Collie declares "best practice of the year"
Austin Collie says the events of last week “opened our eyes,” and has inspired the team to return to the basic building blocks of what got the Cougars going this season. Namely, execution.
“We had a great practice, it was the best practice we’ve had all year,” Collie told me after Monday’s one-hour practice in the indoor practice facility. “We’re anxious to get back to winning.”
It will be interesting to see how this team puts itself back on track. Max Hall, Austin Collie, David Nixon, Jan Jorgensen are solid leaders. They walk the talk and have done it all season.
It is also interesting to ponder what this team would have been like if many of the defensive recruits of 2004 had panned out, stuck around or even showed up. Much of how this defensive team is put together is a result of missing bodies from that last class of recruits by Gary Crowton.
Michael Reed, Ray Feinga and Collie were in that class. The others, who did not show or left school early include a ton of defensive players. They included William Turner, Karland Bennett, Drew Mugelston, Ibrahim Rashada, Eddie Scipio, Billy Skinner and kickoff return specialist B.J. Mathis.
Cougar fans will never know how this class could have turned out. Some may have ended up flops, like Scipio, who never showed. But others could have carved out a nice career and been players. I liked Turner and Bennet and I thought Rashada and Skinner had some abilities. They were athletic, showed decent speed, they appeared to be good football players with solid credentials.
What depth would that have given the current team? How any would have ended up being stars their senior years. There have also been a few other players who didn’t make it to BYU because of academics. Read about one of them here.
On the other hand, Bronco Mendenhall has made it very clear during his tenure that if one believes BYU football is all about what happens during 60 minutes in a stadium, one has missed the memo, the message and the theme of what he is trying to do.
He will do it will men like Scott Johnson, Terrance Hooks, Matt Bauman and Kellen Fowler. If it is to be done at all. Not to knock those that left, or why, but there is a message there about the direction Mendenhall has taken the team from back in the day. Going 28-5 in the win loss column as a side show the past two seasons and 2008 isn’t all that bad.
Collie is determined and driven to get back on track against UNLV, a team that he respects and compares favorably to the Rebel team that beat the Cougars in Provo back in 2004. “I remember Jamaal Brimmer, he was a great football player and I remember them being tough and playing very hard,” said Collie.