PROVO, Utah – BYU closed the third week of spring football with a scrimmage-heavy practice on Friday morning.
The offense and defense traded blows during the 11-on-11 full contact work in the back half of the practice session. The defense forced a few turnovers while the offense got the ground game working for multiple scores.
The Cougar backfield has a lot of experience returning in 2018. Senior Squally Canada leads the group with the most experience, having played in 25 games at BYU with 195 carries, 1,026 yards and eight touchdowns. Junior KJ Hall also returns and has 65 career attempts for 390 yards and three scores.
Ula Tolutau, a sophomore, is back after rushing for 303 yards and two scores in his freshman campaign but has been limited in spring. Junior Riley Burt is also back and seeing time in the rotation. Burt has 37 carries for 190 yards and one touchdown in his career.
Junior Austin Kafentzis is back after picking up 227 yards on the ground last year. The versatile athlete has also spent time on defense with the safeties during spring.
Redshirt Freshman Zach Katoa was a scout team standout last season and has turned heads in spring while redshirt junior Kavika Fonua is back after missing most of 2017 with injuries.
The fullbacks, Brayden El-Bakri and Kyle Griffitts, are both back. El-Bakri saw the bulk of the action the past two seasons as a blocker, but has contributed 69 rushing yards and 168 receiving yards with three combined scores in his career.
The following quotes are from Friday's post-practice media availability.
Head coach Kalani Sitake
I was really pleased with what we saw on both sides of the ball. There’s a lot of mistakes that we need to fix. We went live and drove the ball and tried to simulate the game. I thought on both sides it was pretty clean other than a few mistakes which you would expect at this part of the season.
We wanted to see a lot of our guys get used to the game. I don’t think we should wait until Spring game or Fall.
On the running backs:
I’m really pleased with the way Squally, Kavika and Zach played. They did good.
I think for the most part the O-line did a great job of getting some holes open and really pushing up the front.
Zach Katoa is doing a great job taking what he’s learning from his coach and applying it to the field. I can say that the whole entire group is doing good things and I’m really impressed with them.
We’re trying to get a lot of experience for the guys that need it the most. We need to see what these young guys can do.
Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes
Are you on board with the quarterback taking a hit in practice?
Absolutely. That is the only way you can really know what a guy has both as a runner and we find out a whole lot of what he's made of in terms of timing, getting rid of the ball and being willing to stand in and take a hit and throw it, rather than duck it and scramble out. We had too much scrambling out today. It was happening way too often. Quarterbacks either not reading the progression properly or getting the ball out on time, and I'm sure there will be some issues with the routes as well. But there was way too much scrambling around today and not delivering the ball.
How is the offensive line forming as the pillar for this team?
I have been an offensive line coach my entire career and those guys should be the tip of the spear. I challenged them in our group meeting today and told them that they're they guys that lead us into battle. If they don't lead us into battle than no one else can or will do anything. Coach Pugh is doing a great job building the culture there the right way. He has said that he wants our offensive line to be the toughest line in the country. I'm glad to see what he's doing because he's doing a tremendous job building the right mind set.
How are the running backs coming along?
The running backs are making progress. I don't think anyone has really stepped out and proven that they're the guy, but I like the progress they're making. Coach Steward is doing a great job with those guys building their mindset first, developing their toughness and willingness to block and their reliability. For those guys in the run game that are a doing things a little bit different than what they've done before, they're learning to get their tracks right, reading the right things and get their eyes in the right spot. It's not different where an offensive lineman puts his eyes in protection or a where a quarterback puts his eyes working through his progression, a running back has specific things he's looking at in the run game. We still have a lot guys running like high school backs and just making plays off of ability and not making the right cuts at the right time, but they're definitely making progress.
Offensive lineman James Empey
On how things are going
It’s going good, there’s a lot we’ve still got to work on, but little by little we are getting better every day. It’s been really fun to get all the new stuff in and learn the offense and work with the new coaches. It’s been a lot of fun.
On coaches helping him develop
It’s awesome. Coach Grimes, Coach Pugh and Dallas Reynolds are all really great and really detailed in their coaching. They know their stuff and we’ve been learning a lot from them this spring technique wise and with the new offense coming in. It’s been really great working with them.
We are just trying to be the toughest guys on the field and play with good technique. We want to be fast and physical and so that’s what we are trying to do. We are striving to get the best five guys on the field and do our best every time. We want to keep the little guys open and help them make plays.
On the program this spring
There is a lot of excitement about it. Everybody is trying really hard to learn the new stuff and they’ve been good at getting it to us and helping us understand what’s going on so it’s just a lot of excitement. Everybody is looking forward to it and so far in spring ball it’s just been great.
Defensive back Austin Lee
I feel much further along. When I transferred from Utah I had to sit out that year and then coming back and trying to stay healthy. So, getting a year under my belt, see things develop and being able to see football again was very helpful for me. I feel a lot further along and this spring has helped a ton.
On the team as a whole this spring
It’s fun with a lot of energy and high tempo. Things are getting done and people are competing. I think that’s the biggest thing, just competition. Everyone is competing to start and everyone is competing offense vs. defense to get the ball. It’s just a lot of competition and a lot of energy. People are having a lot of fun flying around doing it.
On guys moving to new positions
I feel like they are doing really well. Zayne Anderson is coming from safety and going to linebacker. I have talked to him a little bit. The tendency to react to pass rather than run is a little different but he has made really great strides and his speed his phenomenal. So he is making big time plays as a linebacker so it’s fun to see those guys do well at those positions.