ESPN Independents and Others Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

Kevin Craft coming alive in the second half against Tennessee was a blessing for BYU.

Otherwise, the Cougars might have been duped into thinking that the UCLA quarterback would be an easy mark.

Lucky for BYU, Craft shook off his first-half jitters and completed 18 of 25 for 193 yards and a touchdown and gave the BYU defense something to study.

"We saw a resilient football team and we saw two sides of Kevin Craft," defensive end Jan Jorgensen said. "We saw the one side that was a little shaky in the first half and then in the second half we saw someone who was a little like a veteran quarterback, settled in and able to handle anything that they threw at him... We're expecting him to really settle in there and want to throw the ball."

A passing offense isn't something BYU is used to seeing against UCLA or either of the two opponents the Cougars have played this season.

This is the third meeting between UCLA and BYU in a little over a year. The teams split the first two games with UCLA winning 27-17 at home and BYU winning 17-16 off a blocked field goal as time expired in the Las Vegas Bowl. But in both those games, UCLA used its defense and its ground game to give it an edge. The Bruins averaged 140 yards in the air during both contests.

The lack of a passing threat has continued this season as both of BYU's first two opponents - Northern Iowa and Washington - featured dual-threat quarterbacks and both made the Cougars a little crazy with their ability to escape from the pocket.

Because BYU has faced more rushing-oriented offenses, it's secondary seems to be a little rusty. The Cougars are ranked 62nd nationally against the pass, averaging 208.50 yards per game, and 87th in pass efficiency defense.

The Cougars allowed touchdowns of 76 and 48 yards to Northern Iowa and Washington respectively, and the 76-yarder came on a trick play.

The BYU secondary is fairly inexperienced. Senior Kellen Fowler has the most experience with six career starts, and safety David Tafuna has five, though three of them came during the 2006 season because he missed 2007 with a foot injury. Corners Scott Johnson and Brandon Howard had never started prior to this season.

And it's not like the Cougars don't get a passing workout in practice. Quarterback Max Hall leads the nation's third-best passing attack, averaging 412 yards per game.

"Our secondary is being coached very well. I think they'll play good enough, as they have in the first two games, to give us a chance to win the game (against UCLA)," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall told the Deseret News. "They're not dominant yet, but they're improving. Despite what you saw, I think they improved over the game before. I still think it's going to take some time, but I really like the way they are being coached and I think the guys back there are the right guys."

But it's unclear how the BYU secondary will fare against an unknown quarterback, who may or may not show up.

Jorgensen that's not something the team is concerned about. It's preparing for the second-half Craft and trying to keep the scoring down. Opponents have averaged 22 points against the cougars this season, a total that's probably too high against the teams the cougars have been playing.

"We're concerned with the amount of points we gave up last week," Jorgensen said of the 28-27 win over Washington. "We don't ever want to give up that many points and it's all just been mental mistakes on our part. It's not that we don't have the physical ability, it's just been some mental breakdowns."

Despite some of the kinks on defense, BYU comes into Saturday's game riding a wave of confidence. It's holds the nation's longest winning streak at 12 games and is 4-1 against opponents from the Pac-10 during the last five meetings.