Practice report day six
PROVO — When asked what is the deepest position on the team this year, most would say it’s at inside linebacker. With two seasoned seniors leading the way, there isn’t much angst regarding the overall depth and talent at the Mike and Buck linebacker positions.
“At this point, and we’re not even halfway done with camp, I’d feel comfortable using as many as seven guys,” said inside linebacker Coach Paul Tidwell. “It’s a luxury, but it also breeds great competition at practice. It pushes the older guys and makes the younger guys pay attention, so we feel like we’re in good shape.”
The strength at inside linebacker begins with returning starters Uona Kaveinga and Brandon Ogletree. Both are expected to reprise their starting roles this season.
“I couldn’t ask for two better senior leaders,” said Tidwell. “They’re great examples to the younger guys about the way you’re supposed to do things and the way we work here. It’s a blessing having two guys like Uona (Kaveinga) and Brandon (Ogletree) leading this group.”
Another senior who Tidwell has at his disposal is Austen Jorgensen, who is back at inside linebacker after attempting to play fullback.
“It’s great to have him back because he could play at both mike and at buck,” said Tidwell. “It’s just another guy I can rely on, so he just makes us that much stronger.”
With so many able bodies at inside linebacker, Tidwell may have a tough time figuring out a two-deep roster in time for the season. With at least seven capable players Tidwell may be using the designation “or” a lot when making his two-deep roster.
In the past, Tidwell has made due using four players to rotate in and out at both inside positions, but mentioned he may go four-deep when it’s time to play.
“We have a lot of time to sort that out and guys have a lot of opportunity to step up and show us that they’re the guys we should be playing,” said Tidwell. “I haven’t decided who exactly I’ll use when the season comes or how I use them, but we’ll be sorting that out leading up to the season.
Zac Stout, Tyler Beck and Austen Jorgensen have logged the most time with the 2s through six days of camp, but Manoa Pikula and Uani Unga are both right there making their own bids to appear on the two-deep roster.
“Tyler (Beck) is healthy and both him and Zac (Strout) are really pushing our seniors which is great,” said Tidwell. “Then you have Manoa (Pikula) and I wouldn’t hesitate putting him in during just about any situation if I needed too. Uani (Unga) is doing well and yeah, it’s probably the deepest we’ve been at inside linebacker for a long while.”
With the existing depth at inside linebacker, Tidwell has still noticed the contribution of true freshmen Butch Pau’u and Rhett Sandlin.
“Butch (Pau’u) is very smart and very good and so is Rhett (Sandlin),” said Tidwell. “Butch may still get on the plane with us to play special teams because I’ve been very impressed with how he’s done so far. Both of those guys will wait for their time, but it’s already obvious that they’re going to be good players for us.”
Practice Notes
-There is no definitive word on Justin Sorensen yet. Coaches and doctors will continue to monitor his situation with hopes he’ll be ready for the coming season.
-both Joe Sampson and Cody Hoffman returned to practice today having served out their suspensions.
-Ezekial Ansah logged time with the 1s at defensive end with Ian Dulan being held out with a tweaked back.
-Riley Nelson went 1-5 for five yards during team drills. His first pass was picked off by Sam linebacker Spencer Hadley.
-James Lark went 1-3 for 15 yards. Taysom Hill went 1-2 for 10 yards.
-Adam Hine was the featured back during team drills and broke off a couple of nice runs up the middle and around the edge.
-The team will hold its first scrimmage of fall camp tomorrow at LaVell Edwards stadium. The scrimmage is open to the public.
Nasty completion percentages in team. What happened there?
It’s just the give and take with every practice session. Offense does well one day with the defense responding in kind the next.
That’s what everyone said last year when the offense started going downhill. It was obviously more than just give and take.
I wasn’t saying it and don’t recall many that were. You want to see an offense bounce back and when the 2011 offense wasn’t bouncing back, over multiple practice session, no one was predicting a prolific offense. At least I wasn’t.
obviously we’ll have to wait till the opener to see if this means anything but keep this in mind.. i believe riley is still working on his passing game. in instances where he wouldve run in game circumstances he probably chose to make a decision in the pass options, just a thought… cant take too much out of practice though.
What are you expecting out of tomorrow’s open practice. Any type of preview you can give us. Will they do anything different?
A lot of work from the 2s and the 3s is the word. There really aren’t that many position battles this year, so the real questions are you will be the primary backups. I expect the defense to dominate the scrimmage.
With Hine getting some practice reps, what is the likelihood that he’ll see the field this year? Especially given how Doman mentioned that BYU wants to go to more of a feature back system and with Alisa and Williams earnings most of the reps (and praise).
Hine has his work cut out for him. He has seen limited work, but has proven efficient, but not extraordinary as of yet.
Any talk of players changing positions, such as Hine to secondary, or will that happen in the spring?
Not yet…this may come later, but probably not until the season starts. Hine isn’t done competing at RB and could still see PT…going to be tough though. Alisa has really established himself early as “the man.”
Any thoughts on who the starting tight end might be?
Wow, what a question, LOL. The two guys you pencil in are Holt because of his blocking and Mathews because of his receiving skills. They’re the two top guys currently, in my opinion, but there are a lot of guys nipping at their heels. Great question.
Is Taysom Hill a bigger, faster, stronger version of Riley Nelson?
Yeah, I think that pretty much sums up what Taysom Hill is. Nelson has intangibles galore, and we’ll see soon enough if Hill can measure up there.
I was wondering about the kickoff and punt returners. Do you see any changes there or expect Hoffman and Falsev to be the guys. Based on the practice reports I would like to see Jamaal Williams in there somewhere.
Great question. I haven’t thought that much about it, to be honest, but I like the possibility of Williams as a kick returner a lot. I think that Falslev is very likely to reprise his role at punt return. They haven’t done much kickoff work yet, but I’ll be sure to monitor who they’re trying out back there.
Has Alisa really separated himself from the others that much. It seemed like he came on late last season when the schedule weakened… IS there really that much separation between him and the 2nd string?
Alisa is clearly the guys through six days of practice. He runs with burst and authority. I can’t see anyone beating him out for the top spot.
Also,
how big of a commit is Ionake (SP?) is he a pretty good get?
Very good pickup for BYU. I like the Reno Mahe comparisons. I saw him play live a couple of times last year and he’s very quick and efficient.
Having said that Holt and Edwards could be the top two TE’s do you see coaching/play calling mixing it up more where Holt gets more receiving opportunities and Edwards more blocking opportunities?
I think you mean Mathews, but I think you play to each of their strengths. Mathews when you’re in the spread and Holt when you’re in tight.
Sorry, you are right. Meant Matthews.
People are throwing out the comparison of Williams to Ronney Jenkins. To much hype?
absolutely too much hype currently. I think Williams could be very good, but I’m not ready to compare him to Jenkins yet. Ask me this question again in a couple of weeks.
If Justin can’t play this season, will we see Scott Arellano? If so how much have you seen of him in practice? Any chance they use Taysom for the PATs?
Looking to 2013, who has shown the most promise at the QB position?
I haven’t seen much of anything from Arellano yet. Taysom Hill certainly looks like the guy for 2013 currently.
What can you say about Max Hall’s influence on the practices so far? Do you see him taking on more “QB Coach” responsibilities than would normally be the case for a student assistant?
I wish I had a better answer for you here. He’s involved, but I’d like to talk to some of the QBs about this to learn more about what he’s doing. I’ll aim to do just that. Great question.
One more.
There has been talk of Doman switching to a faster pace of play. Anything you’ve seen in fall camp to verify that? Are they focusing on picking up speedy recruits going forward to fit that system?
they haven’t done much with team drills, but it’s something they’ll definitely work to do this season.
What is the situation with Richard Wilson? Is he still hurt? Out of all the TEs, he seemed to be the biggest redzone threat. And what about Smith at WR?
Wilson had a very good day on Saturday I think it was, but hasn’t been involved all that much since. None of the TEs have been involved much so far, but I’m sure that will change.
How is Brett Thomson doing? What does the WR depth look like?
There are a lot of WRs out there right now, so it’s difficult for any of them to see quality reps. Thompson had a nice long catch on Tuesday, but has been quiet through six days otherwise.
I know without pads you can’t really incorporate hitting… How is the Dline looking? Any new comers that will see any significant time this year?
I think DL depth is the no. 1 concern defensively. The three front guys are obviously very good, but there is no proven experience behind them outside of Tialavea who looks to be 240 at best.
I think you’ll see the defense go with the 2-4-5 formation it used consistently the last half of 2011. There are a lot of good options at LB, so maybe you’ll see some 2-5-4 mixed in, but DL depth is a big concern from my perspective.
I’m very anxious to see how Ansah handles contact work and we’ll see that soon enough. I like him at DE in passing situations, but not during running situations.
What do you think of BYU’s 2013 football commits class so far? It seems like I see a lot of two stars by their commits. It also seems like they haven’t really pursued a lot of the top kids in Utah. I really appreciate your insight on the practice and everything.
It’s going to be very hard to evaluate this class due to the overall lack of offers when each of them committed to BYU. The traditional means of evaluation will largely be obsolete, but the staff obviously thought each were worthy of an offer and who is to say they weren’t?
Any indication yet that the O-line will be more athletic, or better conditioned for the fourth quarter? Or do we need to wait for scrimmages to see what impact this will have?
scrimmages will tell a lot, but they’re all slimmed down and you should see good results from this.
In talking about the return of Hoffman and Sampson to practice Coach Mendenhall mentioned he has contracts with a lot of his players.. How close of a personal relationship does the coaching staff have with the players? Or does that depend on the coach/player?
that’s not an easy question to answer simply because I simply don’t know. It is very apparent that Bronco is very concerned about how his players comport themselves off the field and would have lots of contact during “sticky” situations each player is involved with.
Do you see changes in recruiting since BYU has gone independent?
BYU believes it will have a much farther reach and subsequent poll now with independence. We’ll see if that develops and I think it will. I think you’ll see more out-of-staters signed in the coming years as a result.
Is Inoke Lotulelei a brother to Star who plays at Utah? or a cousin?
cousin, I think
So does Foote have the backup RB position pretty solidly or are the coaches giving Williams a serious look? He’s getting a lot of talk for a true freshman, but then again, the coaches have a tendency to reward the player who has been in the program longer.
Way too early to tell on any of that. Depth chart movement doesn’t get real serious until after the second scrimmage…they’ve yet to scrimmage even once.
I still don’t understand the relative lack of praise and attention for Hine. A four star athlete. Is he not that impressive? Williams looks better?
stars don’t always translate to performance on the field. Hine hasn’t been bad at all…he looks serviceable, but hasn’t dropped any jaws as of yet.
How has Ray Forrester and Paul Lasike looked? Do you think either of them will contribute this year? Keep up the great work!
Lasike hasn’t received many reps and I haven’t noticed Forrester. I’ll keep watching for both of them, however.
It seems at the beginning of last year the running game was a)too complicated or b) lacking the right sized linemen; deplorable results ensued. When the blocking schemes were simplified, we had better results, albeit against easier completition. What are your expectations, and are you seeing any new wrinkles to the offense (e.g. schemes, plays, etc)
They did away with the complications last year early on, but we won’t truly know about any strides they’ve made upfront until they’ve scrimmaged at least a couple of times. The OL is definitely slimmer and should get off the ball better.
Brandon, I have been following you for years, thanks for all the hard work. I miss DH a lot, but it is great having you at the DN. I have a question about Bronco and how he has changed over the years. I remember the days of 6 a.m. practices in the snow and now when you read the reports it almost seems “country club” like compared to the old days. I know part is injury concerns, but what has been your overall impressions of how Bronco has changed over the years and how you feel this has effected the team.
DH is still around and is obviously doing great articles this fall. I think Bronco has become more flexible over the years as he learns how to better be a head coach. It’s no country club out there, believe me. The team — particularly the offense — is doing much more conditioning this fall.
Wow, something really informative. I like this column and the Q&A after. Good job. Nice to see a column without the Utah trolls. You made a comment about commits and offers. I don’t understand what you meant.