Mendenhall's reunion in San Diego with old friends
Not surprisingly, BYU running back Harvey Unga earned MWC offensive player of the week honors after rushing for 149 yards and three touchdowns in the Cougars’ 59-21 whipping of UNLV over the weekend.
During Bronco Mendenhall’s weekly get-together with the media this morning, he called the victory over UNLV “a complete win.” He said this week’s matchup with San Diego State will be “unique” because he’ll be going up against former mentors in Brady Hoke (the first-year Aztec coach) and defensive coordinator Rocky Long. Mendenhall was Hoke’s graduate assistant at Oregon State 20 years ago. Long and Mendenhall, of course, coached together for several years at New Mexico, when Mendenhall was Long’s defensive coordinator.
San Diego State is coming off a bye week and Mendenhall noted that when he coached under Long, the Lobos did not lose after bye weeks. He said Long’s expertise in that area should help the Aztecs prepare for BYU.
The status of both Manase Tonga (knee) and Scott Johnson (ankle) aren’t completely known. As of Monday morning, Mendenhall had not been updated. He said both could be out for one week. We’ll learn more tomorrow.
BYU was without five special teams players last week, including Shiloah Te’o's departure from the team and a handful of injuries. That contributed to the breakdown on the kickoff return for a touchdown by UNLV, Mendenhall said.
Asked if there would be any changes in the program in the wake of last week’s situation regarding Te’o (he was dismissed from the program after Mendenhall found out Te’o had been arrested for DUI and lied to him about it), Mendenhall said no. He explained that the discipline level in the program is solid. He added that, as in the case of Te’o, “if a player lies to me, that’s grounds for dismissal.” He reiterated that he found out about the Te’o incident Saturday night, a day after the Utah State game. He investigated the situation and dismissed Te’o from the team last Tuesday. He said he acted “fairly, appropriately and quickly” in Te’o situation.
Mendenhall said there are several players who is concerned about academically. While he didn’t give any names, he did say that fullback Anthony Heimuli did not make the trip to Las Vegas last week due to academic issues — which is why Jo Jo Pili did make the trip (and scored his first career touchdown). Mendenhall said players who are aren’t performing in the classroom are held out of practices.
The BYU team charter arrived at about 3 a.m. Sunday morning. In the two previous road games, hundreds of fans turned out to welcome the team back to Provo. On Sunday, six fans showed up. But they reportedly cheered loudly.