PROVO, Utah – The BYU football team officially began 2018 spring practices on Monday morning at the indoor practice facility.
Spring football will take place over the next five weeks with 15 practices through the month of March before concluding on April 7. The team is expected to conduct three practices each week throughout spring, including several scrimmages. On non-practice days the team prepares with position meetings, film work and strength and conditioning. The team will play the annual public spring scrimmage on Saturday, April 7 at 11 a.m. in LaVell Edwards Stadium.
The energized first practice of 2018 began with drills and individual position work before building toward 7-on-7 and full team 11-on-11 work at the end of the session.
BYU will be back on the practice field Wednesday morning. The following quotes are from Monday's post-practice media availability.
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake
I’ve been really impressed with them (offensive staff) from the beginning. We are doing a lot of complicated things on offense and for a day one install it was really clean. I thought the coaches were doing a really good job teaching guys up. There are just a couple things where guys were too early or miss the line but other than that I think it’s one of the better practices we’ve had for day one. A lot of it is because we have great leadership with Jeff Grimes and his coaching staff has done a great job offensively. I think that the defense did some great things too as far as their coaching and getting guys lined up, and for day one I thought it was pretty clean.
On the quarterback group
I need to watch the film but I’ve been impressed with the young guys. This is the first time we get to watch them throw a ball. I think they have a good command on the offense and we will just have to see if they make the right decisions and right throws for the right reasons off of film. I’m really impressed with those guys and their demeanor. I think that Aaron Roderick has done a great job coaching that position up.
What do you want to see from QB for spring?
Lots of points on the board. Eliminate or minimize the mistakes, especially the mental ones, but to score a lot of points. The offense and the defense know what they need to do. As a head coach I need to build an environment were they can be successful.
Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes
I’m very pleased with the energy and not pleased with the execution. I felt the guys came out ready to go, there was a lot of enthusiasm and that’s a start. I’m pleased with that and the effort. The execution has to get a whole lot better. We have a lot do and a lot of things to clean up. But that’s good news—we can fix that. If you don’t come with energy and effort, then you don’t have a chance.
On the quarterback play
There was a lot of good and bad today. We’re just on the front end of what might be a long race for that position. We’re not in any big hurry to say who the guy is, or even who the top three guys are. We’ll look at the tape and make evaluations based on what we saw at least on one day.
What are you looking for in a quarterback?
No. 1, we want a guy who has the right intangibles—a guy who is tough, competitive and has that thing where he steps into the huddle and everyone goes, ‘yeah, that’s our guy.’ Secondly, we want a guy who can throw the ball accurately. Beyond that, we’d love to have a guy who’s athletic enough that we can run the football with him some. But that’s not at the top of the list. We want a guy who is going to take command of the offense first and be our leader. We want a guy who can throw the ball and throw catchable balls consistently. And lastly, a guy who is athletic enough to make something happen with his feet.
During these first couple of days, we’ll give a lot of guys a lot of reps. We’ll be narrowing that down pretty soon and focusing on the guys who do better. It’s no different than any other position. The guy who practices best at left guard today will get more reps the next day. It’s something that’s flexible and somewhat fluid but will change day by day.
Impressions of offensive staff today
Great. I’m really pleased with the way those guys built their groups to this point. There was very little that I had to do in terms of pushing guys for effort, standing behind the line, breaking the huddle the right way—small things were there. I’m pleased with the preparation that was done to this point. I’m pleased with those guys in terms of energy and command of the offense.
Quarterback Joe Critchlow
It feels great to get out here and work. As a team we have been working a lot since the end of last season, but it feels really good to be together in an organized practice and get the ball out here and start throwing it around.
On having coach Aaron Roderick with the quarterbacks
It’s been awesome. Coach Roderick is extremely detailed and the thing that he preached to us the most is that he's never going to put us in a situation where we don’t know where to go with the ball. So he is very detailed in that aspect. Every time we step on the field, we feel like we know exactly what we are supposed to do. Obviously, things happen but he does a very good job at coaching us.
On having more experience now
The new guys are just adapting. It just kind of comes with that comfort level. We’ve been here so long, we know the guys, even though there are new coaches it’s a similar feeling. It just helps you stay focused instead of being rattled by anything. You can just focus on what’s at hand.
Linebacker Butch Pau'u
I feel like us as a defense, we played well. We were running our base defense, so we weren’t able to show much, but the plays that we do have installed for this first week of practice we’re running. We’ve just got to make sure that we know our plays and perfect them so that we can do well during the season.
What is the mindset like after a 4-9 season?
The coaches, from the offensive standpoint—from some of the offensive coaches that I’ve talked to—their mindset is to start winning now. So, that means (to win) when we’re practicing, when they’re passing, in every aspect of our lives—until that transitions over to when the season comes around. With that kind of mindset coming from the offense, we feel that as a defense you see the offensive guys getting stronger, you see them gaining more confidence with the scheme that they have, with them wanting to win now—us as a defense, we need to make sure that we win now and push each other so that during the season we can do well.
On what the excitement is like in spring ball
You definitely feel that, yes, because it’s day one. We haven’t been here for a while, but it’s also because you go 4-9. After a season of 4-9, you have a lot to prove, and with these kinds coaches, Coach Kalani and now bringing in Coach Grimes with the LSU mindset, we feel like we can compete against anyone as of now. We love it. We love that kind of mindset because it motivates us to practice even harder.