National attention on BYU; Hall on Florida State

Ever since BYU’s upset of Oklahoma nearly two weeks ago, the Cougars have been one of the biggest storylines of the college football season.

Coach Bronco Mendenhall has spent countless hours of his time doing interviews with local and national media outlets, which realize that if BYU runs the table, it could make a strong case to play for the national championship. Making this even more intriguing is that it’s the 25th anniversary of the Cougars’ 1984 national championship season.

“It’s interesting because it’s 25 years later and one of the systems that BYU was the motivation to create, we’re trying to break that system down,” Mendenhall said during Tuesday’s Mountain West Conference teleconference. “We find ourselves in a very unique situation.”

BYU is the last non-automatic qualifying BCS team to win a national title.

“Twenty-five years is a long time and I’m not saying that’s the entire time the BCS has been in place, but it’s clearly time to update the system and something we’re working to change,” Mendenhall said.

******

I asked quarterback Max Hall this week if playing a team like Oklahoma has helped when preparing to face another fast, athletic team like Florida State. He said it’s different because the Sooners like to play a zone-based defense while Florida State’s plays a man-to-man scheme that will include plenty of blitzing.

“It’s going to be different, however, the athletic and speed is kind of the same, just a different style,” Hall said. “We’ve got to make sure we have different things in our offense to go against a man-to-man defense. We’ve got to make sure that I’m good at my pre-snap and post-snap reads and make sure the ball goes to the right spot. Then we should be okay.”

It’s been well-documented that FSU’s defensive secondary has allowed big plays this season.
“They’re athletic and they plan on those guys making plays for them. Every once in a while, you can catch them trying to switch or trying to do something,” Hall said. “Or you can beat a guy one-on-one. Every once in a while, a guy will shake loose. So it’s going to be important for me to find those guys this week.”