STEPHEN DUNN / Getty Images
Quarterback Max Hall is just one of 10 starters on offense returning to BYU this fall.
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Summoned to share their insights on the upcoming season, BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall and junior defensive end Jan Jorgensen drum their fingers on the dais in a Las Vegas ballroom, awaiting the arrival of the third member of their party.
Across the hall, the current face of BYU football, quarterback Max Hall, is in the midst of yet another television interview.
“Don't worry about Max,” Mendenhall says, facing a group of Mountain West Conference media. “We're used to this.”
Another thing to which the Cougars have become accustomed is winning league championships, which, in 2008, just might not be enough.
BYU, a solid favorite to win its third consecutive MWC title, is upping the ante in a league routinely relegated to penny poker.
Winners of 21 of their last 24 conference games under Mendenhall, the Cougars are ranked No. 16 in the Associated Press preseason poll and could be on track to follow rival Utah as the second MWC team since 2004 to crack the postseason Bowl Championship Series party.
“In terms (of the BCS), we've only talked about it in the context of that's what the outside world is going to be focusing on,” said Mendenhall, whose teams have posted consecutive 11-2 seasons while finishing 8-0 in conference play. “To say that we don't have aspirations as a program, or even as a conference, to represent the Mountain West (in a BCS game) on a regular basis wouldn't be accurate.
“Our eventual goal at BYU is to win a national championship. There are a lot of variables involved that say it can't be done. The last time we won a national championship, in 1984, BYU won nine conference championships in a row to even have that chance. I don't know if that same criteria applies to our league now, but I do know that winning conference championships is the step you have to take to gain credibility.”
If the Cougars – who will play host to San Diego State on Nov. 8 – are suffering from the slightest pangs of an identity crisis, it certainly isn't because of Hall. When the conference issued ballots for its 10-year anniversary team earlier this summer, Hall was listed as a candidate – in his second season. To provide some perspective, SDSU quarterback Kevin O'Connell, a four-year starter and third-round draft pick of the New England Patriots in April, wasn't even an option.
Last year's MWC Offensive Player of the Year, Hall threw for 3,848 yards and 26 touchdowns. No sophomore in league history had thrown for more yards than Hall, who while failing to get enough votes to make the 10-year anniversary team, is now being mentioned as a candidate for the 2008 Heisman Trophy. He also is on the Davey O'Brien Award watch list, an honor annually bestowed on the nation's top college quarterback.
“I think the expectations that are out there for us are a little different this year,” said Hall, who transferred from Arizona State in 2006. “We have a great team, so I think a lot of our focus has to be on staying humble, working harder than we did last year and doing all the little things right.
“As far as the BCS is concerned, sure, we think about it as a goal we want to reach. But at the same time, we have a lot of other things we need to focus on, regardless of whether we get into a BCS game. And that means winning a conference championship and representing our university the way it should be. If we get a shot at a BCS game, that's awesome. But it all starts with winning conference championships. That's the thing that's going to define your program.”
BYU, which ranked first in the league last year in total offense (442.8 yards per game) and scoring offense (30.1 points per game), merely returns 10 offensive starters to a team that has gone 28-10 since Mendenhall's inaugural season in 2005.
“Our quest isn't so much for a perfect season but to try and be perfect in what we do every day,” said Jorgensen, a preseason all-conference first-team selection. “If you talked to any player in this conference, and they told you they didn't think about getting into a BCS game, they'd be lying. That's the goal of any player who wants to compete and succeed at the highest level. And those are the kind of players we have at BYU.”
Mick McGrane: (619) 293-1850; mick.mcgrane@uniontrib.com
