Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson
According to coach Bronco Mendenhall, everyone should know as soon as Thursday if BYU tight end Dennis Pitta is able to go this weekend against Utah. If he can't, receiver Austin Collie said that the task of beating Utah will get infinitely more difficult.
Pitta strained his MCL late in the Air Force game last weekend.
"Dennis is one of the biggest weapons that we have on our offense, if not the biggest, and hypothetically speaking, if he were not to play, it would be more weight on my shoulders, on Harvey's [Unga] shoulders, on Andrew George's shoulders, on Michael Reed's shoulders, on Max's [Hall] shoulders, Collie said. "I mean, Dennis is huge in our offense. He's one of the guys who makes it run. Without him, it would drop a lot of pressure, a lot of responsibility, on some of the other guys, including myself.
Pitta is the team's second-leading receiver behind Collie, and has come up big late this season. Against both UNLV and Colorado State, Pitta caught the game-winning touchdown late in the game.
Hall said after the game that Pitta, his brother-in-law, told him that it'd be fine, but Mendenhall said Monday afternoon that Pitta would need extensive rehabilitation and there likely wouldn't be any indication of whether he'd play until Thursday.
Watson joined ESPN.com in 2008 after four seasons covering the Missouri Tigers and the Big 12 Conference for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She also covered college football recruiting for the Dallas Morning News.
