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Provo • Less than three months after he became the head football coach at BYU, former Oregon State and Utah defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake will begin his first spring camp on Tuesday with a relatively experienced and deep squad that faces a rugged independent schedule next fall.
With what new assistant head coach Ed Lamb called a "good team that has been left in place by the previous staff, a team that expects to win," the Cougars will emphasize fundamentals in March on the practice field and continue to develop strength, speed and size in the weight room.
"The level of intensity and sheer competition throughout the winter conditioning period has been excellent," Lamb said. "We want to make sure that we are respectful of that. There is no intention here of tearing down a winning program. We want to take a strong foundation that has already been left and improve upon that."
The rookie head coach faces plenty of questions, however, as the Cougars move on from having Bronco Mendenhall at the helm the past 11 seasons.
Here are five of the more pressing matters:
No. 1 • With Taysom Hill announcing recently that he plans to return for his final season of eligibility, who will be the starting quarterback?
That's an easy one, for now. In camp, it will be rising sophomore Tanner Mangum because Hill still has not been fully cleared by doctors to participate. Mangum made a news splash Friday by announcing he is engaged to BYU volleyball star Alexa Gray, and will get the majority of the reps — Beau Hoge and Koy Detmer Jr. will get a few — as Hill watches from the sidelines.
Come August, assuming Hill is cleared, expect the quarterback situation to be a daily topic.
"It will be an open competition," offensive coordinator Ty Detmer said. "Nobody has been promised anything."
No. 2. • Who else will participate in spring camp, and who won't?
Lamb said Thursday that promising sophomore linebacker Sione Takitaki, who was suspended last October for the remainder of the season for an undisclosed violation of team rules, has "been participating with us on a daily basis and has done a really good job."
Running back Jamaal Williams, who withdrew from school days before fall camp started last August, has also been participating in conditioning workouts since the semester began and "looks fantastic to me," Lamb said.
The former SUU coach said coaches have been told to not discuss disciplinary measures, so he declined to list any players who might not participate. Lamb also did not know which players are recovering from surgeries or injuries and won't be available, but there will be several, as usual.
No. 3. • Who is on the move?
Herriman product Francis Bernard emerged as a reliable running back in 2015, rushing for 334 yards and seven touchdowns and catching 17 passes for 156 yards and two scores, but has been working out with defensive players, Lamb said, and is expected to be moved to linebacker.
Sophomore Micah Simon, from Texas, was a quarterback in high school but made the switch to defensive back at BYU. He will be moved back to the offense, likely at receiver, this spring.
Lamb said after a few practices the coaches will make some evaluations and perhaps make more changes in an effort to give players the "best opportunity to be as high on the depth chart as they can be. We are anticipating that there are going to be some players moved from one side of the ball to the other in the effort to make the team as solid as it can be."
No. 4. What are the areas of concern?
Lamb said that from a numbers standpoint, the Cougars are most thin at the offensive line and cornerback positions.
Left guard Ryker Mathews is the only offensive lineman who graduated, but the Cougars signed only a few OLs in February, and most will be going on church missions before enrolling.
Starting cornerbacks Micah Hannemann and Michael Davis return along with their backups, Michael Shelton and Jordan Preator, but there's not much depth beyond that.
"None of us [position coaches] are prepared as we would like to be, with the exception of probably Steve Kaufusi, who knows his [defensive linemen] really well," Lamb said.
No. 5 • Which will look more different in 2016, the BYU offense or defense?
Detmer and Lamb have both said in recent weeks that BYU will move away from the no-huddle offense that Robert Anae employed and become a slower paced, huddling, pro-style attack with the quarterback under center more and only occasionally in shotgun formation.
"Not that there wouldn't be a process in place to go into a two-minute or hurry-up type of situation," Lamb said. "… It is not better or worse, in my opinion, but we are going to be more deliberate in what we do."
New defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki said in early January that coaches haven't decided whether they will scrap the 3-4 defensive front that Mendenhall used quite effectively for most of his tenure.
Lamb called the new alignment "more multiple" and hinted at a gradual change.
"We are in a 3-4 personnel, but we are running quite a bit of 4-3 defense out of that," he said. "So we have had to identify which of our [players], which in the past have been called outside linebackers, which of those guys will be capable of playing more of a defensive end type of initial alignment. We want to go into spring practice and be as simple as we need to be in order to carry two fronts, and so we won't be very exotic in the 3-4 or the 4-3, but it will give us a chance to really evaluate our personnel and where we might be best suited going into fall camp."
Twitter: @drewjay —
BYU spring football
Key dates:
Tuesday • First spring practice
March 19 • High school coaches clinic
March 25 • Pro Day at IPF
March 26 • Spring game at LaVell Edwards Stadium, time TBA
April 1 • Final spring practice