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Provo • BYU's mental strength coach, Dr. Craig Manning, is going to earn his paycheck this week.
The sports psychologist who preaches confidence, staying in the moment and not dwelling on past failures has his work cut out for him as the Cougars try to rebound from Saturday's 31-0 thumping at the hands of now-No. 22 Michigan and look ahead to an October schedule of four winnable home games.
Coach Bronco Mendenhall and selected players met with reporters on Monday and delivered a rather-uneven theme: Some said the confidence level is still high, while others acknowledged that they obviously don't feel as good about themselves as they did when they entered the Big House with a 2-1 record that included a close loss to No. 7 UCLA at the Rose Bowl.
The Cougars will play host to 2-2 Connecticut on Friday at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
"Somewhere in between the first three games — I put the first three together, even though there was a one-point loss to UCLA — and this last game is where our team really is," Mendenhall said.
Aside from knowing that the $1.375 million check the Cougars got for visiting Ann Arbor still spends, you would think that BYU would never want to see the Big Blue again after giving up 448 yards and gaining just 105, but Mendenhall said after watching the film that he wants a rematch.
"So I have reached out to our [athletic director]," he said, with, yes, a straight face.
Monday's sentiments were a far cry from the coach and offensive coordinator Robert Anae's statements immediately after the game, when they talked about hitting ground zero, starting over and going back to the drawing board. An overreaction?
"Some," Mendenhall allowed. "To be honest, I was just so disappointed. … Yeah, I was not in a good place after the game."
Also Saturday, Mendenhall was burdened with the fear that several key players had suffered serious injuries, perhaps season-ending. He said the only player who is definitely out on Friday is backup linebacker and special teams ace Phillip Amone, who tore a knee ligament and is lost for the season.
Of running backs Algie Brown (knee) and Adam Hine (ankle) he said, "both are possible, is what I have been told."
Defensive back Micah Hannemann, one of about six players who left the game with an injury, said Michigan's physicality and toughness took its toll.
"I feel like I got hit by a train," Hannemann said Monday. "But I will be all right. Just small things — everywhere."
The toll that the loss took on BYU's psyche remains to be seen.
Although Mendenhall wants another shot at the Wolverines, saying "I still like our team" and "there actually were things I was really encouraged about" such as all-around better defensive play against UM than against UCLA, receiver Terenn Houk said some players' confidence was nicked.
"It is hard," Houk said. "Your confidence definitely takes a shot. But the sign of a good team is to show resiliency and bounce back, and I feel we need to get our confidence back right now. That was a big thing in meetings this morning, is that we have to brush that loss aside and really work on getting our confidence back."
So important is that task that Mendenhall noted he had not watched a frame of UConn film by midday Monday. He knows full well that last year's loss to Utah State when quarterback Taysom Hill got hurt quickly turned into four.
"Usually [the loss] will only linger if there haven't been the appropriate lessons taught, and the right closure given," Mendenhall said. "Hopefully I did that with the team, and hopefully they took it that way. And then practices will be one day at a time, and one rep at a time, will determine if we get better or not. Which, I think we will."
Hannemann said Mendenhall's post-game comments were "probably more heat-of-the-moment type stuff" and that the players are OK.
"We are still the exact same team that won those first two games and should have beat UCLA," he said.
Defensive end Graham Rowley referenced Manning's work this past summer in saying the sky is not falling on the Cougars.
"The biggest mistake we can make is to feel sorry for ourselves," Rowley said. "We have to stay confident. We are a really good team, the best team that I have been a part of, even with the losses we've had and the players we've had go down. We are still in it, still motivated to prove that any way we can."
Twitter: @drewjay —
Connecticut at BYU
P Friday, 8:15 p.m.
TV • ESPN2