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Provo • Paul Tidwell has seen a lot in 37-plus years of coaching high school, junior college and Division I football, but this spring has brought a new challenge for the 59-year-old BYU inside-linebackers coach.
The Cougars have gone through 2015 spring practices — which conclude with an Alumni Day practice/scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Friday — without three of their four primary inside linebackers. Seniors Manoa Pikula and Teu Kautai and junior Harvey Langi have sat out to catch up academically.
Senior Jherremya Leuta-Douyere and junior Austin Heder have manned the outside and middle linebacker positions, respectively, with the first-stringers in camp.
"I don't think it is going to put us behind too much," Tidwell said Wednesday after a spirited practice in which the defense had perhaps its best day of camp in terms of limiting the offense's production. "The older guys will catch up. They are watching film, and they are in all the meetings. We'll be fine."
Pikula started at outside, and outgoing senior Zac Stout started at middle in the bowl game, but Leuta-Douyere and Langi made two tackles apiece and Heder one in the 55-48 double-overtime loss to Memphis.
The Cougars were looking OK at the two inside linebacker positions until news came down that the three upperclassmen were forgoing camp.
"They will just have to pick back up in spring and summer, and in player-run practices and conditioning sessions," Tidwell said. "Between now and August, they will have to get some reps."
The silver lining has been that Heder and JLD, as he is known, have had a lot of reps, along with redshirt freshmen Phillip Amone and Adam Pulsipher, a pair of returned missionaries who have been running with the twos.
"So I like the development," Tidwell said. "I like the reps that they are getting. I like the experience that they are getting. And some of the younger guys, we are finding out who can play and who might be able to help us down the road."
Tidwell said Amone, from Orlando, Fla., is "standing out a lot right now" because he has good football instincts and quick feet. Pulsipher, from Temecula, Calif., went through about three weeks of spring ball last year before tearing his Achilles tendon and redshirting in 2014.
"When we add the [missing] three to Jherremya and Austin and the two freshmen, I think we will be pretty solid there," Tidwell said.
Leuta-Douyere said Pikula, Langi and Kautai "are as involved as they can be" without getting to practice.
"We learned a lot from last year, just watching film of our season," Leuta-Douyere said. "There were a lot of mistakes that we made. This year, people are just more hungry to get better, just more hungry to be like the inside linebackers in the past, like [Brandon] Ogletree and Uani Unga and Uona Kaveinga and guys like that."
Tidwell said Pikula and Langi have the potential to be the next great BYU tackling tandem.
"We think Manoa can emerge as a playmaker in there, and Harvey has all the tools, as far as size and athleticism, to be special," Tidwell said.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Inside men
BYU's projected inside linebackers in 2015:
Player Year Ht/Wt
Manoa Pikula Senior 6-1/235
Harvey Langi Junior 6-2/240
Teu Kautai Senior 6-1/231
Jherremya Leuta-Douyere Senior 6-1/236
Austin Heder Junior 6-2/234
Phillip Amone Freshman 5-11/230
Adam Pulsipher Freshman 6-2/225
Note: Pikula, Langi and Kautai are sitting out spring camp for academic reasons.