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Provo • Saturday's 70-6 win over Wagner was almost like a bye for the BYU Cougars.
Now they will get a real one.
BYU (6-2) has this week off, then will travel to the Bay Area to take on San Jose State at 9:30 p.m. MDT on Friday, Nov. 6, at Spartan Stadium. The Spartans (4-4) defeated New Mexico 31-21 in San Jose on Saturday and also have a bye this week.
Like the Cougars, San Jose State has played eight straight games, beating New Hampshire, Fresno State and UNLV in addition to UNM while losing to Air Force, Oregon State, Auburn and San Diego State.
Although the Cougars suffered no new injuries against the overmatched Seahawks, save running back Algie Brown's leg laceration when he ran into the cannon after scoring his second rushing touchdown, they said after the game that they can really use a bye this week.
"The bye week will be beneficial to us so that we can rest and prepare for San Jose State," said linebacker Manoa Pikula. "It comes at a great time so we can have time to heal all our bumps and bruises."
The fear is that it will slow their momentum; They've won four straight games since falling hard 31-0 at Michigan on Sept. 26, posting a 4-0 October after going 0-4 in that month last year.
Wagner provided no barometer whatsoever, but coach Bronco Mendenhall said he likes how his team is playing right now. About the only thing to nitpick about Saturday's performance was the penalties on special teams. They were flagged twice for being offsides on kickoffs in the second quarter and once for the same offense in the third. Twice they were called for holding during kick returns in the third quarter, including one flag that negated Trey Dye's 30-yard kickoff return.
"We gave Michael Shelton a chance to return [punts], because he looked very good in practice," Mendenhall said. "He is dynamic, he is explosive, and you saw that today. As a result of that, what is happening is we are returning the ball longer. The fundamentals of us blocking and not holding are being exposed. So before when the returns are short, blocks aren't held as long. So maybe some of our technical flaws weren't exposed [until now]."
Mendenhall was also disappointed to see a Wagner team that couldn't puncture the end zone against Robert Morris and Columbia score a touchdown on a mixture of BYU backups and starters in the third quarter.
"We have a pretty simple phrase defensively that [goes], 'touchdowns aren't good,'" Mendenhall said. "Touchdowns aren't good, regardless of who is in the game. So yeah, a few execution mistakes on critical third downs, teachable things for new players to show them if they don't do what they are supposed to do, this is what happens."
Playing a winless Football Championship Subdivision team caused BYU's strength of schedule rating to drop from 13th to 38th (Sagarin Ratings), but the Cougars still got some votes in the two major polls.
They dropped from 27th to 29th in the Associated Press Top 25 (if it extended that far) and to 35th in the Amway Coaches Poll.
The Cougars will review game film and do some conditioning on Monday, then practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday's practice will focus on San Jose State (which they normally do on Mondays), and Friday will be another conditioning day before the players get the weekend off.
"We will do pretty extensive self-scout work, even though that has been ongoing, just to make sure we are precise and sharp and refocused for our next opponent," Mendenhall said. "Then we go down the home stretch."
The Cougars are bowl eligible now, and will play in either the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 19 or the Hawai'i Bowl on Dec. 24.
Twitter: @drewjay —
BYU at San Jose State
P Nov. 6, 9:30 p.m. MDT
TV • CBSSN