Mendenhall explains his model for fall camp

Boy, have times changed. But is it the right approach?

Bronco Mendenhall opens his fourth fall camp as the head coach at BYU on Saturday. His team just got ranked No. 17 in the poll by coaches. Mendenhall views things differently now than he did upon his arrival as defensive coordinator under Gary Crowton.

Back in those days, it was us against them, or the defense against the offense, almost two separate teams. Now, don’t get me wrong, that competition still exists, but Mendenhall has worked hard to make the team a whole unit, not divisive parts. And, secondly, he’s protective of his stock.

I remember the first major scrimmage when Mendenhall came to Provo. At the behest of Crowton, these two friends and rivals across the field as coordinators, put their troops through one of the longest scrimmage sessions I have ever seen. Nothing like this happened in the LaVell Edwards era. The scrimmage went beyond the routine 50 or so plays normal for a practice scrimmage. It then passed the 80 plays normally for a regular game. It got past a hundred plays and into the hundred and something. Matt Berry and Gary Crowton were trying to score and Mendenhall was doing everything he could with his 3-3-5 to stop it.

This will never happen again under Mendenhall.

In fact, he has already predicted his team will avoid running into one another during fall practice. Contact will come when pads on allowed and then, it will be restricted and controlled.

“One thing I’ve learned is how injuries can really impact a team,” Mendenhall said.

“You don’t really know how good your team is until you play somebody other than yourselves. One of the real tough decisions for a Division I coach, or a coach at any level, is how do you get to know your team well enough through fall camp without getting players hurt if live situations are the best way to know that. Are you willing to risk injury to find out?”

Mendenhall, he was more likely to do a lot of hitting because he had an inexperienced team and he needed to find some answers. Now, he’ll field players who have been through the rituals, have been involved in every aspect of learning the system. He knows and trust them, so why kill them going against one another.

The challenge is to build team intensity towards a first game and have it peak at the right time. One way to do that is by letting the team hit. Or not hit too much.

He admitted he can only do this because he trusts his players and what they can do – based on being around them three to four years.

Mendenhall acknowledged this approach puts newcomers behind. They cannot step up and prove themselves in a live hit situation at full speed because opportunities are minimal. Other than freshman kicker Justin Sorensen, it will be tough for a rookie to break in a make a difference this fall.

Mendenhall believes playing a freshman early in his career is counterproductive. Unless a guy works hard and labors on a scout team or plays special teams, if he is just given a major role right out of the chute “it damages a young player,” he said.

“It takes off the edge, the desire. Sometimes it doesn’t matter as much to be out there.”

The model used a year ago will be deployed again this fall. Where the Cougars had a veteran defense going up against a young offense in 2007, it is flipped this time around. Mendenhall will not turn loose his offense (physically) on his defense in two-a-days, but manage both sides of the ball with position mastery and limited contact.

He said if that makes his team start slow in non-conference games, so be it. He believes it is more important to be healthy for league play than risk injuries. “I’m still learning, but that’s the approach I’ll take,” he said.

So, what’s your opinion. Is this the right model or not?