PROVO, Utah -- It's not quite football season yet - but that isn't stopping Brigham Young University from sending a message after Power 5 Conferences were unwilling to schedule the Cougars.
Multiple BYU players and head coach Bronco Mendenhall commented on the subject:
"We're coming..."
"BYU can't be excluded..."
"We can compete with anybody in the country..."
"It's one of the elite programs in college football. That can all be demonstrated by how we play."
Jamaal Williams had a very strong opinion about the teams that don't want to play the Cougars.
"There is something wrong -- you must not like good football,” Williams said. “Cause, I'm pretty sure when you play football, you want to play the good teams, we're are one of the top teams in the nation and they should want to play us."
During this off season, there has been a lot of improvement for the Cougars on the field.
"The thing that I have seen most is improvement in our offensive line, our ability to protect the quarterback is necessary and is a work in progress that way and that's what has to happen for us to move forward offensively and we've added more depth at wide receiver, so those two things will help us," Mendenhall said.
"Four additions of receiver type guys that can really go? I am way excited about the future that that kind of group can bring," said offensive coordinator Robert Anai.
Specifically on offense, junior quarterback Taysom Hill has been working with a quarterback coach to help his throwing accuracy.
"If you miss high or you miss right or you miss left, I know exactly why. So, in the midst of a game, if I do miss high, I know how to fix it," Hill said.
The biggest thing that Bronco Mendenhall said the team needs to work on is consistency.
"The performance at the critical times against the biggest teams on the biggest stages... there is two to three plays that usually change the outcome... making those plays more consistently within the course of a season against the very best teams," Mendenhall said.
