Over the next four months, byu football players – those who survive the list cuts that apparently appear at each football subdivision school in the country – will be largely alone that spring training has concluded in Provo.
The cougars will not have head coach Kalani Sitake, the coordinators Aaron Roderick, Jay Hill and Kelly Poppinguga and their positioning coaches day and night, as has been the case in the past eight months.
But that does not mean that nothing will be expected of them, Sitake said on Friday after the last of 15 spring training sessions and before the annual match of the EDWARDS Stadium. In fact, it’s just the opposite.
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“We are going to go to the summer conditioning now,” said Sitake, while noting that in the coming weeks, there will be many discussions with each player on the current list concerning their future in the program, and how they are considered by their position coaches.
He said that during this packaging, which will be supervised by force and packaging staff, players will receive most of April to focus on academics and finals, with graduation exercises that take place from April 24 to 25.
“It is not like we are going to take a break and they can get their feet. They still have work to do. It’s just that we are not going to do it as a team,” said Sitake. “They can focus on the end of their final and finish the semester, and then there is … a lot of time in the spring when people get married, so I will spend time doing these things, and when you know, we will come back to our compulsory packaging (in May). So that’s what we will do. “
Of course, players are free to lead players, or PRPS, who have declared the quarter-Arrière Jake Retzlaff and others have already been planned.
While the spring camp concluded: “I just asked them to continue what we started this spring, and with our things managed by players, I think they can do a lot,” said Sitake. “They can simply appropriate them themselves.”
In fact, under the direction of the director of the Ryan Phillis football and packaging force, the cougars have been hitting the weight room harshly since the beginning of January.
“We are more in advance now than we were last year, in the bodybuilding room, and our results in tests and everything we see from strength and bodies, and muscle mass compared to fat,” said Sitake. “I think guys are in a much better place now.”
This was obvious in the media vision parts of the spring camp; Before their third season in the Big 12, the cougars look at the part of a team from Bonafide Power Four – at least physically.
Hill agreed with this evaluation, saying that the coaches will have a few days off this week, which is mainly spring vacation for UTAH schools, then will do “exit interviews with our current players” next week.
“Then, the following week, we are on the recruitment road, where we will have five or six weeks after that,” said Hill. “Then we come back and we are in camps, such as youth camps, high school camps, leagues that pass, all that, in June. And then July is our soft month to catch our breath and be ready for the fall camp. ”
Perhaps Roderick best summed up what was the message to the players when the 15th spring training ended last week; Byu has not organized a spring game or a traditional melee open to the public or a fray for several years.
“The message is that we had a good spring, but we haven’t done anything this season yet. Last year was a great season, but we are not going to sneak in this year. Everyone knows (about us). We are going to have a target on our backs every week, being a team that had a good year last year,” said Roderick.
“We must therefore be extremely diligent and hungry to do ourselves again. So everyone is (determined). There is nobody in our program that will have the impression of having arrived, or something like that. We will continue to work hard throughout this spring and this Summer. ”
Spring camp
One of the most encouraging developments leaving the spring camp was that cougars had a physical and hard camp filled with many football players without suffering from major injuries. Certain projected starters, such as Chase Roberts (shoulder), Weylin Lapuaho (elbow), Isaiah Glasker (not disclosed) and Andrew Gentry (foot) have not fully participated, but everything should be fully ready this fall, said Sitake.
“This year, we had a lot of football of 11 against 11 and have done a lot of live work. You become a little nervous at the idea of doing it, but if you want to improve in football, that’s what you have to do is simply to practice football, and to train yourself and to be live,” said Sitake. “There is a little stress behind all this, but you know, I think that overall, we have crossed it with our intact health. The guys are struck, but it will not be difficult to recover them. As we prepare to ride in May, they will be ready to drive.”
Sitake said that another positive development was that the melee was not unbalanced and that one side has not dominated the other, as has been the case in recent years.
“I cannot say that one side won more than the other. I think it was quite uniform,” he said. “… What I saw of the team is that everyone is improving. I like everyone to understand the scheme much more. We see that guys can lead, just in the same system and understand it a little more. ”
The coach declared offensively that the staff had installed “new things which, I think, will be beneficial for us to happen this fall”, when he worked on techniques, developing his rush to the passes and on the plate.
“I think we were able to accomplish all of this,” he said. “We return a bunch of guys who have played many representatives in the three phases. I think it was a huge advantage. So we were able to do a few things that we will not normally do with our and two and it is adding to the program, but also put them in more situational things.”
Which players have stood out?
Sitake generally refuses to distinguish individual players who stood out in the camp, but said that the team’s overall packaging level was impressive.
“They are not in better form at the moment, but they should not be,” he said. “We just need to timer, so we work there when the season will arrive here.”
Roderick said on several occasions throughout the camp that the UCLA and UTA transfer the tight end Carsen Ryan was as good as it was announced, and the attacking coordinator repeated this statement on Friday.
“We knew he was a good player, but we didn’t know how good he was,” said Roderick. “There were a lot of good films on him at the UCLA and when he played Utah. … But I thought he had played even better this spring than perhaps what I had seen on the film. So, I am very high on him. I thought he had done a good job.”
Roderick said that the offensive line player Isaiah Jatta, who will play the left tackle, and the Ballon Pokiaua Hauga bearer had exceptional camps.
In defense, Hill noted that the defensive back Jonathan Kabeya “stood out from me”, as well as the defensive plated John Taumoepeau and Josh Singh and Edge Rusher Ephraim Asiata.
“Probably unfair to answer this with (a lot of) names simply because there could be 20 that I could list,” said Hill.
The Deseret News will publish distinct stories decomposing the offensive, the defense and the special teams in the coming weeks, with projected post-resorting depth.
