BYU Head Coach Kalani Sitake Previews the Upcoming Scrimmage

The BYU football program is wrapping up the second week of Fall Camp. On Saturday, the Cougars will have their first full scrimmage of camp. Earlier this week, BYU head coach Kalani Sitake met with the media to preview the scrimmage.

The Most Physical Scrimmage of Camp

Sitake says BYU will go live on Saturday, even the starters.

"We're still working through the format and talking to Jay and A-Rod," Sitake said. "I think we're going to be in a really good spot. We're gonna get a lot of special teams work, but it's probably going to be probably the most physical one we'll have with the scrimmage. I imagine ones and twos getting a lot of live reps and then also the threes...so working on getting used to the clock, all that stuff that you do in a game situation. We'll have coaches up in the box, all that stuff, but I imagine it's gonna be a lot of reps."

Later on Sitake reiterated that the best players will be live. "It's like NFL preseason," Sitake said. "I don't think the first time they get tackled or that they tackle is in the games. That's just my personal view and Jay Hill and Aaron Roderick, they feel the same way. Those guys will all get opportunities to get tackled and to make tackles and so even if you started here...I mentioned before, I don't want the first time they go live [to be] against Portland. That's not going to be good for us."

The Quarterback Battle

Sitake says the quarterbacks will not be live, but they will have to deal with a more realistic pass rush while others around them are live.

"I mean the pass rush changes when everything goes live," Sitake said. "I think we were able to see a little bit of that yesterday. I want to put some pressure on them and see how they respond to all that. So that's that's what we're going to do on Saturday. I think getting ready and prepping the next two days with today and the next practice. On Thursday and Friday just basically just to get ready for [the scrimmage]."

On what he is looking to see from the three quarterbacks, Sitake said, "The one that I care about the most is if they can throw the ball. BYU quarterbacks have to be able to throw. Now A-Rod wants quarterbacks that are athletic too, and they all have that, but throwing the ball is key. If you're not good at throwing the ball, you're just gonna hand it off."