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After fielding nine questions that were generally pretty specific on Wednesday afternoon when it was the offense's turn to talk to reporters after BYU football practice at the IPF, offensive coordinator Robert Anae left us with this:

"OK, any more basic generalizations I can give you guys?"

Funny stuff.

But true.

Anae had his game face on three days before the No. 22 Cougars (2-1) face Michigan (2-1) at the Big House in Ann Arbor (10 a.m. MDT, ABC), but he opened and closed his six-minute session with the media with some humor.

Asked right off the top why the Cougars went inside today despite it being a beautiful, dry day in Provo, he quipped:

"We change it up every now and again. Maybe there are some unsuspecting media folks who are dressed in sheep's clothing that are actually spying. Oh, that spy paranoia, that's coach [Roger] French. So I am well-ingrained in that stuff."

Getting serious, Anae ways the offense faces a significant challenge this week against Michigan, which has improved greatly since its visit to the Beehive State three weeks ago when it fell to Utah.

"For me, it is more [about] the opportunity that I am looking forward to, a great opportunity to play a great team, who is in a great conference, and the college environment that they provide is off the scale," Anae said. "So yeah, great to play in environments where they are really passionate about their team. This is one of those things. So a great opportunity, I think."

Anae said Michigan's defense is loaded with top recruits, guys who "got a lot of stars" coming out of high school. "They are well-coached …. And with their recruiting classes, you put that all together, and that is what you are seeing," he said.

Of course, everyone wants to know whether junior running back Algie Brown will play or not vs. the Wolverines. Brown apparently suffered a knee injury against Boise State and was held out against UCLA. His loss was huge to a running backs corps already thinned by the absence of Jamaal Williams.

"I haven't seen Algie practice at all," Anae said. "I have seen Francis [Bernard] practice. So kind of a game-day thing with both of them. Whoever is healthy, we are going to try and prepare and play, the best we can."

Bernard, a freshman returned missionary, broke his finger in fall camp and missed the first three games, although he dressed for the UCLA game.

Running backs coach Mark Atuaia also appeared in the interview room and said he "doesn't know" whether Brown will play or not.

"We will find out," he said. "If we have him back, he will tremendously help us out."

Atuaia said managing the running back situation has not been easy, but he sees bright things ahead if the group can get healthy.

Against UCLA, he only had Adam Hine, Nate Carter and fullback A'i Ho Ching to work with. Coaches "collectively" decided at the first of the week last week to utilize the skill set of LB Harvey Langi, an All-American running back at Bingham High.

'We went from three to four now [with Benarrd]," he said. "We have four guys that have a skill set that can help us. I am happy about that. We went into UCLA with three that were healthy and have played in games before. Those are the three I went with the whole game.

A lot of things to correct, but going through the week and playing just three, we knew it would be tough. Taking about 90 snaps, I think it was, something like that. Or high 80s. The three of them, I think did all right. We just have to continue that going forward."

After the first few days of fall camp, freshman Riley Burt was moved from defensive back to running back to give that latter group some depth. However, Atuaia said the former Box Elder High RB isn't quite ready for the big stage.

"He is just a young freshman that we are going to move along slowly. I don't want to put him in any situation that he can't handle," Atuaia said. "And so when he is ready, and we feel he is ready, he will get his chance to do it. But until then, we will continue to roll with the guys I know can handle the fast pace that we go."