PM Practice Report: DB's get a workout

The offense spend week one working on patented short passing sets and BYU’s new secondary looked very impressive getting hands on balls for picks and tips.

But in today’s afternoon session, the offense tested the secondary a little more with a deep attack and the corners were a little humbled after two bombs from Max Hall and Brenden Gaskins resulted in toast.

Gaskins started it off in an 11-on-11 drill after Hall failed to sustain a drive and Justin Sorenson’s 60-plus yar field goal fell short. On a deep down and out, receiver Landon Jaussi came out of his break with the ball heading his direction. Corner Brandon Bradley recovered, used a burst of speed to get in position to make a play and reached up to bat the pass down. But even after getting a piece of the ball, Jaussi came up with it and raced untouched for a touchdown that covered 35 yards.

Bradley could have played Jaussi and it would have been a 15-yard gain at the most, but he gambled and went for the ball and lost.

Hall answered with a picture-perfect bomb of his own. Sophomore Luke Ashworth took a stutter-step sideline route and exploded down the sideline with Brandon Howard in pursuit. Ashworth got a few steps on Howard and even opened up a little separation as Hall’s pass settled in his hands, right over his shoulder and he completing a 60-yard bomb. Ashworth would have scored but the play got dead just inside the 10 when Howard finally caught up and put his arms around Ashworth. Rules of engagement call for no tackles to the ground. It is debatable whether Howard could have tackled Ashworth but 60 yards is 60 yards.

Hall later hit TE Kaneakua Friel for a six-yard scoring strike.

In simple terms, it was a statement by the offense: Cover the whole field from on now.

Hall finished 4 of 8 for 81 yards. Gaskins was 5 of 8 for 65.

Linebacker Matt Ah You did very little work, nursing a simple injury.

The Cougars will have one morning session on Tuesday.