BYU Preview | by Mike

After the drama of the USC game, it's been hard for fans to turn their attention to BYU. Fortunately, Charlie Weis's "second season" concept appears to have done the trick in focusing the team's attention on BYU.

"If I told you we were opening up this week against BYU at home," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis asked defensive captain and starting linebacker Brandon Hoyte, "how fired up would you be?"

Hoyte's response: "Pretty fired up."

That this week also happens to be fall break has further helped the team adopt a season-opening, fall camp attitude.

Here at BGS, we're not the beneficiaries of Weis's attitude management. We've had a hard time shaking the USC game. In fact, until Jay's posts today detailing the BYU offense and defense, we'd largely neglected this Saturday's game. We're not even sure what BYU stands for. Many maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago, but at least one scholar has uncovered evidence indicating BYU is an abbreviation for "Buddy, you're unfortunate."

However, we can direct your attention to some BYU-related pieces we prepared before the USC malaise set in.

First is Michael's profile of BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall. Included are discussions of the coaching staff, offensive philosophy, and defensive philosophy.

Next you can turn to Pat's position previews and familiarize yourself with BYU's personnel. If you compare Pat's previews to an updated BYU depth chart (page 12), you'll get a sense for how injury-depleted the Cougars are.

Last there are our comments in our overall season preview. We were unanimous in expecting a win. I predicted we would surpass last year's rushing total against BYU on our first drive, and Mark revealed his nonchalant attitude towards men named Bronco. Dylan's comment reveals that the USC hangover may not be the only reason we have been so delinquent in preparing BYU previews this week:

From this day forward, as it once was, there should be no analysis wasted on the BYU game. It was a "W" when they signed the contract.