This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The last time BYU played San Jose State, the Spartans were in their last year in the Western Athletic Conference and had a pretty good team. SJSU took a 20-14 win to improve to 9-2, then won its next two games, including a bowl game, to finish at 11-2 under senior quarterback David Fales.

Here's more on that 2012 visit in which, if I recall correctly, the crowd was evenly divided between BYU and SJSU fans.

It will be interesting to see the makeup of the crowd Friday night, seeing as how SJSU is just 4-4 and the Cougars (6-2) are better than they were three years ago with freshman quarterback Tanner Mangum at the controls.

Both teams are coming off byes, but both have some injury issues. The Spartans will be without their leading receiver, Tyler Winston, while BYU will be without three starting offensive linemen (Ryker Mathews, Kyle Johnson, Lui Lapuaho) and backup running back Riley Burt.

The Cougars are 8-4 after a bye week in the Bronco Mendenhall era. Last year, they lost 35-20 to Utah State after their first bye, then beat UNLV 42-23 after their second bye.

What is the key to finishing strong for BYU?

"Man, I think just working to improve our team," Mendenhall said. "As cliché as it is, we are working to get better. Each day is an opportunity to do that. We have one more home game. It would be fun to win all of our home games. I think that is a really tangible and cool thing to shoot for. And the teams we play on the road are all great challenges, with a chance for a really strong finish and a lot of wins. And so there is plenty to play for."

Mitch Mathews said all four games are huge because the Cougars still have their hopes set on a New Year's Six bowl game. It would take a lot of upsets for that to happen.

"We hope that there are more [possible bowl destinations] than just the Vegas or Hawaii Bowl, depending on how we finish," Mathews said. "Like I said, last year there was no 10-2 team that didn't go to a later bowl game, a bigger bowl game, than what they were projected to go to, so that is something the guys have their hopes set on, is to have that opportunity to play in a big bowl game. And if it is Vegas or Hawaii, we hope the opponent is really good and we stay on that national stage."

OK, it is the afternoon before game day, so time to clean out the ol' notebook with some of the better quotes from the past week:

Mendenhall on San Jose State's strengths:

"We have watched San Jose. They have a really veteran coaching staff that has a lot of credibility, and a lot of experience. A really good tailback, an aggressive defense.

A late start down there for us, so we are looking forward to getting back in action, and having a strong finish not only to this game, but the season. … Again, San Jose State has a very good running back [Tyler Ervin]. He is difficult to tackle and get a hold of, so we focused on that today.

But also, from the self-scout, we had a chance to work some situations that were reviewable along the way, so our team was able to see those numbers, and what we are working on and why, and so again I think our team wants to be good. They want to continue to improve. They want to finish strong and so they embraced the message and what we wanted them to do today."

Linebacker Fred Warner on SJSU's attack:

"They have a really good running back. I am pretty sure he was an All-American last season. He is one of the top rushers this year in the nation. So they run the ball really well. I think what they are going to try to do is obviously try and run the ball. They have run-pass conflict, things that they do. But as long as we stop the run I think we are going to get them in an uncomfortable situation."

Quarterback Tanner Mangum on his impressions of San Jose State's defense:

"Obviously they are an athletic team on both sides of the ball. I know they have one of the top rushers in the league. From a defensive standpoint, they have some pretty good DBs that are going to test our receivers, test our offense. Watching them on tape, they have played some physical defense as well. So it will be good. It will be good for us to take on that challenge — a good Mountain West team who plays against some other good Mountain West teams. So it is something we are excited for, looking forward to."

Offensive coordinator Robert Anae on what San Jose State's defense is like:

"Of all the teams we've played, their identity has been doing a bunch of things. That is their identity. I will tell ya, it takes a really good coaching staff to do that. And they do it very well. So that's our challenge, to prepare for a bunch of things And they are capable of doing it all. So credit them. There's no doubt, they have veteran coaches, and they are doing a really good job of doing that identity, and that brand of defense.

So that's a lot. Our guys are looking at that. Our poor scout team has got to simulate that. There is no way in the world we are even coming close. So game day hopefully our guys are somewhat up to speed the best they can. And that's just the nature of the beast.

Defenses go through that all the time. So this is one of the rare challenges we have on our schedule that turn out to be a mix, package, hodgepodge deal of defensive fronts, alignments, blitzes and coverages. So there is a bunch going on. It should be a fun and entertaining game in my opinion, to watch."