Welcome to CrashUtah – Where BYU fans Talk Sports

I was excited that I found myself in Utah this Monday and convinced my wife that it would be a good thing for my son and I to attend BYU football’s fall camp. BYU has invited fans to attend fall camp on four different dates.

Fans will be able to attend practices on Monday, Aug. 13; Wednesday, Aug. 15; Friday, Aug. 17 and Monday; Aug. 20. All practices will begin at 10 a.m. and will be held on the practice field, located just north of the Student Athlete Building. In the event of inclement weather, the team will hold a closed practice in the Indoor Practice Facility.

I convinced my dad to skip work which turned out to be a good thing for me since he took my 3 year old son for a walk when he got restless. Pretty cool to have three generations of BYU fans watching BYU football get ready for the season. It was a hot day and I should have found a spot on the south side of north field where there was more shade. However, I honestly didn’t care since I was so interested in how Bronco ran his practices.

You could tell the practices were organized to the hilt. The scoreboard buzzer kept going off at predetermined intervals and everyone seemed to know what exercise they were doing next. Only one time did a coach have to yell for more players to come and practice the punt formation. Honestly I was impressed that there wasn’t more confusion. I think they did 15 different practice intervals.

My favorite part of the practices was watching the receivers and cornerbacks go one on one in an end zone type situation. Honestly I think the receivers seemed to generally dominate the cornerbacks, but one on one is certainly hard. The timing also didn’t seem quite on with the quarterback (Lark I believe), but it was very entertaining to watch. I also loved seeing the secondary coach barking at teaching the secondary. Even my three year old son loved watching this drill. Possibly because it was right in front of us and was full of action.

A few other personal observations, although I will admit that a lot was happening and you can only take in so much.

-My Most Impressed award goes to Dennis Pitta. He just seemed really big in the middle and I think will be a great outlet for any BYU QB this year.
-My Next Most Impressed award goes to Austin Collie. He looked fast and burned someone down the sideline and then laid out to catch the football. He did look a bit tired on the sidelines, but I guess most of them looked tired at practice. Did I mention he was catching punts?
-Wayne Latu ran through a couple of really big holes. I personally attribute those holes to our relative depth at offensive line vs. defensive line, since Wayne was running with what looked like the second string. However, he did look pretty quick. Either way, I hope those holes open up come game day.

Pretty exciting day. I’m glad that Bronco is willing to open these fall practices up. 16 days 15 hours and counting.