BYU Football Game Week — at TCU

Excited for this stretch that's coming ahead of us with this game against TCU and us going out there to Fort Worth. Really excited about the matchup. This is a well coached team, and I really like Sonny Dykes. Sonny and his wife Kate have been amazing people and have been really kind to myself and my wife Emily. We’ve had a lot of interactions with them. I have a lot of appreciation for what he does as a coach and the things that they do leading young men and leading programs. I consider him a friend, so I'm looking forward to the matchup and have tons of respect for him.

His team played for the national championship last year, so they have a lot of guys that have seen success. We're still kind of new to the Big 12 and still trying to find our identity. There’s some things that I know that we want to improve on, and that we want to get better at, but I really love the effort and the energy from our players. I like the way the culture is going. I love the leadership in our program.

On game plan for TCU
As we put this thing together, we'll see how the matchup goes this weekend, but we feel really excited about the opportunities and we're looking forward to the game. I know it's going to be on the road. It's hard to win at home in the Big 12, but I know it's even harder to win on the road, and we're seeking our first Big 12 road victory. Hopefully we can get that done against a really talented team. Like I said, we have a lot of respect for them, but we want to want to give them our best shot. We know we'll get there. We'll just live with the results after that.

On the history of playing TCU
It’s a lot of fun. I know the stadium has changed a little bit since last time I've been in there. I think for the fans, it's exciting that we have a little bit of that history there. It’s so cool to get to go out there and have that experience. They have a really, really nice fan base. It’s tough to go in these places, because they have great support and we want to make sure that we show our best. That's hard to do when you have a passionate fan base that's going to be cheering against you, but hopefully we'll have some fans there too. I know our fans find a way and so they always make us feel good, but more than anything I want to want to enjoy the environment and have our fans be able to be in that environment as well. It's big time football and we’re really excited that we're here and that our fans get to be part of it.

On the mindset of the offense
I just like to see more points on the board. I want to see us get kind of in a rhythm. I’ve been mentioning that before: Just get that rhythm of success. That’s hard to do when you’re going against really good teams. I think more than anything we are in really good shape now. We’re not making the same mistakes that we’ve made in the past. It’s hard to play clean football when you’re shooting yourself in the foot. We can count on our players, their energy, and their effort. I just want to see more success from our offense and defense and special teams. In regards to points, the more points the better.

On playing after a bye week
We were really physical last week. We lean heavily on our sports scientists to tells us what we’re allowed to do. We were able to get some hard work and some good looks at guys. We’re hoping that as we go throughout this week that we’ll start off fast right from the beginning.

How are you guys combating coming out flat after a bye week?
First of all, I feel like we took a good approach to this bye week. This is the earliest bye week I’ve had in my football career. It was really cool to take the first five games and get the kinks out. Now we are back in business, for real this time. I feel like we did a good job of taking a step back and reiterating all the things that we planned and want to emphasize in fall camp. It was a good restart for us.

What are you seeing from TCU heading into this week?
Regardless of what their record is, they were just in the national championship last year. We want to come at them with the same mentality that we have with every other team. We understand that they are talented, they have some dogs on their team and so do we. We are going to come out with the mindset of staying humble, keep working hard and rest will play out.

Favorite part of playing under Jay Hill and Kelly Poppinga
I feel that it is pretty similar to every defense that I have played in the past. It is something that I was looking forward to coming here because it is something that I am familiar with and pertains to the way that I play football. I like to change it up from different blitz patterns and it lets me drop in coverage. It also lets me play in different fields of the game and it fits well with my playing style.

Has your coach talked about what the BYU-TCU rivalry use to be?
Coach Poppinga has explained to us what kind of challenge it is going to be and what kind of mindset we have to come into the game with. We have to respect them to the max of course and understand the opponent that we are playing against. But like I have said before, we are going to come at them with the same mindset that we always do every week. Come in, work hard and play our game.

On having a bye week
I think the important part of it is never turning your switch off. It was a bye week, but it wasn’t the end of the season. It was good because we had a good chance to recover and reset, but we didn’t want to get out of our groove either. I feel like we had a good balance of physicality and recovery last week.

On defensive improvements going into TCU game
As cliche as it sounds, we just need to put a game together. We have had good moments in each game, but we can’t let up. If we’re playing well, we need to continue playing well. We need to do us for a full four quarters because I don’t think we have shown that yet.”

On excitement playing in Fort Worth, where he served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
I’m super excited to go back. I didn’t promise much because I know a lot of people want to be at this game, but there are some people I am excited to see. It’ll be nice to be back in Fort Worth playing football instead of just as a missionary.

On handling injuries in the safety group
I think Coach Hill does a good job preparing everyone, whether you are starting or three or four deep. We are all held to the same standard, and everyone has the same expectation. I think we also have a lot of good leaders in the room which is super helpful as well.

On keeping his edge coming off a bye week
For me personally, it is just about preparing the same way I would if it was a game week, making sure I’m not breaking my routine or habit of getting myself physically and mentally prepared to play. So even though we didn’t have a game last week, I still had that same mindset.

On facing TCU
I am very excited to play at TCU. It’s my first time going back to Texas to play football since coming to college. TCU is a really good opponent. I watched the Horned Frogs play against Iowa State and even though they came up short, it was still a good game and they did some notable things on defense.

On the focus of BYU’s offense so far this season
Our biggest focus is trying to be more efficient. Converting on third downs, getting ourselves out of third and long situations and just efficiently moving the ball down the field. We do a good job at having explosive plays, which is great, but we want to hold the ball a little longer and chew up more time on the clock so our defense doesn’t have to be on the field as much.”

On challenges the TCU defense presents
TCU runs a unique defense with three high safety’s, so they have a lot of layers to the defense. I think having that kind of defense creates a lot of wrinkles for the offense, which will be a challenge for us.