This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated.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.

It was a jovial and engaging coach Bronco Mendenhall who met with reporters earlier today at the BYU Student Athlete Building in Provo. Funny, what a 52-10 win on Senior Day can do to a coach.

Mendenhall spoke for roughly 15 minutes, and even interrupted his remarks momentarily when a call came in on his cell phone from his wife, Holly. He didn't take the call, but did seem rather proud of the ring tone and that the Daily Herald's Darnell Dickson recognized it.

I didn't. And still don't. Something from a Pixar movie, I was told.

As expected, most of the questions for Mendenhall and the players — Mitch Mathews, Mitchell Juergens and Tevita Mounga — were about Saturday's game against instate rival Utah State.

Here's my story on that — including an exchange I had with Mendenhall about the fact that USU coach Matt Wells gets a $5,000 bonus for beating BYU or Utah — and here's my colleague Steve Luhm's story on what went down at Wells' press briefing at about the same time.

Leftover quotes on the USU game will follow in a later post, because there were some good ones.

Here's a short rundown on other developments at the presser:

* Mendenhall's opening statement: "I thought we played a good game on Saturday. Certainly plenty to improve on, but I liked out offensive balance, especially in the second half. I think the defense played consistently. Special teams, we still have a ways to go. It wasn't our best game special teams-wise. But with the nature of the opponent, and how we handled it, and quite frankly the attendance at the game, and the day we have, and as an independent, with all that happening in terms of the type of the day and the attendance and the crowd and the time of the game, I was pleased with the outcome.

And now an intriguing matchup for our last one, which is fun. A chance for us to get our ninth win, so we are playing certainly for that. And hopefully improving our team and our program against a good opponent."

* Mendenhall said he hasn't heard a thing about which bowl BYU will go to — the Las Vegas Bowl or the Hawaii Bowl — and referred questions to athletic director Tom Holmoe. He probably doesn't realize that Holmoe rarely takes questions from the media. "I normally don't know until the night before, or am hinted at the night before," Mendenhall said regarding bowl invites and opponents.

* Mendenhall said senior linebacker Manoa Pikula, who did not play vs. Fresno State, is still "under team discipline" and it is not known yet if he will play Saturday. "A lot of it has to do with what happens this week," Mendenhall said.

* Mendenhall said it will be "helpful" for USU to have a bunch of former BYU players or coaches on its staff this week.

"So I don't know the inner-workings of Utah State's program. I don't know terminology. I don't know anything that happens daily behind the scenes. Coach [Mark] Weber certainly does. Kelly Bills is there now. There are others I may be forgetting. Fahu Tahi was there. Reed [Hornung] is there. They have seen everything about our program, and know the motives, know the intent, and know a lot of the operations. That doesn't necessarily mean a win, but certainly knowledge is helpful."

* Mendenhall said freshman defensive back Zayne Anderson suffered an undisclosed injury against Fresno State and is done for the season. Anderson mostly played on special teams.

* Mendenhall said running back Adam Hine is not 100 percent and that's why he didn't get a carry on Saturday. "So basically we are integrating Riley Burt until Adam is 100 percent," he said.