PROVO, Utah – BYU held its second scrimmage of fall camp at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Thursday morning.
The Cougars ran around 85 plays with 30 of them being living tackling situations as BYU continues to work in its depth.
Head coach Kalani Sitake
Full interview here
On the how the scrimmage went
I think we were close, I will have to look at the final number, but close to 85 reps. Our goal was to go every thing live, but we decided it would be better for us to get about 30 live reps work today. It's been a really physical camp and looking at our guys, I think that's a goal for us – to get everyone competing and going. I think it was harder for the offense to move but we both did good things on both sides of the ball and some good work on special teams. I am really impressed with the day. I think we got exactly what we wanted from it.
On how the defense looked today
They looked good today. All the guys participated. We saw good experience out on the field and I think the offense had some bright spots. It was a complete battle between the two. I have to go watch the film but I would say it was an even match if you look at the guys that we had on the field and how physical they were up front. If you are an offensive or defensive line, whether you are sliding up, tagging or live tackle for the lineman it's all live. So I was really pleased with the physical part of the game from the defensive line. The twos are really stepping up and closing the gab between them and the ones. Right now, the ones have the experience because being out there and the savviness and playing with the same scheme, playing fast it's a lot easier for them. The newcomers are starting to come along and I feel really good about the talent that we have and they matched up a lot better than the last two times we went live.
On the morale of the team right now
They are really excited. I think we got to the point where we had to move on. All of them love to get out there and get hitting and competing and getting after each other. I know that they want to get on to focusing on our first game and to get the depth chart out. Guys want to see where they are going to play whether it's special teams, offense, defense and I think that is going to be the next transition as we progress towards the season. As we progress towards the season, they are getting exciting because that means that the game is close being two and half weeks away now.
Defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki
Full interview here
On Khyiris Tonga during fall camp
He has been doing really well ever since he decided he was coming back for his senior year. He immediately elevated himself mentally into that leadership role even more – he already was but he's a guys that everybody looks at and relies on. He and Matt Bushman both decided to do that so they look to them for leadership not only on the field but in the way the operate throughout their lives day in and day out. He has done a really good job with that and he is playing well. He is big as ever and strong as ever.
On the defense did today during the scrimmage
Before watching film on some of these days, we feel like you aren't doing as well then you watch film and you see some of the breakdowns, personnel breakdowns, scheme breakdowns and whatever it is. Sometimes it is never as good as it seems and sometimes it is never as bad as it seems. Today there were some positives on both sides of the ball, so we will look at the film and make a determination of that. The thing that we talk to the offensive coaches about all the time is that we are going against a good offense unit right now and they know they play are playing a good defensive unit so it's going go back and forth all the time. It needs to be that way to get better. Off the top of my head, it seems like their were some positives but we will watch the film and check on all those things.
Thoughts on what he likes most about the defense so far
I would say our health. That is one of the things that we are doing is getting all the big dogs to the fight. If you show up to a fight with guys that aren't developed yet and not ready to play you don't look as good. So I think thats the biggest thing for us and getting them to that Navy game.
Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes
Full interview here
On the offense during the scrimmage
Overall a good day. It was probably what you would hope to have as a coach in that we moved the ball well and scored points but we also stopped ourselves a lot of times and then there were a couple of times where the defense rose up and played really well and stopped us on four downs. I say that is what you like to have as a coach because it gives you something to chew on them about, keep them humble, keep them hungry so I think we are in a good place right now. You would love to go down and score every time we have touched the ball and that wasn't the case and it never really is the case. What we want to try to eliminate are the self inflicted wounds in particular – turnovers and pre-snap penalties especially. We had a couple of those today, two in the red zone in particular that were quite costly. We have been spending a lot of time working on and talking about our touchdown percentage and being efficient in the red zone. It was a good day but definitely some things that we can get right on.
On the offensive line's depth
I think we are in position where we have guys, when you say starter caliber, that will be but we have a few guys that aren't quite ready yet that are getting closer. We have more guys with playing experience but we still have a ranking in our minds. Coach Mateos and I talk about all time who is ranking one through five and then who is six, seven and eight. There are the first five and then there are a couple more after that.
On the work with the offense so far
I have been really pleased so far aside from some minor challenges in communication there have been no set backs other than what we would with not having spring ball, not having the ability to meet face to face with our players for the past five months so that set us back to some extent so we aren't where we could be if we had a full spring and more time with our players for the previous five months. However, one of the things that I said during the quarantine was that I felt that we were in an advantaged position when you compare us to other programs because we have a lot of experience on offense so the guys we are going to be playing with this year mainly already know the offense and there is a lot of continuity there within the offense because we are running the same offense that we have been running. The other advantage I think we have is that we have a lot of players who were willing to work on their own whether they were here in town or they were somewhere else – they were working somewhere else in a garage gym and running at the local park. So I felt like we had guys that showed up in shape and that's been the true. We have been able to get a lot done, the past three weeks because our guys were willing to work when they were away.