PROVO, Utah – The BYU football team held its final fall scrimmage Thursday morning at LaVell Edwards Stadium. With the last scrimmage in the books, the Cougars turn their attention to Arizona in the season opener on Sept. 1 in Tucson.
The following quotes are from Thursday’s post-scrimmage media availability.
Head Coach Kalani Sitake
Good ending to camp, I was really pleased with the work. The concern is that we pulled back on the live stuff because I think we saw enough of it, but it was competitive and we had to put ourselves in a lot of different situations that we haven’t seen or haven’t had enough work at in camp. It was good, it was a good run for our team.
On competing against the first couple of teams
I think these guys are (ready) – we introduced them as our opponent yesterday and we had a couple things that we want our scout teams to look at with some speed today. I think we’ll really get into the meat of all later this afternoon and tomorrow and get going. I think the guys are really excited. The season is right around the corner and my guys are just excited to get out there and play a game against somebody else. I’ve been really pleased with what they’ve done and how their coaches have worked with them in this fall camp.
On the quarterbacks
I love the quarterback group. I’m really pleased with Tanner and Zach and the way they command the offense. I think they’ve had a good command on the offense and making great decisions. I’ve actually been pretty surprised and excited about the up and coming guys too. Jaren Hall has been doing some great things and Joe Critchlow has been doing some great things, so that’s a good group and we have some young guys like Baylor Romney and Stacy Conner that are there that are athletic. Those guys give us a lot of different looks and I’m really pleased with how they’ve been coached. They’re progressing and they’re learning in the weight room, so I’m happy with the group right now.
Offensive Coordinator Jeff Grimes
The biggest challenge for our entire time today was that we wanted to come as close as possible to simulating a game day. Even though some guys may not have felt the same pressure you would if you were tackling, there is still an inherent pressure when that game clock is on and you have certain situations that you want to practice. We tried to simulate as many of those as we could today: backed up, red zone, goal line, short yardage, four minute, two minute and I thought overall both of the quarterbacks handled the situations well.
On preparing for Arizona
What we’ve done as coaches, we’ve watched their film and a good bit of what we are doing simulates looks that we will get from them. However, we’re not necessarily saying this is what Arizona is going to do so we are giving them those situations but the focus of this scrimmage has been on us and execution and skill development and improving the things we need to improve. Now having said that, starting tomorrow we will begin a full-fledged approach towards game day simulation with Arizona.
On the offensive line
I think we’ve had a good camp with the offensive line, but I still don’t think we’ve reached our potential. There are still a couple of guys who are in the mix who might want a starting job who have been going back and forth, so we are still going to be doing some moving around, playing musical chairs to find the right combination of the best five guys.
Thoughts on the running backs
I haven’t watched this scrimmage film yet, so I can’t necessarily compare the two. Where they are as a group has certainly improved. They have improved a great deal from where they were in the spring, maybe as much as any position, just learning what we are asking of them. I feel like we will put a good product on the field for that position, I just don’t know exactly which guy will get the most snaps and how many that will be. I think we will play a number of guys.
Defensive Coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki
On the defensive depth chart
It’s starting to solidify itself a little bit, but there are still guys that are competing. As we’re looking at travel squad numbers and trying to narrow it down, we’re still leaving it open this next week.
Thoughts on defensive backs
There are a lot of young kids that are still a question mark. There’s a lot of kids that can redshirt as well as contribute. In the defensive back position, more than other positions, it is more of a question on who is going to redshirt and who is going to travel.
Leaders emerging on the defense
Corbin Kaufusi is one guy that sticks out in my mind. Zayne Anderson, Dayan Ghanwoloku and Austin Lee stick out too. I don’t think any of those guys are vocal by nature except for Corbin, he’s hilarious and he’s talking a lot. Those guys are taking care of business, doing the right things and everybody is following them.
Quarterback Tanner Mangum
On final scrimmage
Overall, it was a really good day. Apart from a few plays here and there it was clean, our operation was good. It was smooth and I thought we looked overall as an offense. As we get closer to Arizona we want to be as game-ready as we can and I thought we did a good job today with everything. Everything was pretty solid. It wasn’t perfect, we had a series and a play here and there that wasn’t the cleanest but overall a lot to be proud of and excited about. Here we are, a little over a week away from our first game. It’s exciting to see the progress we’ve made and the improvements we continue to make as Arizona approaches.
On hardest parts of fall camp this year
Fall camp can be a grind, especially mentally, to come to work every day with an attitude of thinking we’re going to get better today. That can emotionally and mentally taxing. But I think we’ve gone a good job at that. Especially with the way we practice, we do a lot of team, 11-on-11 reps, so you have to be dialed in. You can’t take any plays off. That can be a challenge for a team but I think we’ve handled it pretty well. You’re there all day with practice, meetings, workouts and more practice. It can be a grind but we’ve done a good job of staying focused.
On playmakers that have emerged in fall camp
We’ve got a lot of good guys, it’s hard to pick one. It’s been great to see Neil Pau’u come out and really become a dominant player for us. He showed a lot of flashes last year and this year he’s become one of our top receivers. Dallin Holker has done a good job at tight end, especially for a freshman coming out of high school. It’s been great to see the improvements he’s made and the impact he has on our team. It’s great having Dylan Collie here, a veteran guy with leadership. Akile Davis made some great plays in fall camp and that’s been good to see.
Quarterback Zach Wilson
On his experience during fall camp
I think we did well, it was more of us trying to figure out how every situation that we could possibly come across during the game and I think we did a good job with that and maintaining certain things and when you learn certain things about certain situations in terms of things you can do or can’t do. I think that was a good takeaway from the scrimmage.
On the hardest part of fall camp
Probably just keeping your body intact every day and coming out and doing your best. I don’t know if anything has been too hard, of course learning the offense has been hard and just playing in college is tough, but I would say that just staying on top on keeping your mind focused is probably the hardest part.
On going against the first team defense
I think that’s the biggest thing, we’re going against our one’s on defense, I know we have some good athletes and studs and I know that what we’re seeing on defense is equivalent to what we’re going to see in games just because I know that those guys are just as good as the teams were going to play against.