This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
There's no media availability for BYU football today — unless you count coach Bronco Mendenhall's radio show — but a couple football-related items were sent out Wednesday to fill the void. First, though, while I was in Kansas City Monday and Tuesday night with the BYU basketball team, colleague Tony Jones covered Tuesday's press briefing and produced this notebook on the play of safeties Daniel Sorensen and Craig Bills and the injury situation. Today's biggest news is the joint announcement by BYU and Utah State that they have agreed to extend their current football series through 2018. Basically, they added games in 2017 and 2018 to the existing contract. The Cougars were hoping to play the Aggies in November to bolster their last-month schedule, but that won't be the case these years. The 2017 game will be played Sept. 29 in Logan and the 2018 game will be played Oct. 5 in Provo. "I appreciate the working relationship I have with Scott Barnes at Utah State," said BYU director of athletics Tom Holmoe in a school news release.. "Scott has done an outstanding job at USU and is great to work with. We value the longstanding in-state rivalry with Utah State and look forward to these future games." BYU throttled USU 34-14 in Logan last month, the 83rd meeting between the schools. Also Wednesday, BYU defensive coordinator Nick Howell was announced as a nominee for the 2013 Broyles Award, which goes to the top assistant coach in college football. It is presented by the Rotary Club of Little Rock (Ark.). Utah's Iliasa Tuiaki (defensive line) and Utah State's Todd Orlando (defensive coordinator/safeties) have also been nominated for the award. The winner will be announced Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 11:30 a.m. at the Marriott Hotel in Little Rock. Last year, Notre Dame's Bob Diaco won the award.