BYU tries to avoid stumbling on road

The Cougars ran their winning streak at LaVell Edwards Stadium to 13 on Saturday with a 41-17 season-opening victory over Northern Iowa.

But playing away from home is another matter, and BYU has been stung by narrow early-season road losses the past two seasons.

Coach Bronco Mendenhall hopes to make that a distant memory when his Cougars visit Washington on Saturday.

"I think I’ve learned as a coach," said Mendenhall, in his fourth season. "I think our program has matured. I’m not sure one setting … early on the road can be a predictor of maybe a flaw in the program, but I’ve looked at every possible way to address it. I think we’re on track, and hopefully our play will show that. And if it doesn’t, then I’ll continue to look for the right solutions."

BYU lost 27-17 at UCLA and 55-47 at Tulsa last season and lost 16-13 at Arizona and 30-23 at Boston College in 2006.

But this time around the Cougars are ranked No. 15 and could be the strongest team Mendenhall has fielded.

BYU must prove it has solved its issues on the road, though, and that means containing dual-threat Huskies quarterback Jake Locker on Saturday.

Locker clearly has Mendenhall’s attention.

"I haven’t seen anybody like Locker," the coach said. "In fact, I just interrupted this film to come speak on the phone, and he’s running away from both USC and UCLA."

Mendenhall said it will take an 11-player effort to defend Locker, who passed for 2,062 yards and 14 touchdowns and ran for 986 yards and 13 scores last season.

"He gets out of the pocket and throws it well, which is the secondary. He gets out of the pocket and needs to be contained, which is the linebackers. Or he simply pulls the ball down and runs when he drops back to pass, and that’s on the defensive front," Mendenhall said.

"So you’re basically a number short wherever you look, and if you don’t happen to have speed and athleticism on your team that’s similar, you have to be assignment-sound and keep leverage."

• MIXED CREWS — UNLV’s 27-17 victory over Utah State on Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium was worked by a crew of Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference officials.

The two conferences are combining their crews this season, and the Big 12 Conference will join the mix next year.

It could be part of a move to establish a nationwide official pool, but some conferences are hesitant to go along.

"There are particular leagues that say, ‘Wait, we built an officiating program over many decades, and we want to retain our autonomy, and when they come into our stadiums, we use our conference officials,’ " Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said. "I think the presumptive thought is let’s get away (from) that. Let’s get rid of that. That’s what we don’t want to have happen.

"We want the best officials on the field regardless of affiliation, and let’s take the labels off."

All schools now use neutral replay officials rather than rely on a local replay official, as was done in the past.

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914.