PROVO, Utah – The BYU football team held its open practice and scrimmage at the BYU West Campus Field in front of about 5,500 fans on Saturday.
With LaVell Edwards Stadium under construction, the Cougars showcased the team on the old Provo High School football field in a team scrimmage that consisted of more than 85 live reps.
Fans also got to enjoy a kids clinic, alumni game and other fan activities prior to the start of the scrimmage. The alumni game featured more than two dozen former Cougars in a friendly two-hand touch game for the crowd.
Freshman quarterback Jaren Hall demonstrated his ability to run and throw while leading the offense to touchdowns in all four of the drives he played in. Hall went 12 of 14 for 203 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing five times for 59 yards. The dual-sport athlete also had a 65-yard touchdown run that was called back due an offensive penalty.
Sophomore Joe Critchlow went 8 of 17 for 127 yards and a score while freshman Baylor Romney was 8 of 11 for 69 yards along with a touchdown.
Freshman Tyler Allgeier led the running backs with seven attempts for 53 yards and two touchdowns while freshman Sione Finau went for 20 yards on three attempts. Finau also grabbed two receptions for 34 yards.
Sophomore Gunner Romney hauled in six receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown to lead the receiver group while Neil Pau’u brought four passes for 89 yards. Freshman Darius McFarland, playing a tight end role, also had four receptions for 42 yards and a score.
BYU will practice one more week before wrapping up spring football on Thursday, March 28. The Cougars' 2019 season begins on August 29 at LaVell Edwards Stadium vs. Utah.
The following quotes are from BYU's post-practice media availability.
Head coach Kalani Sitake
On his overall assessment of the scrimmage
It was good. I was excited that the quarterbacks got time, we had about 85 snaps and the quarterbacks are all live. We saw Jaren run around and that’s why we needed to go live, because you think you have them, but you really don’t. I was really pleased with the way he led the offense while he was on the field.
Defensively, we held some guys out, a lot of the guys got a lot of reps. You saw some upperclassmen getting reps and our one offense played a lot, the ones that could go, especially the o-line. They finished the practice and I think they got the bulk of the live reps. We had a few mistakes because defensively we pressured them up. We brought defense. We didn’t go with the vanilla defense because we wanted to play a real game, so we had basically everything that we worked on during the spring we caught on the defensive side.
For the most part, I’m really pleased with the way the team has performed. We have three more practices and we’re going to use that to get going on our season and get a jump start to the off-season with our player-run practices later in the summer.
On how he’s doing finding guys that can pressure the quarterback.
Yeah we did a lot of things with our odd front today and we had a lot of our odd and even front, but I think we have the guys, we just have to keep working on it. I think our offense did a good job at keeping with the play action at keeping the defense on their heels a little bit. I’d like to see a little bit more pressure, we had some, but I’d like to see a little more. That’s why we blitz them a little bit and our offense had an answer every time, we drew up pressure and they threw the ball quickly, got to the hot routes and side adjusted.
So that’s why we wanted to see our quarterbacks function under that type of pressure in those circumstances being able to sort out when to get rid of the ball. I think we got one turnover or one pick. For the most part, I thought Jaren’s decision making was really good. I thought the quarterbacks did a pretty good job with the decisions that they made. I don’t know how many sacks we gave up, but I saw a lot of good things. I saw some running backs, some receivers and skilled position players make guys miss and that was really nice. As far as the pass rush goes, I don’t know, we’ll keep working on it but I have to watch the film.
On the running backs
I thought Tyler Allgeier did a great job. He and Sione Finau really stood out today and they got a lot of reps. Sione made guys miss, Tyler made guys miss in some space and they would extend drives and make some big gains, making the first guy miss. I think Morgan Pyper did some good things too. Kavika Fonua practiced with us earlier and then didn’t go into the live work. I think we came out of it pretty much healthy, some guys got banged up, but that’s what happens when you go live. You have to toughen them up, you know? We ended the scrimmage with our one, our first o-line with a long drive and that’s going to be more like a game than anything else. A lot of guys got really good reps and we tired them out at the beginning of practice. We had about nine periods of just thud work, teamwork and individual work and then we finished with an 85 play scrimmage. I’m really pleased, but I still have to watch, individually you have to watch it in the film.
Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes
Thoughts about offensive performance
Overall, it was a pretty good day. Maybe not as clean as what we hoped for. We had one turnover, which is one too many. We had four or five false starts and a couple holdings. Holdings may happen once or twice but there is no excuse for false starts. We weren’t as productive with our run game as I think we can be. I think our run game will continue to get better as we get some guys back with us. Overall, it was a good day and a good opportunity for a lot of guys to play and show the fans what they can do.
On quarterback Jaren Hall
He showed the same thing he shows in practice. He showed a lot of poise, a lot of confidence and an amazing combination of a guy that can run and throw. Not surprised at all with his performance because we see it every day in practice.
On the quarterbacks being live during the scrimmage
I think you find out more about a guy when there is chance a guy might hit him. I think a guy can show you what his athletic ability is. When I was at Auburn, we had Cam Newton. We never tackled him in the spring or fall camp. We thought he was a pretty good runner but we had no idea he was as good as he was until we got into some of the live games in the season.
What the offense hopes to take away from the scrimmage
Just another opportunity for us to coach these guys and get better. We still have three good practices left and that’s what I told our guys. This is an opportunity to evaluate them and really it is the truest evaluation that we’ve had on the guys that haven’t played yet.
Defensive lineman Trajan Pili
On how the defense did vs. the offense
We had a few people on defense make some sacks. On the score, it probably shows the offense because on defense we didn’t score, but I’m a little biased. Overall I think it was pretty even.
On not having some of the starting defense out there
One of the problems that we had last year was depth, so this is a great opportunity to see who can create that depth with us. There’s a reason why those guys sat out and it’s because they’ve proven themselves and they know what they’re doing. For us, I think spring ball is a big part of finding out who can be part of that group.
On playing against Jaren Hall and his skillset
Anytime you have a quarterback that can run, that changes your whole defensive mindset. You need a lot more containment. It’s hard, but at the same time, it’s fun because it’s teaching us how to play quarterbacks just like him. He’s athletic, he’s fast, quick and he can throw the ball too. It’s fun and good for us as a defense.
Quarterback Jaren Hall
It was the first spring scrimmage game live and under the circumstances, I think I did okay. There are still a lot of things to clean up and I need to watch film to see what we can do better. But overall first spring scrimmage of the year, I think we did alright as an offense. It was an enjoyable day and it’s fun to be out here.
On going live
It was fun, I loved it. I think practice can give you a sense of false security as a quarterback because they’re not touching you, but then you go live and you make plays. It’s just more real and it gives you more urgency too. You get your reads quicker and it just speeds up the process.
On what he expects as a quarterback and scoring
I think we always expect to score, especially with the offense that we have and the great line of receivers, running backs, the depth. That’s always the standard: score every time we have the ball.
Running back Tyler Allgeier
On his touchdown runs
It was exciting. I couldn’t have done it without the O-line and the receivers blocking down the field. It brings confidence in me that if I can do the coaching points that Coach Steward tells us to do I can get in the end zone just like that.
Thoughts on the offense’s performance
I knew we were going to do pretty well. I think the offense executed pretty well and we did our assignments which made the big plays happen.