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BYU seeks 16th straight win

Provo, UT (Sports Network) - A former defensive coordinator with New Mexico, BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall now leads his new charges against the Lobos as the ninth-ranked Cougars entertain UNM in a Mountain West Conference clash this weekend in Provo.

Mendenhall has the Cougars running on all cylinders right now with a perfect 5-0 record and a string of 15 consecutive victories overall, representing the longest active streak in the nation. BYU, which has won 17 consecutive conference games as well, last took the field back on Friday, October 3rd versus in-state rival Utah State, a meeting that resulted in a 34-14 win for the Cougars. Oddly enough, even though the Cougars won that bout they still slipped a spot in the AP poll, dropping from eighth to ninth place in favor of USC which moved up one with a victory. Clearly, as coach Mendenhall noted previously, there's something wrong with the polls when such a flip-flop can take place.

As for the Lobos, a team that has won 14 straight games when scoring first, it logged a 24-0 shutout against Wyoming last Saturday, representing the team's first such effort against a member of the MWC and the first overall against a fellow conference member in a quarter century. The win was the second in a row and the third in the last four games for a New Mexico program that opened the 2008 campaign with back-to-back defeats against TCU and Texas A&M at home.

BYU holds a 42-14-1 advantage over the Lobos in the all-time series. New Mexico gave the Cougars a fight last year though, before falling in a 31-24 decision. BYU has taken eight of the last 10 meetings as well.

James Wright and Brad Gruner both scored touchdowns on the ground on Saturday, which was more than enough for the Lobos to streak by Wyoming. Gruner, who is playing for the injured Donovan Porterie, generated 81 yards rushing but just 33 yards on 8-of-19 passing, representing one of the weakest aerial efforts ever for the program. Wright, who was filling the void left by the injured Rodney Ferguson, logged a career-high 120 yards coming off the bench and became the first Lobo freshman to eclipse the 100-yard mark since DonTrell Moore turned the trick four times in 2002.

Yet, even though the team came up with the win, head coach Rocky Long still isn't convinced of his team's ability right now. "Obviously we are struggling to move the ball. We are not throwing and catching really well. The only chance you have to win is to play good defense and control the line of scrimmage and run the ball pretty well." As far as the running attack is concerned, New Mexico ranks third in the conference and 25th in the nation with 205.5 ypg, but by no means does that make up for a passing game that is a mere seventh in the MWC and 114th nationally with 112.7 ypg at the moment. In terms of pass efficiency, the team's rating is only 86.38, which has the Lobos ranked 117th.

While shutting out a member of the Mountain West Conference is something new to the Lobos, holding down Wyoming is no longer a novel notion. Over the last eight meetings the Cowboys have averaged a mere 242.2 ypg and a paltry 8.8 ppg versus the UNM defense. This time around the Pokes generated a mere 71 yards passing and were forced into three turnovers as a player like Zach Arnett erupted for a game-high 16 tackles and a fumble recovery. Herbert Felder checked in with eight stops, two sacks, a forced fumble and one recovery. Arnett seemed to be pleased with the effort his unit provided in the contest. "It's about time that we played like the Lobo defense from the opening kickoff. We've started slow too many times this year."

The run defense has been pretty tough for the team so far this season, allowing just 107.5 ypg to rank third in the Mountain West and 28th in the nation entering this week. Although it wasn't the case last week, holding opponents down in the first quarter has been an issue so far this year with the first five opponents posting a combined 72 points in the frame, compared to only 31 for the Lobos during their six outings. Arnett, who already has four forced fumbles, and Clint McPeek are tied for the team lead with 49 tackles apiece.

Austin Collie posted his third straight game with at least 100 yards receiving as he and the Cougars easily dismissed Utah State last week in Logan. Collie made his way into the end zone twice for the undefeated program, first on a 76-yard catch from Max Hall barely three minutes into the contest and then a 12-yard pass play in the third frame, the last of the scoring for BYU. Although he had an uncharacteristic two interceptions, Hall still finished the night 23-of-37 for 303 yards and two scores.

"This might sound weird," Hall prefaced one of the more intriguing comments during a press conference, "but it felt good to maybe throw a couple interceptions and...kinda bring me down a little bit because the expectation of play around here right now is so high that sometimes you're going to make mistakes." In defense of Hall, he was bound to have a couple of bumps in the road at some point, yet he's still completing an incredible 71.8 percent of his passes for 317.4 ypg and has 17 TDs, against a mere four INTs. Hall has the passing offense ranked seventh in the country and the scoring offense checking in at 41.2 ppg, tops in the MWC and 10th in the nation.

With the BYU offense getting so much of the attention, Brandon Bradley made sure the defense would get some ink this week as well when he returned a fumble 38 yards for a touchdown in the win over the Aggies. Overall, the Cougars recovered three fumbles and picked off a pass as they streaked to yet another win. Through the first five games this season the Cougars have recovered an impressive 11 fumbles, picking up nine versus UCLA, Wyoming and Utah State. Compared to last year the squad is head and shoulders above the previous group which recorded a mere four recoveries the entire '07 campaign. Although BYU's string of quarters in which it held opponents scoreless was finally broken, the fact remains that the unit still held a desperate USU group to 322 yards of total offense.

Opponents have now scored a grand total of just 17 points in the first half this season, compared to 59 points for the Cougars in the first quarter alone, which means the Lobos will have to come out strong if they hope to be competitive in Provo where BYU has taken 15 in a row. Overall, the Cougars are giving up a scant 11.6 ppg to rank first in the conference and eighth in the nation this week.

10/8/2008 10:58:46 AM

 

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