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Provo • Aside from that near-miss at UCLA and that complete no-show at Michigan, BYU has pretty much perfected its endings this season.
It is the sluggish starts that have coach Bronco Mendenhall and his staff perplexed as the Cougars (5-2) prepare for Saturday's 1 p.m. encounter with Wagner (0-6) at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
The Cougars have outscored their opponents 84-34 in the fourth quarter, but have been outscored 52-35 in the first quarter. They fell behind East Carolina 14-0 and Cincinnati 17-3 in the past two games before rallying late.
Mendenhall said Monday he's not sure why his team has struggled in the first halves of the past four games, a streak that started when the Wolverines outscored BYU 31-0 in the first half.
"I would love to identify that fourth-quarter [success] and capture it, and use it in the first quarter," Mendenhall said. "But I think we just have resilient players. I think we have coaches that work hard during the game with adjustments. I think that our conditioning has shown up. I think all those things are contributing. I am not sure which, if any, is more important than the other."
It probably won't matter on Saturday against the Seahawks, but with a game against Missouri in Kansas City and a trip to Logan to face red-hot Utah State in November, the Cougars need to get it figured out quickly, said receivers coach Guy Holliday. He added that coaches and players are treating this week's game with the same amount of focus and preparation.
"Maybe the fans and you all, the media, you look at records and etc., but I don't have that luxury, because the bottom line is they have everything to gain, and we've got everything to lose," Holliday said. "So we've got to come out here and freakin' play like we play every week, in a frenzy. And hopefully we won't wait until the fourth quarter to play really well. That's the key."
Same redshirt policy
A lot of players who haven't seen the field this season likely will on Saturday. Once they play, players can no longer redshirt. Since 2008, Mendenhall has generally not told players they are redshirting until after the season.
"I guess I am relatively old fashioned that way," he said. "I love to see the demonstration of work before an award happens. So that is the approach I've taken. I think it works pretty well. I have certainly made mistakes before, in the past, sometimes awarding guys [redshirts] too early and sometimes not early enough. But I am comfortable with the policy."
Leslie joins Jaguars
Former BYU receiver Jordan Leslie signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Wednesday, just in time to travel to England to face the Buffalo Bills on Sunday at London's Wembley Stadium.
Holliday, who recruited Leslie to Provo as a graduate-transfer from UTEP, said the receiver is going to a good situation: "But like I tell him or I tell all my receivers, you gotta go out and compete every day, particularly at that level."
Briefly
In other NFL-related news involving former Cougars, tight end Dennis Pitta was cleared to practice with the Baltimore Ravens for the first time this season on Wednesday. … Carl Franke, football coach at Desert Hills High in St. George, is a former Wagner football and baseball player. … In its weekly game notes previewing the matchup, Wagner refers to BYU's head coach as "Rocco Mendenhall."
Twitter: @drewjay —
Wagner at BYU
P Saturday, 1 p.m. TV: BYUtv
Scoring by quarters
BYU Opp.
35 1st 52
51 2nd 51
34 3rd 45
84 4th 34
204 Total 182