Max Hall: We'll be ready for Arizona
If there’s one guy on BYU’s football team who wants to get to another game as quick as possible, it is Max Hall.
Bronco Mendenhall, AD Tom Holmoe and Max Hall all took to the podium Monday, the first press access to the team since BYU lost at Utah.
Hall said he is excited to play Arizona and respects them. “They are better than when we played them last year. It will be competitive, but we plan on coming out with a win.”
Here are some tid-bits that came out of the press conference:
Hall said he usually records games and reviews them. He deleted the TCU and Utah games when he got home from those losses. But he did say he got a chance to learn more about what happened (in the Utah loss) and study it in a productive three and half hour session with the offensive players and coaches. In that meeting, every play got reviewed and discussed — the good, bad and ugly. It included play calls by coaches and Robert Anae took responsibity for his failures — so did the players.
–Hall said the TCU game took longer for him to get over than the loss to Utah. He took blame for the mistakes in the Utah game, saying his tries to make plays and score touchdowns and presses too much. “When I try to take the game on my shoulders, that’s where I get in trouble.”
“It was very good. It’s something I think we ought to do more often,” said Hall.
– DB Scott Johnson is further ahead than expected and now has “a chance” to play in the bowl game, according to Mendenhall.
–Tom Holmoe, without discussing it directly (opening up against Oklahoma), said negotiations are progressing with BYU’s schedule and he expects positive results. When asked how big certain games would be, he said, “very big, very good for us.”
–Holmoe said BYU will not put a premium price addition on bowl tickets this year. The tickets will be shipped by Federal Express and there will be an $8 handling and postage charge.
–Both Mendenhall and Holmoe said BYU has in the past and will continue to operate with the same recruiting philosophy and go after the same type athlete. There will be occasions for exceptions. BYU will go after a player that doesn’t fit the mold or background of regular Cougar targeted recruits to fill a specific need. An example is WR Michael Reed. Holmoe said people talk about recruiting a guy with 4.2 speed, as if that will make a world of difference. But he said speed is important but it is not the entire picture at BYU. He claimed the Cougars currently have players in the program who are faster than those starting ahead of them. In short, nobody on the staff believes the Cougars are going to bow down to Utah and TCU from now on over speed issues because those were the two losses that kept the Cougars from winning a championship this year.
Mendenhall concurred. He said BYU has won championships, made it to consecutive bowls, won bowls and been ranked high in the past with the same type athletes it has always recruited. It has done again lately and will continue to experience the same kind of championship success with the same players.
The issue of “kind of players” surfaced after a reporter questioned if BYU would chance it’s recruiting philosophy (go after more speed guys), after losing to Utah and TCU.
Mendenhall said BYU’s high academic standards, the honor code, other restrictions makes it very limited as to who they will bring into the program.
–Max Hall said he expects his two top weapons, Dennis Pitta and Austin Collie, to return next year. “Things could happen, but I’ve talked to them and if I have anything to say about it, they’ll be back. We have a chance to be a very good team next year.”