2007 BYU Cougars Football Preview

2007 BYU Cougars season preview from Maddux Sports. Below you can find our official BYU Cougars football preview as well as the 2007 BYU Cougars Football Schedule. If you are college football betting against the college football odds consider Maddux's winning NCAA football picks.

Coach: Bronco Mendehall (3rd year at BYU)
Team Name: Cougars
2006 Overall Record: 11-2
Returning Starters: 13

In 2006, the Brigham Young University Cougars (11- 2 overall, 8- 0 MWC) took first-place in the Mountain West Conference and in the post-season defeated the Oregon Ducks 38- 8 in the Las Vegas Bowl. Coach Bronco Mendenhall (17- 8 in 2 years) has taken the Cougars to the Las Vegas Bowl twice in his first two years.

BYU put an average of 36.8 PPG on the board in 2006, with only Arizona and Boston College shutting them down and beating them. The Cougars passed short, utilized finely honed blocking and used bursts of speed. The passing game was rated 4th in the nation (323.5 PPG) and the Cougars were ranked 5th in scoring (36.8 PPG). There's concern in 2007 since whoever calls the signals, either sophomore Max Hall or junior Cade Cooper, will have no experience at all. To add more pressure, either Hall or Cooper will be replacing one of the best QB's, John Beck, to ever wear a BYU jersey. Curtis Brown, the school's all-time leading rusher, is also gone. Good news—most of the exemplary frontline is back. Also, some rough and tough backs return, including Fui Vakapuna (92 CAR, 455 YDs, 8 TDs). Sophomore WR Austin Collie possesses great skills and junior WR Michael Reed and senior WR Matt Allen offer important experience.

The BYU "D" gave up only 14.7 PPG (rated 10th nationally). On the frontline DE Ian Dulan, NT Russell Tialavea and DE Jan Jorgensen (5 sacks), all sophomores, return after putting in exceptional freshman seasons. Senior MLB Kelly Poppinga (70 tackles, 35 solo) comes back as the leading tackler; he'll anchor the LBs. The secondary, which performed well in 2006, looks even better.

This season, the Cougars have swing games versus Arizona and TCU, while UCLA looks like an automatic loss. The club should be bowl bound again but first-place will be tough to capture. For a team so dependent upon its passing game, there's a lot more up in the air than the football.

BYU Cougars Football Schedule

Date	Opponent	Home/Away
Sep 1	Arizona	Home
Sep 8	UCLA	Away
Sep 15	Tulsa	Away
Sep 22	Air Force	Home
Sep 29	New Mexico	Away
Oct 13	UNLV	Away
Oct 20	E Washington	Home
Oct 27	San Diego St	Away
Nov 3	Colorado St	Home
Nov 8	TCU	Home
Nov 17	Wyoming	Away
Nov 24	Utah	Home

 

For more info on the 2007 BYU Cougars football program, view the Cougars website or read up on the rest of the non BCS ncaa football teams below.