BYU takes on Cincinnati on Friday

PROVO, Utah - BYU football will host Cincinnati in its second Friday game of the year this week. The Cougars will take on the Bearcats at 6 p.m. MT, Friday, Oct. 16 at LaVell Edwards Stadium. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN and online via Watch ESPN.

BYU (4-2) beat East Carolina (3-3, 1-1) last week 45-38. BYU's offense put up 508 total yards and running back Algernon Brown scored four total touchdowns to go along with 134 rushing yards. Cincinnati (3-2, 0-2) is coming off a bye week after defeating Miami 34-23 on Oct. 1.

Fans can tune in for live coverage on the Cougar IMG Sports Network with Greg Wrubell, which can be found on 1160 AM, 102.7 FM, Sirius XM 143, BYUcougars.com and the BYU Cougars app. IMG's radio coverage will begin at 4:00 p.m. MT. 

BYUtv will provide pregame and postgame coverage, with Countdown to Kickoff starting at 5:00 p.m. MT. Postgame coverage runs for half an hour after the game. 

BYU (4-2) vs Cincinnati (3-2, 0-2 AAC)
Friday, Oct. 16
Kickoff: 6 p.m. MT
LaVell Edwards Stadium (63,470)
Provo, Utah
#CINvsBYU

BYU Game Notes
Cincinnati Game Notes

NOTES

FIRST MEETING.
The Cougars are taking on Cincinnati for the first time in program history. Cincinnati is the third and final FBS team BYU has on the schedule this season that it has played for the first time. 

FRIDAY GAMES.
BYU is playing its second Friday game of the regular season. The Cougars beat UConn earlier this year 30-13 on a Friday. BYU is 11-4 in Friday games under Mendenhall. 

SCHEDULE RANKINGS.
BYU’s schedule currently ranks No. 4 according to USA Today’s Jeff Sagarin’s latest rankings. Cincinnati checks in at No. 82 in the latest rank. 

TUBERVILLE AND BYU.
Cincinnati head coach Tommy Tuberville has never faced the Cougars as a head coach but will remember a trip to Provo in 1990 as a defensive assistant coach with the Miami Hurricanes. BYU defeated the No. 1 Miami Hurricanes 28-21 behind the arm of quarterback Ty Detmer.  With Tuberville on the staff however, Miami won three national championships, posted an 87-9 record and played in eight consecutive New Year’s Day bowls during his stint from 1986-1993.

VS. THE AAC.
BYU is 21-5 against the American Athletic Conference as currently constituted. The Cougars have played Tulsa the most, holding a 7-1 record against the Golden Hurricane. 

CFPA AND MANNING AWARD HONORS
Quarterback Tanner Mangum was named to the 2015 College Football Performance Awards Player of the Year midseason watch list. He has also been named one of eight quarterbacks for the Manning Award Star of the Week honoree. Mangum completed 24 of 33 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns to beat East Carolina last week. Fans can vote for Mangum via Facebook.

QUOTES

Bronco Mendenhall (VIDEO)

It was a great win Saturday night. It was a fun homecoming game in front of a great crowd. What an electric college atmosphere and a really good game. I was really impressed with Tanner, our protection for him, and our receivers offensively. The turnovers were great defensively and a key field goal by Trevor Samson were some of the positive takeaways from the game.

On Tanner Mangum:
Tanner’s status is probable at this point. Beau [Hoge] will be working out with the offense the entire week, however, just in case something goes wrong. He’s a different style of quarterback but he’s effective. We like him a lot.

On Mangum’s injury:
We’ll have to plan on him being less mobile out of the pocket and build a plan around that. If he is more mobile, that will be a bonus. But, I think it’s better that we plan on him being less mobile than more.

On returning players:
We’ll have those two players who were suspended back for Cincinnati, and we finally think we’ll get Harvey Langi back as well. Travis Tuiloma saw around 20 plays and was dominant. We kept him out because of the amount of nickel we were playing, but he’ll be getting more playing time this game. Micah Hannemann went out of the game with an injury, but he should be back. Ului Lapuaho should be probable as well. I would put Tanner and him in the same category.

On Cincinnati:
They’re really skilled. They’re similar to ECU, but I would say that they’re a little bit more explosive. I would compare them to Memphis, who we played in the bowl game last year. Similar styles, similar athletes and similar types of programs, so it should be another great college football game and test for us.

On the team’s identity:
Their chemistry is so strong. They think they can win any game and any time. There was one exception that caught us all off guard with Michigan, but that game looks a little better now based off of the way they’re playing. The team likes to play football, they like each other and they’re willing to work harder to get better. It’s a fun team to coach. They whole group is getting better together.”

Mitch Mathews, WR, Sr.

On Resilience:
I feel like in all of our wins there’s been at least some turmoil that we’ve had to pick ourselves up from and move forward. Some have happened the last drive–I think three happened in the last drive. Some of the coaches have expressed to us that this is the most resilient team they’ve seen in a while here at BYU, so that says a lot; that we have a resilient team. BYU always has a resilient team, but there’s something special about this team.

On Cincinnati:
They’re athletic, man, they’re – at least speaking of the defensive backs and the corners – one of them is a lot quicker than the other one, the other is a lot bigger and a lot longer, so they both have different strengths. Some of the coaches who have played them this year have told our coaches that you’ll look at them in warmups, in pregame and across the ball, and they’ll look like an NFL team. They’ll look big, they’ll look really athletic, they wear black, they’ll look sharp and they’ll look good. The team we played this last week was really athletic and really good too, so it’s nothing we haven’t seen. But they’ll be big, they’ll be long and they’ll be tall and they’re a good team.

Ryker Mathews, OL, Sr.

On improving:
The biggest thing we are striving for and always working for is improving our run game so we can have successful runs every play and not one bad, one great and one bad one.

Feeling in the huddle when Tanner came out on the last drive:
It’s a different feeling from having your starting quarterback to your backup quarterback. You know what he’s going to do. When you have a true freshmen who doesn’t know exactly every part of the play, you don’t know what to expect from him. When you have Tanner back there, you know he’s going to make the right decisions. It makes our job easier because we know if we do our job right, we won’t have to worry about Tanner.

On Tanner playing when he was hurt:
He’s a trooper. You could definitely tell he was in a lot of pain. He did it for the team. It says a lot about him, his character and the type of player he is. 

Travis Tuiloma, DL, Jr.

On being referred to as one of the best defensive players on the team:
It’s an honor, but I also know there’s still more that I can improve on. I guess I just need to stay humble, stay grounded and make sure I do my best to help my team win.

Some improvements you want to see in yourself:
I’d say using my hands more in the pass rush instead of just bullrushing. Having more moves and things to work with.

On your plan for Cincinnati:
Just try to crash the pocket as fast as I can since they’re a passing team.

Your preference playing a predominantly passing team vs. rushing team:
I prefer a run stop team, that’s more my forte, what I like to do, what I take pride in–stopping that run.

Graham Rowley, DL, Sr.

On Travis Tuiloma being back:
He’s got one of the most important jobs in the run game because he gets the front side and forces the running back where he should go. From the film that we watched, he was just dominating this game. It’s scary what he can do. We really need him. I’m glad to have him back.

On defense against ECU:
In the first half, I thought we did well. That last drive before the half, they upped their tempo and scored quick. We ran our nickel front with two defensive linemen the rest of the game. I think we could’ve gotten more pressure on the quarterback. We would’ve been able to do more if we would have put that pressure on. But, I thought we did well with all the turnovers. That was honestly the key to our win.

On assignments:
The person that's been stepping up the most lately is Tomasi Laulile. He’s been doing amazing. It may not show up on film or to a fan’s perspective, but he’s our trigger guy. He’s chasing the quarterback down and spying on him. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier for him. It’s great to see him succeed in a big role.​