Collie says Cougars must take home on the road

The Cougars will finish the year playing three of the next four games on the road.

And they’ll have to be better then they showed at Washington, Utah State and TCU. And at home against UNLV.

“We need to learn how to play well. It’s extremely key for our whole team. We haven’t played as well as we’d liked to,” said Collie.

With the TCU loss out of the way, it is time to focus on getting better and finishing tough.

Collie said when the Cougars come to play at home, it’s an entirely different mindset and they need to take that on the road.

Why has it been different?

Collie said in each of the road games, he doesn’t think BYU practiced well leading up to those road trips. “Now that we got the TCU loss out of the way and we were humbled, our practices have been head and shoulders above those before.”

With UNLV scoring so often in Provo and CSU improving, Collie said the task ahead of them is to practice and play better. “We need to continue that tempo.”

Collie said the MWC is a lot better than it was before he left on his mission. He said there are more playmakers, more talent, better coaching and the competition is tougher.

“The offense played well and we moved the ball and put points on the board without turning the ball over,” Collie said.

“Both offenses showed up to play,” said Collie.

Now, what about the defense?

They could use Russell T. back at nose guard. It would help if the kickoffs got in the end zone. The secondary must get in position to go after the ball and there’s got to be a better pressure presence on QBs.

The nickel package is interesting but could improve with further play of Brandon Bradley at corner and Andrew Rich at safety — with more experience. Is it too late to move Jan Jorgenson or Ian Dulan to inside linebacker and replace one or the other with Putnam and Denney?

In the final games this season, the Cougars might need to blitz more to help the secondary. But it might not help if the game plan is to wave the white flag in the secondary and play prevent the whole game.

It will be interesting to see how Bronco Mendenhall adjusts this week. CSU is not a spread option team with five receivers like the Cougars faced against UNLV. While the Ram QB is very good, he is not Omar Clayton.

We’ll be hearing from Bronco this morning.