Provo » Injuries to key players were a big concern to the BYU Cougars last week, but as the showdown against No. 10 TCU approaches this week, the worry for the training staff is that a flu bug is sweeping through the team.

Coach Bronco Mendenhall said several starters such as Bryan Kariya , Brett Denney , Brandon Bradley and Shawn Doman played through illnesses in the 38-28 win over San Diego State, and that "we do have a concern that it will spread."

Denney said he was so sick Saturday that he could get in only three or four plays before needing a break. He doesn't believe his illness was swine flu, but knows trainers have not ruled out the possibility that other players on the team could contract it, if they haven't already.

Defensive end Jan Jorgensen was also hampered a bit by a non-flu illness.

"Quarantine might be too strong of a word, but ... we did room players that were ill together on the road to try to isolate it somewhat," Mendenhall said, noting that team doctors and trainers are doing all they can to keep the illness from spreading.

Injury update

Mendenhall said he expects Manase Tonga (knee), Russell Tialavea (knee), Brandon Ogletree (illness/groin strain) and Steven Thomas (concussion) to be able to play this week.

As for receiver McKay Jacobson , who was supposed to be out 4-6 weeks after pulling a hamstring while warming up on Oct. 2 before the Utah State game, Mendenhall said he will know more today.

Further review

Mendenhall said he submitted two plays that resulted in penalties on BYU players to the league office "for review" after watching replays of the SDSU game.

"The rest [of the eight penalties called on BYU] were close enough to where they could and should have been called," he said.

The two he submitted were the personal foul called on linebacker Coleby Clawson for an alleged late hit and the holding call on R.J. Willing when BYU was running the ball on fourth-and-inches.

Briefly

BYU officials said the ESPN "GameDay" crew will set up somewhere on campus for their live show Saturday morning at 8 a.m. An exact location will not be determined until later this week, but it will likely be very near LaVell Edwards Stadium. ... BYU has never defeated two top 10 teams in the same season. ... Quarterback Max Hall is the MWC Offensive Player of the Week. TCU's Jeremy Kerley is the Special Teams Player of the Week.

drew@sltrib.com