Leaving for Dallas and Sooners versus BYU

Jeff Call and I are about to board the plane for Dallas by way of Memphis — a long day.

Just some thoughts…

I had a chance to talk to Shaun Nua this week. The former DE for the Cougars who played in the NFL for Buffalo and then got picked up by the Steelers, is a graduate assistant intern for the Cougars now. About this time last year, Nua was with the Steelers and then got released before the regular season began.

Nua said his experience with the Steeler 3-4 defense has given him some insight into how it can help the Cougar front line. He’s been assigned to work with Steve Kaufusi coaching the defensive ends. With Bronco Mendenhall personally coaching the nose guards, one can see how much emphasis this staff is putting on perfecting this defensive front. The utility of the 3-4 is to enhance the play of linebackers in making tackles, sacks and tackles for loss in addition to plays in drop-back coverage.

Mendenhall says the front seven will be the strength of the defense this year. I think we’ll see better gap control from the linebackers in concern with the three down linemen. Hopefully this will translate into better run defense and freedom for Jan Jorgensen to do what he does best — be an outside freelance pass rusher.

A key to this enhanced coaching on the guys up front is the play of the middle linebackers, in this case, Terrance Hooks and Matt Bauman. Hooks likes to hit and is a downhill player who likes to attack. Bauman has decent speed and it is hoped he can be a better run stopper this year.

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Thoughts about last night’s games…

I thought Utah’s Cain did a decent job for a beginner. He was given some short stuff and focused a lot on David Reed and some handoffs. The 96-yard USU run was a stunner. I credit USU’s staff for a change in culture with the Aggie players who played hard from beginning to end.

Oregon didn’t look like a BCS program last night. In fact, at the end, with the punch and scuffle, the Ducks looked like a nicely dressed version of some frustrated JC team. If Oregon plays like this at home against the Utes, Kyle Whittingham will notch up another win over a BCS school and do it easily. The Ducks have no offense.

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Seeing a lot of BYU fans in the Airport today… It is estimated there will be about 15000 BYU fans at the game. These numbers are those who can be accounted for through ticket sales through school outlets.