College football coaches are fond of saying that they never look past opponents to more formidable foes.
Don’t believe them.
At least, believe Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales, who has been saying since January that getting revenge over BYU for last year’s double-overtime loss to the Cougars is top of mind for his group, even though the Wildcats played, and defeated, Northern Arizona 35-7 last week.
“The BYU game plan is done,” Gonzales said in July, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
In January, the second-year defensive coordinator said two days after Arizona lost to SMU in the Holiday Bowl, on Jan. 4, that he had directed his staff to begin game-planning for the Cougars, ranked No. 15 in this week’s AP Top 25 poll and a touchdown favorite in Saturday’s game at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
BYU quarterback “Bear Bachmeier had his day last year against us and I can’t wait for Sept. 12,” Gonzales reportedly told the Tucson-based news outlet.
Asked about Gonzales’ comments on Monday, Arizona head coach Brent Brennan said it was “Danny speaking for Danny” and that his team was only worried about beating NAU last week.
In his weekly press briefing Monday, BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said his staff doesn’t prepare for any specific team on its schedule more than another in the offseason.
“We respect the game too much to do that,” he said, noting that once the schedule comes out, “we have some prep for our offense, our defense, and special teams to be installed, and those are installed for anybody.”
Later, Sitake said: “The game demands too much. … Now, back in spring, we made plans and figured out what we can do. But that all changes once you get game film. So now that we have one game that we can see from Arizona, against NAU, we will see if we can adjust that a little bit, or if we need to.”
Both Sitake on Monday and BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick when he met with reporters after practice Tuesday said they have a lot of respect for Gonzales, who they have coached against for years.
“So Danny Gonzales is a really good defensive coordinator,” Sitake said. “I’ve known him for years, and he can do some really difficult things for an offense (to handle), with his defense, and then Seth (Doege) has done a great job with the offense.”
BYU has won five straight games against Arizona, including last year’s 37-33 victory in Tucson in which Bachmeier ran 7 yards for the game-winning touchdown in the second overtime period. He was also intercepted twice, while throwing for 172 yards and a touchdown.
Roderick said Arizona’s defense was one of the best in the country last year and he hasn’t seen any dropoff this year.
“I’ve coached against this defense many times in my career. It’s a really tough scheme, and these guys that run this defense, man, they’re so good at what they do that even when they lose a few players the next year, they’re just as good as they were the year before.
“They play super hard and they know what they’re doing and they just stick to their identity. They don’t change for anybody, and I have a lot of respect for them,” he continued. “They create a lot of havoc and just play their butts off. They play really, really hard.”
