Cougars receive love from pollsters

You may not have predicted it Saturday, the way ESPN’s SportsCenter didn’t show many highlights of BYU’s blowout win over Tulane, but voters did take note moving the Cougars to No. 7 in the AP and 9 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

That’s decent respect.

What is getting plenty of attention from media and fans a like is the improvement by BYU’s defense. Aggressive, physical and more athletic, BYU’s defenders have now had 107 plays run at them and given up just one touchdown in two games, both on the road.

That is an impressive body of work. For the season, the Cougars are even in turnovers gained and given away. That too is respectable after BYU’s defense got two interceptions and two fumble recoveries against Tulane. The defense is averaging just 8 points a game to offenses.

Another factor that has worked is Jaime Hill freeing up Bronco Mendenhall from calling the plays and Hill has been remarkable accurate in calling for the right pressure and coverages and the key time to make big plays.

Jeff Call and I are in the New Orleans Airport preparing to take a Southwest Airlines flight to Phoenix before heading to Salt Lake City. Jeff is woring on his follow up stories and I’m deciding on what angles to take for a column on Tuesday.

We’ve run into a lot of happy BYU fans in the airport who are anxious to see what BYU does in the home opener against Florida State. They all believe BYU had more fans in the Superdome than Tulane on Saturday.