It was fun to see our guys on offense be able to catch the ball and make some plays. We definitely have some things we need to clean up but I thought overall, I was happy with it. – Taysom Hill
PROVO — A little more than one week into fall camp — and just three weeks until the season opener against Arizona — BYU held a scrimmage Saturday morning at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
It was closed to the media and to the public.
“It went well. For the most part, the right guys got opportunities to make tackles and break tackles,” said coach Kalani Sitake. “We got a lot of good work. Being three weeks out (from the opener), it was good to go through the motions of a game and have a full (officiating) crew here. Obviously, that there are some things that we have to handle administratively as a staff to make things smoother. But it was good prep.”
Quarterbacks Taysom Hill and Tanner Mangum took almost all of the snaps in the scrimmage, Hill said. Offensive coordinator Ty Detmer wouldn’t say whether one is emerging as the starter.
“Right now, we’re just rotating. They’re getting equal reps,” Detmer said. “We’re all working at it together. They work great as a unit … They’re all starting to get it. They’re starting to get reads quicker and eyes to the right places. They’re starting to take that next step. Overall, the quarterbacks were playing pretty well … We’ve still got a couple of weeks to tighten it up.”
Sitake was pleased with the performances of Hill and Mangum.
“The two always stand out, Tanner and Taysom,” Sitake said. “I couldn’t tell you what the stats were but they both did well. We had some success on offense and our defense also had success. It was a back-and-forth day.”
Sitake reiterated that the coaching staff would like to name a starter “as soon as we can.”
How did Hill assess the scrimmage?
“I thought it was pretty good. I was happy with some of the plays that we made,” Hill said. “It was fun to see our guys on offense be able to catch the ball and make some plays. We definitely have some things we need to clean up but I thought overall, I was happy with it.”
“It was good for us to go here in the stadium, 11-on-11, and make some more progress,” Mangum said. “Fall camp is a grind and every day gets better. We’re making some big steps. The run game looked good and we made some plays downfield in the passing game as well. So overall, we definitely got better.”
Offensively, Detmer said, there’s plenty of room for improvement before the season kicks off.
“We’ve got to cut down on the penalties. We’re moving the ball then we get a holding call or a false start,” Detmer said. “We’ve got to stay ahead of the chains. We’re still at a point where our O-line, we’re trying different combinations. When we get a twist with a D-end, we’re a little slow and we reach and grab and we get a holding call. We had a couple of those today that I’d like to see cleaned up. Overall, we’re running the ball pretty well and we’re getting good push up front. It’s a continued work in progress.”
Defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki liked what he saw from the defense and he feels good about his depth chart.
“We’re starting to see a little bit of separation now between ones and twos and threes and guys that contribute on special teams,” he said. “But they’ve got to stay healthy for us to have a chance to compete every week.”
Tuiaki said that he’s giving as many reps as possible to Harvey Langi at defensive end, adding that Langi could always go back to linebacker if necessary.
Sitake said he’s closed the scrimmages to the media and public to maintain a competitive edge going into the season.
“We’re in a unique position right now. Not a lot of people know what’s going on with what we’re doing offensively and defensively,” he said. “We’re more secretive than we’ll ever be. I hope you can respect what we’re trying to do here. Once we start getting into the swing of things, maybe in a couple of weeks, we’ll start opening stuff up. Maybe it will be next year. I know which one you want, but we’ll see.”
EMAIL: jeffc@deseretnews.com