Bruins' visit tailored for Cougars

[IE]

With some hesitation, BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall shared after Saturday's 28-27 win over Washington that he has worn the same dark blue warm-up pants - rather than the tan khakis the rest of the coaching staff wears - in the Cougars' last three wins over Pac-10 foes: Oregon, UCLA and the Huskies.
No need to send them to the cleaners now.
Having improved their record to 4-3 against Pac-10 opponents in the Mendenhall era, the Cougars host UCLA on Saturday. It could be argued that the 1:30 p.m. MDT game at LaVell Edwards Stadium - to be televised by Versus - is the most important in the head coach's four-year tenure, if looking at it from a BCS-making perspective.
For the second straight week, though, a lot of the focus will be on the other head coach, UCLA's Rick Neuheisel, and new offensive coordinator Norm Chow, the former BYU assistant. Neuheisel, new at UCLA, last visited Provo in 1999 when he made his debut coaching Washington.
"It's going to be huge," BYU defensive end Jan Jorgensen acknowledged. "[UCLA] is going to be rested and ready."
While the Cougars (2-0) were toiling in Seattle on Saturday, UCLA coaches gave their players the weekend off after the Bruins upset then-No. 18 Tennessee 27-24 in overtime on Labor Day.
UCLA dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Sunday, going


from No. 23 to the those receiving votes list (No. 26). The Cougars also found disfavor with the AP voters, dropping from No. 15 to No. 18. BYU remained at No. 15 in the USA Today coaches poll.



While the Cougars lost linebacker Vic So'oto to a broken foot on Saturday, UCLA is without starting tight end Logan Paulsen for the same reason. Senior tailback Kahlil Bell (ankle sprain) is questionable.

 

[IE]

BYU football: Linebacker So'oto out 4-8 weeks with so' toe


With So'oto out, Cougars thin at linebacker


Their two top linebackers graduated. A projected starter blew out his knee in spring ball and was lost for the season. Just before fall camp started, a key backup linebacker was lost because he needed season-ending surgery for a kidney ailment.
Naturally, the first major injury of the season for the BYU Cougars came at linebacker, the position (besides quarterback) where they could least afford to lose a guy.
Coach Bronco Mendenhall said at his Monday news conference that starting weakside linebacker Vic So'oto broke his foot during the fourth or fifth play, a noncontact play for him, in BYU's 28-27 win over Washington.
So'oto underwent surgery Monday and will be out between four and eight weeks.
"One of the doctors was very optimistic that it could be four [weeks] and another was much more conservative, saying it was going to be at least eight," Mendenhall said.
Snow College transfer Coleby Clawson split time at the Will spot with So'oto in the Northern Iowa game and played virtually the entire Washington game. He will obviously step in as the starter.
After that, Mendenhall said there is "quite a drop-off" in game readiness.
"From there, we are still considering what we will do," Mendenhall said. "We are a little thin at that spot now, but we do have some options, so that will probably be a story as the week
unfolds."
Jadon Wagner, a redshirt freshman from Canada, is Clawson's backup at the current time, linebackers coach Barry Lamb said.

Saturday in Seattle

Mendenhall and team captains Nixon and Travis Bright fielded a lot of questions Monday regarding Saturday's controversial unsportsmanlike conduct penalty assessed to UW quarterback Jake Locker, and whether the national reaction to the story was a reason the Cougars dropped from No. 15 to No. 18 in the AP Top 25. They remained at No. 15 in the coaches poll.
"It is unfortunate that a game that was so hard-fought, and decided on the last play - not the second-to-last play - by a phenomenal effort by a defensive group of kids, and one player in particular in Jan Jorgensen, who might have been one of four who could've blocked the kick," will be remembered that way, said Mendenhall, who had to be told more about the uproar by BYU sports information director Jeff Reynolds because he neither reads newspapers nor watches television. "Unfortunately, the focus, it sounds like, has gone to a correct call by an official, within the rules, that then was viewed to determine the outcome of the game, when it was actually the next play, and every play prior to that, that determined the outcome."
Asked whether Washington would have had a shorter kick attempt blocked, Mendenhall said, "In my opinion, it wouldn't have mattered."

 

[johnnyb.]

i am flying out for this game, thx for the info!
i predicted perfectly the ucla/tenne game so gonna say 27-21 ucla wins! homer pick...