Day 1 observations

Day 1 observations.

First of all, it’s impossible to tell much about a football team on the opening day of practice with a few exceptions. You can tell who is in shape and who is not. You can see who is injured and because nobody’s in pads and there is no hitting. The pass and catch game stands out and you can tell who is fast, who is running good or bad routes and who can defend with the ball in the air.

In this regard, the Cougars looked surprising crisp on both sides of the ball. Max Hall is chomping at the bit to get this thing started and with Harvey Unga, Dennis Pitta, Fui Vakapuna and Michael Reed all back, this team is four or five notches above where it was a year ago, even with Austin Collie on the sidelines.

This team was pretty decent a year ago at 11-2. Today, they believe they can be very, very good and a team that believes in itself, can be pretty dangerous if it avoids cockiness. This team is very confident in themselves. I haven’t seen this kind of moxie since 2001 with Brandon Doman, Luke Staley and Reno Mahe. Before that, you’d have to go to the Detmer teams and the one that clipped Miami in Provo.

The interesting thing is how Mendenhall is harnessing all this positive energy. He’s bringing the team down to brutal honest critisicm to keep it grounded.

The shocker Saturday was the defense. It looks faster. The close rate on passes appears quicker and the linebacking corps is very athletic. On one furious stand, the defense shut out the offense, making a solid statement for the day: They are not rebuilding. Freshman Shiloah Te’o from Kahuku High maybe stole the show on defense when he kept making plays and getting to the right spots during seven on seven and 11 on 11 drills. He looked like a veteran and he appeared extremely fast and decisive. He reminds me of a shorter Aaron Francisco.

O’Neil Chambers? I’ll put it this way. I haven’t seen a receiver with his physical skill set and appearance ever at BYU. We’ll see if he can make plays once he knows what he’s doing. Both junior receiver Austin Collie and coach Patrick Higgins spent a lot of time with Chambers, trying to help him understand what concepts they want from him in reading secondary coverages and how he should attack it.

And Collie? His injury hurts, he’s taking it easy, but everyone I talked to said his stress fracture isn’t going to be a big deal. In fact, it’s probably got a silver lining to it. Collie and the rest of the offense has worked their butts off all summer and its been hours upon hours, even late into the night. The pounding on the legs might be a partial reason he got the stress fracture. The time off will do him an immense favor heading into the season, said one source.

With Collie out, Bryce Mahuika, Luke Ashworth, Chambers and B.J. Peterson were rotating at the Z wide out position.

On defense, with starting middle linebacker Matt Bauman nursing a sore foot from a scooter accident, Matt Ah You stepped in and as a former starter, looked more than capable. Behind him, Jeff Bell and Bingham freshman Iona Pritchard took reps.

Behind David Nixon at the strongside linebacker spot, with Grant Nelson out following surgery, Barry Lamb is giving true freshman Michael Alisa from Timpview High a strong look, followed by Jadon Wagner and freshman Masi Titama. If speed is a major trait at this spot, Alisa has got the wheels to make plays.

It seems everyone on the planet is anxious for Brandon Bradley to beat out Scott Johnson at boundary corner. For some fans, this appears to be a “quest” to see this happen. Maybe he will. Didn’t happen Saturday. We’ll check Monday.

Look for Sunday’s column for some additional observations and commentary.

Best news of the day? In my opinion is the return of OG Travis Bright from a broken leg. The strongest man in the MWC, he appeared 105 percent.