BYU football: Small takeaways from Cougars’ open fall scrimmage

BYU football scrimmaged at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Thursday. While it’s tough to learn much from a controlled practice, here are some small takeaways.

With BYU football’s depressing news on Thursday morning, it was nice to settle in at LaVell Edwards Stadium and watch the Cougars play ball.

There was a nice turnout, despite being at 10AM on a Thursday. I’m not sure what other schools around the nation do for events like this, but there’s no denying that there is some great support for BYU.

Here are some small, bite-sized takeaways from the two-hour practice.

Riley Burt looks the part. 

Burt looks way bigger than he did in 2015. I’m buying the hype. He’s going to turn a lot of heads.

Troy Warner is really good.

Nothing overly surprising, but Warner looks great. Never really got beat – whether on 11-on-11’s or one-on-one drills.

Big Mo doesn’t move well. 

Watching Mountain Mo participate in fumble drills was… interesting. He’s not a smooth mover, or a fast one (those things aren’t surprising), but you can tell he’s giving it all he has.

Big Mo’s teammates love him.

The entire group was cheering for Mo, loud enough to be heard in the stands. When he recovered the ball, they were jumping and screaming. It’s clear that everyone loves Mo.

BYU is fun again.

You can tell the players love playing for their coaches, and that the coaches love to coach their players. There was laughing, joking, horseplay. Some of the funnier moments came during a defensive interception return drill, with players breaking out elaborate touchdown celebrations. Those included: bowling a strike, using the ball as a machine gun and the always popular grenade toss. It was a lot of fun.

Joe Critchlow is legit. 

Perhaps the guy that impressed me the most was Joe Critchlow. He throws a great ball with a tight spiral.

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Bentley Hanshaw is a smooth route runner. 

Hanshaw looks great running routes. He’ll be fighting for playing time, but he looked pretty good.

Trash talk! 

On one play, Micah Hannemann smoked Hanshaw. Hanshaw popped up and the two got in each other’s faces and exchanged words. The team loved this, hooting and hollering along.

Beau Hoge is ready.

Hoge looks great. Poised in the pocket, eyes always focused downfield.

Matt Bushman is still making plays.

Yeah, we can forget about the spring game being a flash in the pan for Matt Bushman. Dude is very legit.

Trey Dye between the tackles. 

Trey Dye bulked up and looks like a competent between-the-tackles runner.

Football season is almost here! 

Everyone, BYU football will be playing in a real game in just nine days. Nine! Life is good.