With the season-opener 10 days away, BYU held its final formal preseason scrimmage Wednesday evening in Cougar Stadium to less than rave reviews.
"We were not quite a sharp today as maybe we should be," said BYU Coach LaVell Edwards. "The intensity was not what we needed to have.""They were a little sluggish," said Offensive Assistant Coach Norm Chow. "They are really, really tired."
Fortunately, the end of two-a-day practices is near. The Cougars will end two-a-days Friday and begin once-daily workouts on Saturday. They open the season on Sept. 2 with a conference game against New Mexico in Albuquerque.
The Cougars have sustained no major injuries so far during two-a-days, but a number of players are sore or still recovering from off-season surgery.
Running back Matt Bellini, who underwent minor knee surgery earlier this month before the start of practice, skipped Wednesday's scrimmage. Coaches still expect him to be ready for the opener.
"How much we use him will depend on the flow of the game," says Chow.
At least three other offensive players also missed Wednesday's scrimmage - running back Eric Mortensen, who underwent off-season knee surgery; reserve quarterback Chris Hoge, who has a sore throwing arm; and Stacy Corley, who has sore hamstrings.
During the scrimmage, Ty Detmer, who, at least officially is battling Sean Covey for the starting job, threw for one touchdown and ran for another. Covey threw three interceptions - reportedly, his first interceptions in camp scrimmages.
MARTINI STILL WAITING: Ralph Martini, the former BYU tight end/quarterback who transferred to San Jose State in search of a chance to play QB, will be the Spartans' No. 2 quarterback this season. Martini, a junior, will play behind another junior, Matt Veatch, a 6-foot-4 JC transfer and former high school javelin star with 4.5 speed.
Martini, who redshirted last season, completed 51 percent of his passes for 463 yards and 3 touchdowns in spring practice scrimmages.
THE NAME GAME: BYU has several entries for the all-name team this season. The gridiron Name of the Year surely belongs to T.D. Biegel, a freshman running back. Biegel goes by T.D. - as in TouchDown - rather than by his real name of Thorpe David - as in Jim Thorpe, whom he was named after.
And then we have Nati Valdez, a freshman wide receiver from Texas whose full name is Natividad, as in Christmas.
For exotic international names we give you Mohammed Thomas David Elewonibi, a guard from Nigeria, Canada and Snow College.
NOTES: In the BYU brochure, offensive tackle Mike Jenkins' interest in football is explained this way: "Decided to play football so he could use his size in an appropriate way." We're not sure what this means; however, Jenkins is 6-foot-7, 390 pounds . . .
Which reminds us of a story. Each spring BYU asks its new junior college transfer players to pose for pictures in a coat and tie - and a coat is provided for those who don't have them. The problem is, no one had a coat that fit Jenkins. So he wore two of them - one on each arm, with a teammate pinching them together in the back
. . . BYU has two quarterbacks serving church missions in Toronto: Brett Salisbury and Tom Young. Salisbury, whose brother Sean is a quarterback in the Canadian Football League, will return this fall. Tom, the brother of 49ers quarterback Steve, won't return for two years . . .
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YOUNG GUNS: The inexperienced group of Ute wide receivers has been playing well, says Coach Jim Fassel. But the newcomers have also received a dose of hard life in big college football.
Freshman Bryan Rowley and JC transfers Tim Imperiali and Darryl Hicks were all limping around this week after being smacked around in practice. "They're all really doing well, except they're beat up," said Fassel. "They're not used to those kinds of hits."
Rowley was nursing a sore sternum, Imperiali had a groin injury and Hicks a hip pointer.
BACK TO BASICS: Starting running back Clifton Smith has gone from No. 1 on the depth chart to . . . wherever the bottom is.
Smith missed the first week of practice while getting his summer school credits in order, and in the process lost his starting spot.
Right now, says running backs coach Wayne McQuivey, senior Steve Sigloch - who dropped out of the football program for over a year - is the No. 1 back (the offense will usually use just one back), followed by redshirt freshman Steve Abrams. Next in line is sophomore Rod Wells, who has been slowed by a bad shoulder.
Meanwhile, the enigmatic Smith has yet to demonstrate much of the ability he is reputed to have. "He'll have to work his way back into a starting spot just like anyone else," says McQuivey.
NO PROBLEM: Kicker Wayne Lammle apparently isn't going to have any problems with the new no-tee rule on PAT's and field goals this year.
Not only does he kick better off the grass, but his punting is improving, as well. He booted a 46-yard punt in scrimmage last weekend. "It wasn't very high or that far," says Fassel, "but he drove that ball like he was driving it off the tee. He has a very strong leg."
RETURNED: Tight end Dennis Smith, who missed several days' practice last week while protecting an ankle he broke in the summer, is back and practicing.
IMPROVING: Record-setting quarterback Scott Mitchell continues to show the vast physical gifts that made his last season one for the books. But McQuivey says the 6-foot-6 Mitchell is making good progress in other areas. "He's so much faster on his release, getting the ball off," says McQuivey. "And he knows the offense better."
However, getting the protection he needs is a more of a problem. Last spring the Utes appeared to have considerable depth in the line, but that thinned out quickly. Mike DeHoog left the team, Sean Henderson is facing drug-related charges and Dave Dolan re-injured a bad shoulder.
While there is still considerable talent left in the line, depth will apparently be a factor again this year.--Brad Rock
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The defection of quarterback Stewart Hansen to Utah earlier in the week hasn't caused too much consternation in Logan.
USU Coach Chuck Shelton was wishing the freshman redshirt well Wednesday rather than talking sour grapes over the loss of talented quarterback to a rival school.
"Stewart Hansen is an awfully good kid, but for some reason he struggled being in Logan," said Shelton. "Maybe he just saw two people ahead of him that were going to stay around for three more years."
The 6-4 Hansen, from Danville, Calif., was listed as the Aggie third-string quarterback behind sophomores Kevin White and Kirk Johnson, who are waging a tight battle for the starting job.
"He had a good future with us," said Shelton, "but that (Utah's) might be a better offense for him and his style of play."
NEW LOOK: Speaking of styles, the Aggie offense will sport a new look this year under offensive coordinator Pat Behrns, who has taken over for pass-happy Brian Billick, now at Stanford as the receiver coach.
The Aggies will be more of a play-action passing team and will run the ball considerably more than last year, when their 51.9-yards-per-game rushing average ranked them dead last in the nation.
As for the quarterback battle, it appears that White, the former Logan High and Snow College product, may have the edge if he can adequately recover from the broken wrist he suffered in the spring.
NEW QB: With Hansen gone, the Aggies have moved Craig Sorensen from strong safety to quarterback. The 6-2, 210-pound Sorensen starred at quarterback for Cottonwood High in 1985 when he was the 4A MVP. He also was a top basketball and baseball player and won a state championship in swimming. Since he went on an LDS mission and redshirted last year, he is still listed as a freshman.
"We told Craig in the spring we'd give him a chance to come back to quarterback," said Shelton. "Craig is well-suited to the type of offense we're running."
WHIPPING THEM INTO SHAPE: In the Shelton years at Utah State, the Aggies have always been known as one of the better-conditioned teams around. They may have lacked talent, but Shelton has always made sure they weren't outworked on the field.
So while Shelton was thrilled with the way his team reported back for fall drills strength-wise, he was a little disappointed about their conditioning.
"This is the strongest team we've had, but not as good as teams we've had in the past as far as conditioning goes," he said. "But that's all right because we can't get them stronger, but we can get them into shape the next three weeks."
- Mike Sorensen
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PAD TIME: Weber State football players put the pads on for the first time Thursday after two-a-days without pads for the first three days of the week.
"They look forward to that," said new Coach Dave Arslanian, "because they want to hit. The non-contact stuff, we coaches use it to keep guys healthy and wanting to hit."
Though Arslanian only will have 80-85 players on his squad, with a lot of them inexperienced, he's been happy with the whole team's offseason conditioning. "They came to camp in the best condition I've ever seen," he said. Quarterback Rich Ericson, in a three-way battle for the starting job, and wide receiver Dave Hall out of Weber High School both graded out at 100 percent on their fitness tests.
Free safety Maurice Jackson had the best 1 1/2-mile time of anybody on the team. "I'm impressed with his fitness and intensity level," said Arslanian.
CANADIAN CONNECTION: Arslanian began recruiting Canadians when he coached at Snow Junior College, and he has eight this year - punter Brent Chuhaniuk, defensive tackle Bruce Covernton, Mitchell, halfback Ainsworth Morgan, offensive tackles Ken Rayner and Tom Stackaruk, tight end Trevor Shaw and flanker Rob Trebilcock.
There are four Alaskans - corner Doug Grant, linebackers Deric Gurley and Kevin McHenry and safety George Kelly
There are eight from San Diego and six from Ricks JC - guard Alan Bott, center Keith Chambers, defensive ends Kris Heindel and Kenny Peck, defensive tackle Justin Jones and quarterback Ryan Schmidt.
BOUNCING BACK: Morgan, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound freshman back, dislocated a shoulder in Tuesday morning's practice, but like a true Canadian in hockey tradition, he shrugged it off and was back at practice Tuesday evening. Doctors said he wouldn't do any more damage if he could endure the pain, said an impressed Arslanian.
- Linda Hamilton