It's finally over and BYU head football coach Bronco Mendenhall can breath a sigh of relief.

"This was exactly what we needed this season," Mendenhall said. "We got a lot of work in and we only lost one player, though that's one player too many."

The desire to avoid injuries made BYU keep things fairly low key in the final workout in LaVell Edwards Stadium in front of thousands of curious fans.

After running normal drills for about 40 minutes, the Cougars cleared the field for a scrimmage. This was a chance for the backups and younger players to show what they could do.

"The format was exactly right," Mendenhall said. "We had a chance to get a ton of younger players some live work in front of a good crowd. We have a good idea about our two-deep but today we found out a lot about the next tier of players."

Both the offense and defense had their moments during the 15 minutes of game time.

The offense managed 10 points on a 26-yard field goal by sophomore kicker Matt Payne and a one-yard touchdown dive by junior fullback Kelly Bills, but the defensive backfield had interceptions by freshman defensive back Jameson Frazier and sophomore transfer Andrew Rich.

One offensive standout was redshirt freshman running back J.J. Di Luigi, who had success both running the ball and catching it out of the backfield. He displayed the quickness that have had observers buzzing ever since he signed with BYU.

"This was a great experience," Di Luigi said. "They were testing us to see who would be able to step in and play big. I wanted to go out there and show I could do the job."

Di Luigi -- who sat out because of a foot injury last year -- said he enjoyed having the chance to play on that field in front of the fans.

"They made it like a live game," he said. "That pumped me up more than your average scrimmage at practice. It was a great atmosphere."

Joining Di Luigi in wowing the fans was fellow redshirt freshman Spencer Hafoka, who pulled down a couple of nice catches from his wide receiver position.

"It was a different feeling, one I wasn't used to," Hafoka said. "I look on it as being a positive to really help me get back into things."

Mendenhall said he liked what he saw from those two players in what they were able to do on Saturday.

"Di Luigi is progressing and showed his versatility today," the Cougar head coach said. "Hafoka along with Luke Ashworth are two of the more talented players. They're fast, agile and have good work attitudes. With those two and McKay Jacobson, our receiving corps will be in good shape for the next few years."

Another wide receiver -- junior Austin Collie -- also liked some of the things he saw from the young guys.

"Di Luigi did an exceptional job out there," he said. "He's a great runner and he's shifty. He can make people miss. Hafoka also had some great grabs and great runs. It's promising to see the twos do so well. We've got a lot of talented guys."

The talented wideout couldn't help but be a little jealous of players like Hafoka and Di Luigi that were on the field, but he understood the reasons.

"I was biting my nails because I wanted to get in there," Collie said. "But the coaches and the trainers have done a great job keeping people healthy. We got better and we stayed healthy, and those were the main things this spring."

Now the team turns their attention to getting in shape for the fall.

"It's about training and working out," said Di Luigi. "Now we work toward getting ready for the season and getting further along toward our goals."

BYU starts fall practice in August.

ı Jared Lloyd can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it