PROVO, Utah -- After Brigham Young University’s third consecutive loss of the season, the criticism started to fly on social media.
Calls for change in coaching staff, in gameplay, and general disapproval from fans have started to surface.
But, for head coach Bronco Mendenhall, the complaints do not mean a thing.
"Are there grumblings and rumblings?" Mendenhall laughed. "What a surprise."
For Mendenhall, he wants to see change from his players.
"The players looked tired today and they looked resolved and maybe that was because of some of the things that were said over the weekend, I didn't ask them," Mendenhall said.
The players are doing their best to not pay attention to the comments that have been buzzing since their third loss on Saturday.
"I don't think we have time to pay attention to that," said senior tight end Devin Mahina said in regards to the criticism. "If we did, I think we would just ruin our game, so as a team we just kind of have to stick together and focus on our jobs and assignments."
Senior runningback Michael Alisa said it’s important for the players to be real with themselves.
“But don’t beat yourself up so much that you dig yourself into a hole that you can't get out of it," Alisa said.
Mendenhall said his coaching staff needs to focus on is finding a way to drive the players to improve without being too negative.
"There's two parts right now -- one is to demand and one is to inspire," Mendenhall said. "You gotta do both because easily if you haven't had success the demand can turn negative pretty fast and what they don't need is that happening from us if they are getting it from other places. So, we want to ask for more and inspire them to give more. We want them to look forward to be here every day."
The Cougars head on the road to take on the Boise State Broncos Oct. 24.
