Night games, bye weeks: It's in the details

Playing a night game shouldn’t be an issue, but Bronco Mendenhall says it’s something that still needs to be managed.

Sitting around in a hotel room. Trying to find things for players to do. Going through team meetings and pre-game meals. Expending pent-up emotions. Most coaches would prefer to wake up, eat, get to a ball park and play some ball. Mendenhall is no exception.

“You can burn up a lot of energy and anxiety can be spent before you get on the bus,” said Mendenhall. It might be a bigger problem for young players than veterans. “We do have a lot of young players on the team and that will be a new experience for them.”

The Cougars will stay in a hotel just south of Ogden on Thursday night. Filling up the day on Friday will be a challenge. There is no plan to bus up the day of the game, although that would be an alternative.

“Whenever there is a doubt, I error always on the side of consistency. That gives players the best chance to be grounded. There might be an argument for the other, but that isn’t what we do.”

In the Aggies, the Cougars will be facing another option quarterback and this is where Christian Stewart and Stephen Covey have helped. It is their jobs to fake like USU QBs.

“The roles Christian and Stephen are playing (as prep team quarterbacks) are more important to the team than if they were backup quarterbacks. They are having more influence right now than they would be; they’ve been very helpful,” said Mendenhall.

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Taking a week off didn’t do USC any favors when they were upset by Oregon State. UCLA had a week off before losing to BYU 59-0.

Is there any concern on the part of Mendenhall and Company that going through a bye week will throw some rust in the execution by the Cougars. Also, with the No. 1 offense and defense both sitting out the final quarters of UCLA and Wyoming, would that represent some concern about rust?

“I don’t think so,” said Mendenhall.

“I think we’ve managed the buy week really well. The players are eager. That doesn’t mean they might not be perfectly sharp to begin with. But what we’ve sacrificed in terms of not being sharp, we’ve gained in terms of health, self-scout and all the things that we did. I think the game will manifest, as it needs to, by the time its over, it might not be sharp on both sides but there are eight weeks to play still. I think we’ve managed it correctly.”