYU where we have a chance to win eleven games for the third-straight year and three-straight bowl victories, to say that out team is satisfied certainly isn’t the case. Both teams have an argument for something to play for.
JUNIOR QUARTERBACK MAX HALL
You guys have had a little bit of a workout, what is the mood of the team?
I think the mood has been good. We’ve been working hard. Coach Omer has been working us out a little bit and we have been competitive and had a good time with it. The mood is right and we’re excited to get a chance to play one more game, a bowl game. I think we’re going to gear up for it and win.
Arizona is going to be hungry, they haven’t been to a bowl in 10 years compared to where you guys have been at the same place for the past three years. Is that going to be a factor of motivation that they might have the edge?
I don’t think so. I think both teams are going to be excited to play the game, even more so than last year. UCLA last year might have been a little disappointed to go to the Las Vegas Bowl and we we’re excited and we are excited to be there again. We are going to play a very good Arizona team and both teams are going to be ready to go. We go to the thing to win, we are going to have fun and do a lot of cool things along the way but we want to win this game and finish this season right and also start next season out on the right note.
As a returning player next year what does the fact that winning a game like this can impact this year mean?
We are going to have a very good team next year and it’s important that we are going to start out high in the rankings. This game can definitely help us. Again we know this game can really help us and we know it is going to be a good game. Arizona is a good team and I think they are better than their record shows. We’ve got to be ready to go and we are going to win.
The fact that BYU has never won three-straight bowl games, will there be significance in that to you?
It has never been done before. In the past we have won back-to-back Holliday Bowls and this will be an opportunity to win three-straight bowl games. It would be a huge deal for us to be the team that did that and put our names in the record books, kind of chisel our way into BYU tradition and history. Bottom line is we want to win and we will go there to win.