BYU camp: Day 10
As if BYU tight end Dennis Pitta has anything more to prove, he continues to impress. In fact, he’s so impressive, his play almost goes unnoticed some days.
But today, he made what has to be considered one of the most memorable plays of fall camp. It happened on 11-on-11 (or “team”) drills, where he went over the middle and made an acrobatic catch of a Max Hall pass in the end zone while was hit by safety Scott Johnson, linebackers Jordan Pendleton and Brandon Ogletree simultaneously. Pitta crashed to the turf with the ball for the touchdown. It was shades of that TD he caught last year at Colorado State. Coach Bronco Mendenhall didn’t like having that much contact, but he praised Pitta for his 18-yard catch.
That touchdown capped what Mendenhall called the “best drive” by the first-time offense in fall camp. The offensive line was solid and Hall marched the offense down field.
In all, Hall was 12 of 15 for 156 yards and the TD to Pitta.
On the other side of the ball, it’s looking more and more like the starting cornerbacks against Oklahoma could be a couple of JC transfers — Lee Aguirre at boundary corner and either Brian Logan or Corby Eason at field corner. Part of it is that field corner Robbie Buckner (hamstring) has missed a lot of reps the past week while boundary corner Brandon Bradley was limited again Wednesday due to tendinitis in his knee. Not only have Aguirre, Logan and Eason been healthy, but they are playing better all the time, Mendenhall said.
Nothing new on the Manase Tonga front. No word yet on when, or if, he could return to the Cougars.
As for injuries, Russell Tialavea (nose tackle) sat of practice due to a nagging shoulder injury. Running backs Bryan Kariya (ankle) and Mike Hague (hamstring) were also held out.
The Cougars will practice again today in a session that’s closed to the media. Tomorrow, BYU will hold its third and final practice that’s open to the public. That starts at 10 a.m.
Mendenhall said the plan is to hold another scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday.