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With Jordan Johnson out for the remainder of the season (and his career, most likely) with a broken arm, BYU's rotation at cornerback will get tightened up, defensive coordinator Nick Howell said Tuesday in his first interview with reporters since Sept. 23. "I am not going to bring anybody up," Howell said. So Jordan Preator, Michael Davis and Robertson Daniel will comprise the trio that will get 90 percent of the reps at field and boundary corner, Howell said. Nebraska transfer Harvey Jackson would move from safety to corner before anyone else on the roster, including Trenton Trammell, surprisingly. Another safety, Skye PoVey, would play corner in "an emergency," Howell said. Trammell had his moments in fall camp, but he's apparently not in the mix to get on the field. Generally, Howell called the defense "a work in progress" and declined to make excuses for injuries that have left it without some of its top playmakers — linebacker Alani Fua (ankle), safety Craig Bills (concussion), safety Dallin Leavitt (ankle) and Johnson (fractured arm). He said he is "not sure yet" whether Bills, Fua or Leavitt will play against Nevada on Saturday. "That's the honest truth: I don't know if any of those three are going to play," he said. "If they do, it is good. If they don't, we just gotta go." Howell said the defense needs to clean up assignment mistakes and play the ball down the field better. He was happy with the pressure the Cougars got on UCF's quarterback, but said that getting pressure is tough because teams are going to max protection mode against the Cougars and trying to beat them with deep one-on-one routes. "Probably one is just Sione [Takitaki] made a big difference," Howell said. "He did a really good job. Same schemes that we have been running. Probably had them in longer yardage situations and they had to hold the ball longer, a little more. We played a little more man-free, tightened it up a little bit. We had a really good idea of what they were going to do in their blocking scheme, and when. They were pretty predictable. So I think we did a pretty good job overall that way." Howell said UCF mimicked what USU did: "Chuck it up. Max-pro[tection], chuck it up. And it was successful." In a move that surprised a lot of people last spring, BYU moved Bronson Kaufusi from defensive end to outside linebacker. Kaufusi played well against UConn in the opener, getting a couple of sacks, then got hurt against Texas. He returned for the USU and UCF games, but hasn't had much of an impact. However, both outside linebackers coach Kelly Poppinga and Howell said Tuesday that the move is paying dividends. They said it has been a success. "So far so good, yeah. It has been good," Howell said. "He is our best Will linebacker, so it has been good. He doesn't have to cover in space. We rush him. He's not a cover guy. If we are covering with Bronson Kaufusi, then we are stupid. He is a rush guy. We rush him. He drops like twice a game. He probably had one of the best buzz drops I've seen of our guys, Kyle Van Noy included, a week ago. The quarterback made a heckuva throw, but if you think we are wasting time saying, 'hey Bronson, let's work on your coverage,' we are not. We are working on rushing, getting to the quarterback and playing the run. That's what the Will is in our defense. It is not a cover guy. So he's a d-end." Howell speaks bluntly at times, no question about it. Tuesday, he admitted that he didn't trust Kaimana Nacua, the safety who replaced Bills in the UCF game. "Kai Nacua, the further you get from the ball, the more trust I have to have in you. There was a trust issue going with Kai. He knew that I didn't trust him. I was forced to throw him in, and he proved me wrong. He played good. Kai Nacua is a good player. He's a really good player. So guys played well. Mike Davis played pretty good, another young guy. So I like what they are doing," Howell said. Howell's take on the final play against UCF, the noncall when Jordan Leslie was trying to catch a pass from Christian Stewart: "I didn't watch it, but if we had won, I would say, 'good play.' If we got pass interference [called against us], I would say, 'don't do that.' That's what I would say." Finally, Howell was asked to assess his job performance at the midway mark of the season, having taken over defensive play-calling duties at the start of the season. "It is going good," he said. "There are challenges that happen every day, getting your guys to do what they are supposed to do. Make sure your game plan is exactly right. Making sure that they are focused and motivated, all those things. But it is not just one person. It is all the coaches. But yeah, it is a battle to make sure we are fighting and scraping and doing what we are supposed to do. Making sure we are doing the right things, and critiquing myself, not looking at everyone else and saying OK, whose guy is not doing this or that. It is what I do to help these guys play better. You got to self-evaluate, you got to evaluate the group, and you got to just battle every single day. It is just a daily fight. You go to bed late, wake up in the morning swinging, then you go to bed and get ready to go again."