PROVO, Utah – The BYU football team finished spring practices with a scrimmage in front of about 7,500 fans on a rainy Saturday afternoon at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Despite the steady rainfall, the Cougars got about an hour of live scrimmage work after some warmups and individual work.
The new-look BYU offense was on display and put together several successful drives ending in scores. Many of the projected starters on defense were held out as younger players showcased the depth of the 2018 Cougar squad.
Sophomore quarterback Joe Critchlow went 9 of 12 for 130 yards and a score while junior Beau Hoge went 2 for 4 for 20 yards and freshman Zach Wilson was 4 of 7 with 29 yards. Hoge and Wilson added 32 and 25 yards on the ground, respectively.
Senior running back Squally Canada rushed seven times for 55 yards, netting three short-yardage touchdowns, while freshman Zachary Katoa went for 86 yards on 17 carries.
Junior receiver Micah Simon had four receptions for 73 yards to lead the group while sophomore Neil Pau'u added three catches for 37 yards.
Defensive back Mitchell Price and linebacker Nate Sampson each had pass breakups while defensive lineman Devin Kaufusi recorded a sack on defense.
Read more about the 2018 football team.
Head coach Kalani Sitake
We probably should have practiced in the rain a little bit more, but there were some things I was pleased with. I thought discipline wise, the offense did a lot of hard counts today. We had more success offensively then we have had in the past. For spring, I thought it was really competitive and I saw a lot of guys get better. I am really happy with what I saw today.
Overall, it was good, but I think every head coach is going to be happy at the end of their spring practices. We are all undefeated so everybody is happy right now.
On quarterbacks
Tanner Mangum is really close to going live. He will join the competition in the summer at player-run practices. We will see what happens in fall camp. We would like to establish a depth chart in the position groups and see what happens.
On Squally Canada and the running game
I think a lot of credit can go to the O-line and the receivers blocking down field, but he did what he was supposed to do. I don’t think we had a lot of big plays in the run game which is a credit to the defense making tackles. I thought the running backs did well at running the ball.”
On the O-line being a strength
They have to be. They have one of the best O-line coaches as their coordinator and a great up and coming O-line coach. That’s some great knowledge so they better be good.
On evaluating the spring
I think most of it is the stuff off the field rather than on the field. Our focus is to be great at all aspects here at BYU. We will see how it all rolls. I am happy with this group and I am extremely blessed to be their head coach. I want to make sure our guys are going to achieve everything they want. This is one of their goals and they have had a lot of excitement and energy in all 15 practices this spring. I give that to the leadership from the players on the field and the coaches.”
Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes
I thought it was okay. I’m most pleased with that we didn’t turn the ball over. That was a big positive and will always be one of our top goals. We didn’t have any pre-snap penalties, we didn’t have any false starts or formation fouls of having too many people on or off the field. I think we had one holding penalty and one intentional grounding, which we certainly don’t want, but the biggest thing we wanted to control was the pre-snap penalties. The other things are easier to correct.
We ran the ball okay. It probably was not as clean as it could have been at times. I thought as the scrimmage went on we didn’t throw and catch quite as well as we have done at other times this spring. I don’t think, the weather had much to do with it, it might have just been nerves of some of these guys coming and playing in this stadium. I thought our start was a little bit slow and a little bit sloppy in the first drive, but we did get it into the end zone and that’s a positive. We kind of settled in and played better after both groups, the ones and twos, got a series under their belts.
On continuing to call games from the press box
I’m not sure yet. I certainly like the view and the ability to think in a calm, serine atmosphere, but I certainly don’t like not being with the guys. The decision will be answered and won’t just be about me, but about the rest of the staff and the team. I think I can call it from either spot.
Conclusions on the offense after today
I think it was a pretty good day. I think the positives are there, but I don’t think that we were as clean in blocking at times. I don’t think the backs were as clean in their reads as we have been at other times. I don’t think we caught and threw the ball as well as we can, but overall we moved the ball and made a couple of big plays. We didn’t make a lot of explosive plays but guys grinded it out and scored a few times. Overall, I think it was a good finish, but it could have been better. I thought we have practiced better at times in the spring than we did today.
Have you establish the culture you want yet?
No, but we are moving in the right direction. I think we have certainly made a lot of ground by building the right mindset. Guys are willing to be coached, willing to work hard, but we aren’t were we need to be yet. I think our culture is moving towards what we want and with a good summer and fall camp I believe we will be there.
What are you looking for in the film?
No. 1 is overall execution as a unit and how we could have done better, including myself as a play caller. No. 2 is which individuals played best in the most game-like atmosphere that we have had so far.
Wide receiver Micah Simon
I thought we did a pretty good job. We still have to clean up a few things technique wise. There is always room for improvement. The No. 1’s scored every drive, which was positive and we just need to keep building from this and keep moving forward.
Differences in offense from last year
Everyone is holding each other accountable and not letting anyone slack in any area. We want to get a lot done when we are out here at practice and clean it up in the film room. I feel like, just having a high tempo at practice and everyone is getting a lot of reps and then go in the film room and clean it up before the next practice.
Thoughts on the new offense and being comfortably with it
Personally, I feel really good on where we are. I know this is a great foundation that we have, and we will just continue to work throughout the summer as position groups, as quarterbacks and receivers and as a whole offense. We will run through these plays that we already know and then come fall camp we will be ready to go.
Defensive lineman Corbin Kaufusi
It was great. I love the rain for football on defense because the offense can only do a couple of things. It is fun atmosphere with everyone going so I loved it.
How did you balance not have some of the defensive guys out there?
You want to go hard but you have to remember, especially for the guys we’ve held out, that it’s all a process. You can’t jump from point A to point C, you have to go through point B. It’s a process to get the young guys to learn things go through the basics with them.
What do you take away from today?
The thing that you take away is of course that there is film that we’ve got to watch and use it as a launch pad going into these off-season workouts. A lot of people think once we are done with these spring workouts its quiet until fall, but it has to be the opposite. When spring ends, you can make a lot of gains between spring and fall camp.
Quarterback Zach Wilson
On what Coach Roderick said to him and the other quarterbacks
Just stick with how practice is, you practice how you play, just come out and execute what we’ve done all of spring practice. Just because we are in the stadium and we have jerseys on now it shouldn’t be any different.
On Micah Simon and the receivers' performance
A lot of them are studs. We had a few drops because of the slick ball, but we had no turnovers, no balls on the ground, so I think we did really well. The receivers ran hard and they did the best they could with the slippery surface too, so I think we had a good showing at receiver. They made some tough catches in the rain.
On what he wants to do during the offseason before fall camp
Just getting my body right. I’m trying to put on some weight, get bigger, stronger, and then every day working on the connection with my receivers—throwing every single day, working on routes, just perfecting what we have going right now.