BYU coaches, players hammered with press

Bronco Mendenhall is in the process of hatching out a management plan to deal with interview requests from around the country for himself and his players.

After Saturday’s blowout of UCLA, the Cougars have had all kinds of national media requests. Mendenhall was on Jim Rome’s show today. He is being interviewed for a feature on himself for ESPN’s Game Day. Max Hall has had dozens of interviews, many from national programs including Sporting News Radio, Fox Sports and all kinds of ESPN radio shows that originate their programs in individual markets across the country.

For the first time in his career, Hall was asked about the Heisman Trophy on Monday. Fans started calling him “Hollywood” from the stands of the Washington and UCLA game.

“I kind of liked that one,” Hall said. “Coach Doman was giving me a hard time about that. But I try not to dwell on that stuff.

“I cannot pay any attention to all this talk about the Heisman. My focus has to be on something else.”

Mendenhall is going to limit some traffic with the players, especially QB Max Hall, and he’ll take a close look at what’s going on with his own life.

He told reporters today after practice he knows how much it is impacting his own schedule, so he has a sensitivity to what it is doing for players like Hall with his daily schedule and his “personal life.”

I’m sitting next to Robert Anae right now and he’s telling a national reporter via phone that nobody is any better than his next play, his next game. “Nobody was talking about Max Hall at all last year,” said Anae.

Mendenhall said all the accolades are nice, but he doesn’t want any of it to distract from the mission at hand, beating Wyoming on Saturday.

“Our quarterback is being inundated and it’s affecting his life,” said Mendenhall. “It’s my job to protected. Most likely we’ll be looking at limiting some interview requests.”

On his interview with Rome: Mendenhall said he approached that just like he would the reporters in front of him at practice. He is frank, honest and trying to be consistent. “I didn’t tell him anything that you guys haven’t heard me say to you.”

Oh, the interview with Anae? He just told me it was ESPN Magazine.

DB Scott Johnson left the field early with a thigh bruise. He said he would be OK after he returned for the close of practice.