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BYU senior defensive lineman Remington Peck called today's practice one of the most physical and exhausting he has experienced in his time at BYU.

Embarrassed by the way UCLA put up 296 rushing yards against them, the Cougars are getting physical this week as they prepare for Michigan on Saturday (10 a.m. MDT, ABC).

"Yeah, obviously everyone knows there has been a big issue with tackling. In coach Mendenhall's words, he calls this week a bloodbath. That is kind of what practice was," Peck said. "Wrapping up and bringing the scout team guys to the ground — not just wrapping up. And so there is an emphasis on tackling, and hopefully we will be able to get better at it this week."

They better, or Michigan will grind them into the turf at the Big House, linebackers coach Kelly Poppinga said.

"I thought that we played the pass really well. The run — probably the worst performance we've ever had. Really disappointed. Embarrassed, I think just as a program. That should never happen. I think it cost us the game, in my opinion," Poppinga said. "In my opinion, the offense played well enough for us to win. Defensively, didn't play well enough. Special teams didn't play well enough. And unfortunately, in a game like that, where you are playing a top-10 opponent, on the road, you gotta play the run well, you gotta play well on special teams, and we didn't do either of those."

Safety Kai Nacua, who had another pick vs. UCLA to give him four this season, said practice "was a little bit different."

"There was a lot more focus on trying to bang with the scout team and really getting physical with them, because Saturday is going to be a physical game and they are just going to try to pound it. It will be fun to see," Nacua said.

Peck said coaches are trying to balance the need to improve tackling with the need to stay healthy. It is a delicate balance.

"I feel like it is the same either way for the linemen," he said. "You don't really go to the ground, but as far as everyone else, I think it helps. There is a need to keep guys healthy, but there is also a need for that right now."

Peck talked as if nose tackle Travis Tuiloma (knee) won't play, and said the Cougars "will definitely miss Travis" in a game like this.

He also added that defensive end Bronson Kaufusi might return to outside linebacker this week "to help with size out there" and that two groups of three defensive linemen will rotate in and out of the game.

"I mean, they [Michigan] are good, they are big, and they will want to run the ball, so we will just have to do our best," Peck said.

Poppinga said that UCLA's uptempo attack had its desired effect, and twice the Cougars had to call timeout on defense when they weren't ready, or had the wrong personnel on the field.

"That had an effect, yeah," he said. "They were going really, really fast. And they didn't sub much, like our offense. .. They were going fast, and it did have an effect on us. We gotta be better prepared. Which means we have to prepare our guys better for that."

Poppinga also oversees special teams, and he was not happy with how those units performed, with the exception of kicker Trevor Samson, who made three field goals.

"The first two games, we played really well on special teams," Poppinga said. "This game was really [different]. Man, our [kickoff return] was awful. We couldn't get a return. Those guys were really, really fast. And then, really the team that really killed us was our punt return — giving up the big returns. We gave up two big returns. Once again, it was missed tackles. We had guys there, but they missed tackles. So the same thing we were seeing on defense is what we saw on our cover teams. Kickoff was decent, but still not good enough to hit our goal on that.

The only bright side was Trevor [Samson]. Trevor kicked the ball really well, kept us in the game. He gave us 3 field goals and 2 PATs, which was really good. I think he had a 44-yarder and is 5 for 5 on the year. So we gotta continue that. We got to cover better — which we have in the past.

We have been really good on our punt team and on our kickoff team. I think the emphasis on defense will carry over to our special teams this week.

From what I saw in practice, they did a great job today on special teams and on punt team."