BYU's first day of fall camp
BYU opened fall camp Saturday afternoon with good weather conditions: overcast skies and a slight breeze. It was reasonably cool for August.
The newcomers came out first for a 30-minute session. True freshman running back Drew Phillips did not participate — he wore a T-shirt and sweats to practice — because he still needs to get through an NCAA clearinghouse issue. Coach Bronco Mendenhall expect it to be resolved soon, perhaps Monday.
As for the quarterback battle, both Riley Nelson and Jake Heaps had their moments. During “team” sessions, Nelson impressed with his feet, scrambling around for a couple of impressive gains, including a one-yard touchdown run, while Heaps showed off his arm. Heaps had a couple of passes batted down at the line of scrimmage but he also threaded the needle on a couple of passes to his receivers. His first pass in 11-on-11 was a 19-yard strike to B.J. Peterson, which was followed by a one-yard TD pass to Matt Marshall, who was the first player up “Y” Mountain Saturday morning during the traditional conditioning drill. Heaps’ final pass of the day was a 44-yard touchdown to McKay Jacobson.
Heaps finished 8 for 13 for 114 yards and two touchdown passes while Nelson was 5 for 8 for 49 yards. He rushed twice for 13 yards.
“I felt like it went really well,” Nelson said of the first day. “Being here all summer, and going through the conditioning and weight-lifting and player practices that we did, I felt like we progressed from spring and we came out farther ahead on this first day of practice than we would have if we hadn’t worked so hard in the summer.”
O’Neill Chambers and freshman Ross Apo both had nice catches, showing off their athleticism.
Running back J.J. DiLuigi was one of the stars, rushing for 36 yards on five carries. Mendenhall singled him after practice for his play.
Terence Brown was solid at center, with no bad snaps.
On the defensive side of the ball, Brian Logan had a interception that was disallowed because of a penalty while freshman defensive lineman Thomas Bryson had a couple of sacks (plays blown dead by the whistle since defenders aren’t allowed to touch the QBs.) Vic So’oto and Kyle Van Noy both had passes batted down at the line of scrimmage.
Saturday’s practice looked similar to what Mendenhall saw at the conclusion of spring drills. “We still have a long ways to go execution-wise, chemistry-wise, and a long ways to go in terms of understanding position mastery,” he said. “I still think we’re very capable but I have to continue to look at ways to accelerate the growth and development within a team setting as much as we can. That’s going to be my biggest concern — to architect the number of tries we can get for the candidates.”
Mendenhall said he has more confident in this group of young players than he’s had in past years.
“There was a point when I randomly pulled up the roster the other day. I was guessing if we were to travel 64 for a conference game, my guess 50 of them would have been either redshirt freshmen or sophomores or true freshmen. Maybe I’m a little bit over optimistic, but I was okay with that because I think they’re capable. I think, especially the redshirt guys, a year in the system has really helped them. It will be interesting to see if I’m accurate or not.”