Apr 07 2008
Story-lines from Spring
Spring is about renewal. While Cougar Legion has undergone some changes in the last few weeks, we look forward to renewing our personal dedication to providing the very best site we can. Josh and myself appreciate the support of the community and look forward anxiously to the 2008 season and what could be a magical time for a BYU football fan.
But spring brings rebirth as well for the football team. An entire secondary and linebacking corps needed to evolve if games are going to be won in September. What exactly does it mean to lose projected starter Terrence Hooks? Why aren’t internet phenoms cracking into the depth chart? We’ll cover the top stories and what they really mean.
Losing Terrence Hooks: Potentially one of the biggest possible losses. BYU needed a run-stuffer and Hooks was the man in the middle. He had worked on his coverage skills and sure enough, tore his patella tendon in his left knee after jumping for an interception. Until that point, Hooks was penciled in as a starter and with Shawn Doman, Matt Bauman and Matt Ah You rounding out the top 4, another player now has a chance to step up and make an impact at ILB. Leading candidates include Masi Tuitama, Coleby Clawson (started inside, has moved outside during spring), and Dan Van Sweden. Hooks could be “back” in September/October, but likely won’t be able to help the team until next year.
Offense rocking the defense: Max Hall and company are tearing up the defense, and it has some worried. I tend to think of it this way: Who would you rather the defense learn the ropes against? I like the thought of newcomer Tevita Hola trying to get through All-American Ray Feinga or Vic So’oto trying to defend Harvey Unga in the flats. I like to hear that Scott Johnson is learning against Michael Reed or Austin Collie. The tougher they face the better they’ll be. The defense isn’t a joke either. David Oswald competes daily against sack-master Jan Jorgensen and Manase Tonga is trying to pick up blitzes from David Nixon and company.
Experience being served: If internet forums were a correct predictor, the secondary would be Brandon Bradley, Andrew Rich, Jordan Pendleton and G Pittman. But its not. Scott Johnson, Kellen Fowler, David Tafuna and Brandon Howard are slated to start. These are all tentative at this point, but why aren’t the athletes who are athletically superior starting? Simple really. Experience matters a whole lot in this defensive scheme. Being smart is more important at this point. The good news, however, is everyone in the second set is a sophomore or younger. They have all summer in 7-on-7 drills and fall camp to get up to speed. The combination of smart and faster/stronger/quicker will be a big surprise for next years opponents.
On offense, it is similar: 6′4 Landon Jaussi has the size/speed combination that has fans drooling, but not breaking into first team rotation. If he is good enough, he will play, simple as that.
Pleasant Surprise: Offensive line staying healthy. While the second team offensive line isn’t quite as impressive as expected, overall this group should be one of the best in the country next year.
Unpleasant Surprise: Spring game next Saturday won’t consist of too many reps. It will be fun, don’t get me wrong, for the simple fact that its BYU FOOTBALL. But don’t expect the same fanfare and pomp that other universities have around their spring game. With concern about injuries, most of the stars will get limited reps (like most years) and we’ll see limited reps.
13 Responses to “Story-lines from Spring”
Bradley is going to be key for our defense over the next two years, we need to get him healthy and get him out there ASAP
Who is 6?4 Landon Jaussi, I haven’t heard anything on him.
Peter- not enough time to go into depth right now but according to all of the reports so far this spring, the offense is not running over the defense. In fact, in their first scrimmage a week ago, Hall was so upset that he stormed off the field and was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. And, last Friday at LES at the scrimmage during alumni day, the offense scored tree times and the defense shut them down twice. That is hardly “rocking the defense”. In reality, so far up to this point it is about even with the offense maybe having a slight edge. Even Coach Mendenhall says that it goes back and forth. If I have time I will bring in more quotes later.
Peter, thanks for the piece. Its good to see cougar legion moving forward after the loss of Cruiser. Like hook’s injury, someone always steps up, and moves the team forward.
I can appreciate Hook’s injury. I ruptured my patellar tendon also. It required about 6 weeks in a leg splint for the tendon to heal, and then a couple months of rehab. Had I not also blown out my ACL in the same injury (compliments of city league basketball), I wouldn’t have needed a second surgery. Dr. Kimball, BYU’s arthroscopic surgeon performed my surgery, and I imagine he repaired Terrence’s knee too. If so, he’s in great hands.
Here’s a link that shows the ruptured patellar tendon, and its subsequent repair. http://www.arthroscopy.org/patendrep.htm
Peter, Josh & Cougar Legion- This worrys me a lot that there are only four posts on this article in Spring Camp. What’s going on out there in Cougar Nation? Also, Wyomin asked about Landon Jaussi and there was no reply?????
I’m with Walt. I like what Cougar Legion represents. Sure hope it can continue, but the Spring conversation has been a little disappointing.
All I can do now is look forward to Fall and hopefully we’ll see the Legion pull through!
Good luck!
Guys, I’m with you. Where is every one?
Thanks, Greg, the link you posted sent shivers down my spine!
Here’s a question I have about Coach Mendenhall’s overwhelming concern about injuries: Will this be a permanent fixture, or is it doable because the key offensive positions are nailed down, and there’s very little competition required? Will it continue into the fall camp, and produce a team unused to hitting and challenging once they start the regular season?
I appreciate the desire to reduce the number of injuries, but wonder about negative side effects of pussyfooting…
Does anyone know anything about Aaron Attig? I played Safety at Idaho State a few years back myself, and attending all of the cougars games, I naturally watch the db’s during warm ups. He has the best movement of anyone, including the starters. He looks like he should be a great asset to the team, yet they don’t mention him at all in any of the talk about the defensive backfield. Does anybody know why?
Does he not have a good attitude or not work very hard?
Hello is anybody home?…….. Where’s the spring game recap?….Was the end of cruiser the death of the blog?
I realize we are now entering the dark days of summer with regards to football news but, come on!!
Thanks for all your previous posts I look forward to hearing more from this site. When the horse (or Bronco) bucks you off you can either stay down, or get back up brush off the dust and ‘ride’ again.
Pat, I don’t know much about Aaron Attig except he was on the spring roster but he’s not currently on the post-spring roster. That may be an oversight or it could mean he is withdrawn or suspended from the team. I hope the former. He redshirted in 2005, was on the practice squad in 2006 and played on special teams in 2007. I think he has had some injury issues during his career.
Speaking of injuries, Terrence Hooks was closing fast but hadn’t quite overtaken Matt Baumann as a starting ILB when he was injured, from what I read. He has serious physical talent and was definitely going to play a big role in the LB squad in any case.
With the non-hyped secondary athletes currently maintaining 1st-string status, another way to describe their advantage is knowing what to do and how to do it. You have to be in the right spot at the right time to make a play, and so far, these players were doing it more consistently than their competition.
Landon Jaussi played a year at Southern Virginia U. before his mission and then walked on at BYU where he redshirted last year. He is very strong and “faster than you’d think” for his size (6′4″ 215). My impression is he still has some polishing to do. He may be around third string right now behind Collie/Reed, Hafoka/Ashworth. Size-wise he could be a great replacement for Reed next year.
FWIW, here’s my late impressions of the Spring game. Coach Mendenhall had two main goals for the B/W scrimmage. One - no injuries to starters, or anyone else if possible. Two - allow the backup players to solidify/move up in the depth chart, especially in positions 2 and 3. The results? Mission accomplished.
What the fans saw was an abbreviated regular practice session with position drills and 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 limited contact drills. These included mainly the starters and 2nd and 3rd string players. Maybe the highlight of that phase was watching Mitch Payne make a line-drive 58 yard FG attempt which clanged off the corner of the goal-post cross-bars. It well represented that Payne seems healed from nagging injuries but won’t quite have the starting job locked up when he faces head-to-head competition with freshman phenom Sorensen in the fall. The level of play from the 1st string offense and defense looked high for an end-of Spring practice. They then left the field to the backup players.
The B/W scrimmage utilized no starters except for Payne, and was kept short - (35 plays?) - but still looked like football. Although these were the backups, I thought that the execution level was cleaner than some past years when they mixed the starters in. The backups stepped up. The 2nd-team O-line opened up some great holes for DiLuigi who obliged by taking advantage of them. Diluigi made a serious bid to become the 3rd-string RB with tough running and open-field direction changes after hand-offs and catches. He outperformed Wayne Latu who had been having a generally superior spring. Bryan Kariya also had some nice plays at RB.
At reciever, Kaneakua Friel may have been the most impressive of any while making difficult catches at the TE position. Spencer Hafoka had some nice runs after catches and Luke Ashworth showed great hands - he may develop into a Matt Allen type possession receiver with more size and a touch more speed. I didn’t notice a lot of separation between Gaskins and McEuen - Gaskins seemed a little more poised but not always. Some will disagree, but I thought Covey showed enough potential that with a full year in the system at QB, he may exceed both of the backup QBs ahead of him. He seemed to show a Brandon Doman type quality that I liked.
Defensive players had their moments, but were harder for me to pick out. Masi Tuitama made plays at LB and is very athletic. Andrew Rich was noted for his size and ability at Safety. The backup defenders showed a little hesitation overall - it’s not instinctive for them yet - but generally still played well.
The B/W scrimmage showcased some up and coming depth. It was not a game, per se, but made a positive statement about the future of the program. The players are responding to the coaching and the talent level is there. Max Hall needs to stay healthy and another QB needs to step up during the next year to be groomed to take over after Hall’s senior year.
All in all, a beautiful day to enjoy the Cougar football team and some great weather.
Sign up cougarbandit. We need someone willing to keep this going.