Chris Petersen: BYU “extremely unique” in what they do

Washington coach Chris Petersen previewed BYU as part of his weekly Monday press conference prior to Saturday night’s showdown in Seattle. Here are his BYU comments as part of that press conference.

Petersen on BYU

“The number one thing is, completely different than what we just saw. I mean, 180 degrees. On defense they’re different, exact opposite (from Arizona State). And on offense, the similarity is they really run the ball like Arizona State... But this offense is something we haven’t seen and won’t see again in terms of others shifts and motions and fly sweep action. It’s extremely unique, they do a nice job with it. It’s a little bit like option football in terms of really making you play assignment sound. You have to do your job before you can chase the ball. They’ve got a nice system off it, done a good job.”

On BYU Offense

“You guys should take a look at the tape. It is extremely different how they’re running the ball. There’s so many spread teams, the zone-read game — there’s none of that. But they have their own unique way how to keep the defense honest with this fly-sweep game. Half of it is running the fly sweep, and the other half of is running the ball. You’re going to see a quarterback take a snap from under center and drop back and throw a pass. How often do you see that? With no play-action. He takes a straight drop and throws it. It’s a unique style. That’s the beauty of college football — you’re always getting something different in terms of everybody’s got their signature way of doing things. Which I think is different than the NFL, certainly.”

On BYU Defense

“It’s a unique style, again, where they’re playing really good defense — nobody’s scored a bunch of points on them. They’re super sound, and I think a lot it has to do with their offense and what (their defense) sees all the time — you’ve got to have great eyes and you’re not going to take chances with blitz. They play it tight, they play it in front of you. Sometimes when guys are taking chances with all these different blitzes, if you can pick it up you can get a lot of space out there, you can get a lot of good one-on-one type stuff. This is the exact opposite. They’re going to keep things in front. They seem them, they’ve got great help and they’ve have really good eyes in terms of the RPO game because of all the stuff their offense goes at them in practice.”

On Tanner Mangum

“Heck of a player. We liked him a lot. I cannot believe he’s still playing college football. I’m like, huh? But he was an awesome kid back in high school even. Just really liked him. Then he went on his mission and then went to BYU. He’s been over there a long time, seen a lot of things, seen a lot of defense, played a lot of football. He’s an experienced fifth-year — kind of fifth-year — kind of quarterback.”

You can watch the entire press conference below: