This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Another week, another opponent that the BYU Cougars have never played before. The Cougars (6-4) play host to the UMass Minutemen (2-8) on Saturday at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Kickoff in this battle of college football independents is at noon; BYUtv and ESPN3 have broadcast rights.

Actually, I like these first-time matchups. The Cougars also played Toledo, Michigan State, West Virginia and Southern Utah for the first time this season.

This particular series with UMass will be four games — two in Provo and two at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., home of the New England Patriots. UMass generally plays three games a season at its own campus stadium in Amherst, 17,000-seat Warren McGuirk Stadium in Hadley, Mass., and three games at Gillette.

At his weekly press briefing today, BYU head coach Kalani Sitake was asked just one question about UMass. Just one — and it came toward the end of his 12-minute interview.

"They have been inconsistent most of the season," he said. "You saw them play a lot of close games. And they have been able to actually score some points. They've played some good teams. They've had an extra week to prepare for us, so that's always dangerous, especially dealing with gadgets and trick plays and stuff like that. They have nothing to lose. They are coming to our place, coming to our home, and they have nothing to lose other than just trying to play the best that they can. So we will have to be ready and expect their best shot, just like last week. We have something to build off, which is another opportunity to play at home and play someone new, so we are excited about it."

This year, BYU is pretty much a first-time matchup for every team, since the head coach is new and almost the entire staff is new. Of course, the schemes are new, too.

"It is just part of the game, part of college football," Sitake said. "You have turnover in coaches and jobs and things like that. Schemes are going to change, but when it comes down to it, the fundamentals of football should be the same. So we are focusing on the simple things, like tackling better."

I wrote about the running back situation for Tuesday's newspaper, and you can get a sneak peek at that story online by going here.

Bottom line: Jamaal Williams (ankle), Algernon Brown (undisclosed injury) and Squally Canada (sprained right thumb) are day to day and probable for UMass. But the coaches feel good about KJ Hall and Brayden El Bakri if the main three guys can't go.

Neither Williams, Canada nor Brown practiced Monday, "but it was more like a walkthrough type of practice this late in the season," Sitake said. "So it was more of a mental thing than anything else, making corrections and that sort of stuff. We have had guys not practice on Monday and be fine the next day, so I think we try to take advantage of the recovery time especially with the game ending before the sun actually set. We were able to take advantage of having some time to recover the next two days and making this a day they can get healthy."

The Cougars rushed for a respectable 155 yards against the instate foe, OK considering they were without their big guns most of the day. But they struggled to run the ball early, and Sitake addressed that on Monday.

"I think them being so stout in the run, we had to find other ways to move the ball, and throwing the ball was something that was probably a little bit more effective, especially with how much they were stuffing the run," he said. "And they were doing a lot of different things up front, as far as pinching the gaps and basically baiting us into throwing the ball. So we had to respond with the throws. I thought we did enough with the run to make them honest, but I don't think it was anything that was overpowering. Obviously we want to run the ball more than we did, and gain yards, especially early in drives. But I give them a lot of credit. They were able to do that to a lot of different people, a lot of opponents that they had, including Utah. They were able to show a presence on the line of scrimmage. That's not surprising; I think Ed Lamb did a great job of developing those D linemen. That's a really good front. We are not so stubborn to keep forcing it and keep going to it when there are other ways to score points and move the ball."