Six seconds, one for each victory.

Mendenhall and his coaching staff spent some time after the game on Saturday preparing for TCU and will have just three days of practice to get ready. No. 9 BYU will practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Provo before leaving for Texas and Thursday night's meeting with the Horned Frogs (6 p.m. MT, Versus).

"Everything is accelerated," Mendenhall said. "The easiest way to say it is that we're in a two-minute drill."

BYU's record on Thursday games since Mendenhall took over in 2005 is 4-1, which includes a Las Vegas Bowl loss to Cal (2005) and a Las Vegas Bowl win over Oregon (2006). In the regular season, BYU is 3-0 with two wins over TCU and another over Wyoming.

Two years ago, BYU defeated TCU 31-17 in Fort Worth on a short week and last year the Cougars topped the Horned Frogs 27-22 in Provo, also on a Thursday.

"It's intense," said BYU junior defensive end Jan Jorgensen, who had 10 tackles against New Mexico. "You've got to find the balance between getting ready to play a new opponent and also you have to give your body a chance to heal. It's tough finding that balance.

"It's also very intense mentally. We get out and do our work on the practice field but it's a very tough mental week getting ready for an opponent on Thursday. I don't like it."

Mendenhall's message for his team was that every conference game will be a battle.

"I tried to educate them and gave them a reminder that thiis game (New Mexico) is indicative of what will come with the remainder of our season," he said. "The conference race lends itself to these kinds of close, physical games."

TCU (6-1 overall, 3-0 MWC) relied on its defense to subdue Colorado State 13-7 on Saturday in Fort Collins. The Horned Frogs' No. 1-rated defense against the run in the country allowed the Rams just 11 yards rushing.

"I think we've played well on Thursday nights," BYU junior quarterback Max Hall said. "It's going be a short week. We'll put the script in Monday morning and we're gonna get after it. TCU is a good team and it's going to be a big-time game."

• Poll watch: Another crazy weekend in college football ended with Texas taking the top spot in the polls after a convincing defeat of No. 1 Oklahoma. Things stayed the same for BYU, which was still eighth in the USA Today Coaches Poll and ninth in the AP poll.

While Missouri and LSU fell behind BYU in the AP poll after losing on Saturday, Oklahoma State (which beat Missouri) and Florida (which defeated LSU) leapfrogged the Cougars. Florida and USC moved past BYU in the AP poll.

Utah also remained the same (13th in the coaches poll, 14th in the AP). TCU moved into the Top 25 in the coaches poll, checking in at No. 23.

• Defensive points: New Mexico's game plan to control the clock and run the ball worked very well on Saturday -- until the Lobos had to get the ball in the end zone. New Mexico had only three trips into BYU territory. One resulted in a field goal in the first quarter and two more ended on downs.

"I knew that we had to get the ball in our offense's hands," Jorgensen said. "New Mexico came out ran hard and ate up the clock. If they weren't going to score they wanted to tear up as much of the clock and the field as they could.

"For them to run the ball as many times as they did and for us not to give up a 100-yard rusher and hold them to three points ... they got down there a couple of times but our defense came up big. That's seems to be our staple the last couple of years. We bend but don't break."

They said it: "Guts and imagination might have been enough to upset the ninth-ranked football team in the country Saturday night. The University of New Mexico football team will never know.

"What the Lobos do know is that they weren't good enough to overcome what Lobo coach Rocky Long insists was an official's blown call and beat No. 9 Brigham Young .

"The Cougars (6-0, 2-0 Mountain West Conference) squeezed out a 21-3 victory over UNM (3-4, 1-2) in front of 64,105 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium. But they had help." -- Greg Archuleta, Albuquerque Journal

• Patience, coach: New Mexico's offensive game plan, which consisted of 50 rushing plays, frustrated Mendenhall and he said it was difficult to show patience in how his defensive game plan responded.

"The No. 1 objective we have is to control points," Mendenhall said. "There were times we might have been a little more patient than we needed to be or I would have liked to be.

"Yet I didn't want to give up a double move or play action or gadget play. That was all at the risk of not giving our offense the ball enough through time of possession to win the football game. That was the interplay that was going on. As it turned out, the game was managed appropriately. It took every defensive coach we have telling me to be patient all through the game."

• The addition of subtraction: New Mexico was credited with 130 net rushing yards. The Lobos actually had 190 yards rushing but lost 32 yards in sacks and another 28 in negative rushing plays.

• Back in the lineup: Senior wide receiver Michael Reed saw his first action since a knee injury knocked him out of the lineup against UCLA. Reed caught a 16-yard pass to open the game and finished with three receptions for 23 yards. Mendenhall said Reed suffered nothing more than having the breath knocked out of him during the New Mexico game.

"He's such an integral part of our team," Mendenhall said. "What Mike is doing as well is an excellent job with young men on our team who are not members of the church or are of different cultures. Along with Terence Hooks, he's offered to take them under his wing. It's nice he's had such a positive experience and likes the program so much he wants others to come here and volunteers to help them."

• Daily Herald Sports Editor Darnell Dickson can be reached at 344-2555 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it