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As a young boy growing up in New York, Quint Kessenich remembers watching BYU put up some prolific offensive numbers in several Holiday Bowls. His father, who was a high school football coach, let him stay up late to watch BYU games because they were almost always guaranteed to see entertaining football. Little did Kessenich know at the time that his job would take him to BYU dozens of years later. Kessenich will be ESPN's sideline reporter on Saturday when the Cougars play host to Virginia at 1:30 p.m. at LaVell Edwards Stadium. But he doesn't expect to see an offensive explosion from either team. "I think it is going to be a little lower-scoring than people realize," Kessenich told me in a telephone interview Thursday night. This is Kessenich's first-ever trip to Provo — the ESPN crew arrived midday Thursday — but third time calling a BYU game. He braved those ridiculous winds in Las Vegas in 2009 when BYU routed Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl, and also called last year's BYU loss at Wisconsin. Bob Wischusen, who is also the New York Jets radio play-by-play man, and Matt Millen will call the action from the booth. Having watched tape of all three of BYU's previous games, Kessenich said he's been impressed by Taysom Hill's improvement since the Wisconsin game last year. "I am not sure there isn't a better running quarterback in America right now than Taysom Hill," he said. "And coach [Robert] Anae really has an idea now of what Taysom has, what he can do." Kessenich said BYU is playing 8-10 offensive linemen per game, and thinks the Cougars will go as fast and hard as they can to tire out Virginia's excellent defensive front, playing at altitude. "This true freshman center [Tejan Koroma] has great hips, and the left tackle [Ului Lapuaho] is another freshman. He doesn't jump out at you on tape, which is a good thing for a young lineman," Kessenich said. Like the broadcasters did last week against Houston, Kessenich expects that the trio will talk at length about BYU's chances to go undefeated and its place in the college football landscape. While acknowledging that he's not an expert on the matter, Kessenich believes BYU's status as independent depends on whether or not the Cougars can put together top-quality schedules. "I think ultimately it is going to come down to the schedule in the next 5-10 years. Somehow, BYU has to get good, quality games to play — maybe have a handful of Pac-12 schools, some Big 12 schools and Notre Dame, teams that are in the Top 25 most years. I know that is a challenge right now," he said. As far as being a sideline reporter, Kessenich said the job is fun and rewarding, but "a lot harder than it looks, in terms of predictability." And it takes hours and hours of preparation, especially when you are not familiar with the teams. "So much of your preparation goes unused," he said.