BYU taking "incremental steps" forward

During this morning’s Q&A with Bronco Mendenhall, the coach said he and his team are anxious to get back to work. He was pleased with the “incremental steps” his team is taking. Despite the 1-3 start, he said Friday night’s game at Utah State is “not a make-or-break game.” He views it as “another chance to develop.”

Of his offense, which averages a mere 15 points per game, Mendenhall said, “Most likely we’ll have to double the point production for us to reach the goals and make continued success as a program. We’ll probably have to double that and pretty quickly.”

Mendenhall talked about the impact of losing nose tackle Romney Fuga, who suffered a season-ending knee injury against Nevada. Jordan Richardson played in place of Fuga. True freshman Graham Rowley, who Mendenhall were looking at redshirting, will not be redshirting anymore in order to enhance the depth on the D-line. Eathyn Manumaleuna, who started as nose tackle as a freshman but has been playing defensive end, could play in the middle.

In other injury news, Mendenhall said outside linebacker Jameson Frazier broke his thumb against Nevada, but continued playing. His hand was already in a cast due to a broken bone suffered previously.