{"id":849539,"date":"2026-09-16T07:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T07:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/849539\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T07:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T07:54:13","slug":"bronco-mendenhall-previews-game-vs-utah-that-features-familiar-names-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/849539\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronco Mendenhall previews game vs. Utah that features familiar names \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bronco Mendenhall<\/a> is very familiar with coaching against the University of Utah.<\/p>\n

The former BYU coach faced off against the Utes 10 times during his stint in Provo, going 3-7 in the rivalry game. <\/p>\n

Utes on the air<\/p>\n

No. 17 Utah (2-0, 0-0) vs. Utah State (0-2, 0-0)<\/p>\n

Saturday, 1:30 p.m. MDTRice-Eccles StadiumTV: FoxRadio: 700 AM\/92.1 FM<\/p>\n

The losses included some wild games like the Brandon Burton field goal block in 2010, the infamous three-time field storming in 2012, and the Las Vegas Bowl game in 2015 that saw Utah race out to a 35-0 lead before holding on for a 35-28 win in Mendenhall\u2019s last game as BYU\u2019s head coach.<\/p>\n

All three times Mendenhall and the Cougars beat the Utes were memorable as well, from the 2006 \u201cBeck to Harline\u201d win in Mendenhall\u2019s first rivalry game, the \u201cfourth-and-18\u201d game in 2007, and the Max Hall to Andrew George game-winner in 2009.<\/p>\n

In his first time facing the Utes in a decade, Mendenhall is still wearing blue, just a slightly different shade. He\u2019ll return to a familiar place on the visitors\u2019 sideline at Rice-Eccles Stadium as head coach of the Utah State Aggies, and will see a few familiar faces on the other sideline.<\/p>\n

Kevin McGiven, Mendenhall\u2019s offensive coordinator in Logan<\/a> last season, is drawing rave reviews at Utah this year. Braden Pegan<\/a>, the Aggies\u2019 best receiver last year, is leading Utah\u2019s receiver group in 2026.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the former Aggies that Mendenhall is familiar with \u2014 he also coached Ute quarterback Devon Dampier<\/a> during the 2024 season at New Mexico. During that season, Dampier put up eye-popping numbers \u2014 2,768 yards and 12 touchdowns through the air and 1,166 yards and 19 touchdowns on the ground \u2014 that attracted the attention of Utah and other schools.<\/p>\n

Mendenhall praised his former offensive coordinator, quarterback and receiver in his weekly press conference previewing the Utah game.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, they\u2019re all amazing people. Kevin McGiven, a great person and a dear friend of mine, and a very good football coach and I think a really skilled offensive coordinator, so I know him well,\u201d Mendenhall said. \u201cDevon Dampier, same thing. What a great young man and really a talented, dynamic football player and same, I would say, with Pegan.\u201d<\/p>\n

After working closely with Utah\u2019s offensive coordinator, quarterback and lead receiver at various points in the past two years, does that give the Aggies a leg up in game preparation?<\/p>\n

\u201cPoint of reference, just because I know their capabilities and I know how skilled they are, that gives you a great reference point. Now in terms of, does that lead to tendencies, et cetera? Yeah, possibly as a starting point, but the skillset and the ability really requires execution no matter what they choose to do,\u201d Mendenhall said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they just have, from a baseline perspective, they have my respect and admiration because of the quality of players or coach they are and what I\u2019ve seen them do and I\u2019ve seen it firsthand. So yeah, I\u2019m impressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendenhall had a front-row seat to McGiven\u2019s creative offense at Utah State and knows the challenge his defense is preparing for this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cUtah uses a lot of, I would just say conflict plays. You\u2019re trying to have a player kind of be asked to do two jobs and create scenarios for that to happen. So misdirection and discipline and eye control are really critical to that,\u201d Mendenhall said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd really the amount of points they\u2019re scoring is reflective of that, but also we were the beneficiaries last year here at Utah State to see many teams struggle trying to defend us. It\u2019s a challenge and it\u2019s very similar to playing \u2014 it\u2019s not identical \u2014 but it\u2019s very similar to playing option football where there\u2019s assignments and there\u2019s keys and there\u2019s cues, but also the scheme is such to where it\u2019s hard to have a collaboration where each individual has to do what they need to do for it to be a collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dampier is off to a good start to the season with 437 yards and five touchdowns through the air and 81 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. He\u2019s only had to play about three total quarters through two games thanks to two blowout victories, and while he\u2019s played well, he hasn\u2019t had to utilize the full extent of his game.<\/p>\n

Mendenhall knows exactly what Dampier at his most game-changing looks like.<\/p>\n

\"\"New Mexico quarterback Devon Dampier warms up before an NCAA college football game against Auburn, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Auburn, Ala. | Butch Dill, Associated Press <\/p>\n

\u201cDevon, I\u2019ve seen some magical things of him. He\u2019s so hard to sack and that\u2019s an entire year at New Mexico seeing unblocked players, two and three, and he spins around and he jukes and he jives and he\u2019s out of the pocket and he throws just the dart or he\u2019ll pull it down and run,\u201d Mendenhall said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe runs for speed and power even though he\u2019s not a big player. He\u2019s just dynamic and a really skilled playmaker and he makes it look easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dampier is the hub of Utah\u2019s offense and does a little bit of everything, especially in the two-quarterback looks with Byrd Ficklin.<\/p>\n

\u201cDampier is kind of just at the epicenter of everything they\u2019re doing. Run, pass, throw, catch, scramble, handoff, pitch and anything else you can probably think of, playing receiver and just the usage is really, really smart on what Utah\u2019s doing with him,\u201d Mendenhall said.<\/p>\n

Unlike in previous years, when Kyle Whittingham was across the sideline, Mendenhall\u2019s counterpart on Saturday is Morgan Scalley<\/a>. Scalley coached safeties at Utah while Mendenhall was leading BYU, but he was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2016, the year after Mendenhall left BYU. <\/p>\n

Though he hasn\u2019t faced off against him as a defensive coordinator or coach, Mendenhall has a lot of respect for what Scalley has done.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally good football player, but obviously his career as a defensive coordinator in the system is very strong as most of the coordinators at Utah have been on that side of the ball,\u201d Mendenhall said.<\/p>\n

\u201c… Morgan already is out to a strong start as the head coach, but I think it\u2019s to be expected if you look at his playing career, coordinator career, and so I don\u2019t think it\u2019s surprising anyone he\u2019s doing well.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"Utah Utes head coach Morgan Scalley coaches during an NCAA football game against the Idaho Vandals at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bronco Mendenhall is very familiar with coaching against the University of Utah. The former BYU coach faced off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,3125,99],"class_list":["post-849539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-news-feed-local","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}