BYU defensive end and former Legacy High all-stater Brett Denney “celebrated” bye week for the No. 11 Cougars by running wind sprints on Monday. He is the last in the Denney line in Provo, Utah. His father, Craig, played on the offensive line in the early 1970s. Oldest brother Ryan, in his seventh season with the Buffalo Bills, played at BYU from 1999-2001, and middle brother, John, in his fourth year as the Dolphins’ long snapper, was at BYU from 2001-04. When projected starter Ian Dulan was banged up, BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said, “Brett, through his consistency, earned the job and hasn’t given it back.” Denver Post staff writer Natalie Meisler caught up with Denney after practice this week.
Q: You have a bye this week and you have so much momentum after beating two teams a bazillion to nothing. Are you worried about losing momentum?
A: We have to build momentum. Sometimes teams take time off after a big win like UCLA (59-0) and stop doing the little things that matter. Our focus last week was do everything we did the week before to get us where we’re at. Against Wyoming (44-0) we didn’t necessarily play as good as we did the week before. . . . We have coaches who keep us focused on what we’re doing wrong even though it looks like we’re doing it right.
Q: How do you stay focused until the big games at TCU (Oct. 16) and Utah (Nov. 22)?
A: In our conference if you are not careful, teams you are not worried about become a problem. Especially Air Force. You can never overlook them with the offense they run.
Q: You have two brothers in the NFL. What’s that like?
A: It’s kind of surreal. Every kid grows up dreaming of playing in the NFL or NBA or Major League Baseball. Then all of a sudden that really is possible. It’s awesome for me. We were brought up so we were always expected to do our best. I know it’s possible because my brothers did it. Being the youngest, though, it’s hard to be the first to do something.
Q: How about being the first Denney to go to a BCS bowl?
A: That would be awesome. That would be great for the conference. We’re not going to count our eggs before they hatch.
Q: Why did anyone else (CU, CSU, Stanford, Harvard) try to recruit you when your dad and brothers went to BYU?
A: Well, I had good grades, and for a football player that’s sometimes hard to find. BYU offered me about the same time people started making contact. I saw no point in playing pretend that I was going somewhere else. But I wanted to see if anyone else would come after me. It makes you feel better because I didn’t want BYU to recruit me just because I’m a Denney. I didn’t want to ride my dad’s and brothers’ coat tails.
Q: It seems there are more Eagle Scouts at BYU than the rest of the top 25. Is that a requirement at BYU?
A: It almost sounds like it. Through the LDS church there are Boy Scouts of America programs. As a kid, it was fun. Then I got my driver’s license and was into other things. You have to get Eagle Scout before your 18th birthday, so I finished the requirements two weeks before I was 18.
Q: Do you wish you were assigned a more exotic mission than McAllen, Texas?
A: Sometimes it did seem Third World near the Gulf of Mexico. I’m fluent in Spanish, so I thought maybe I’d get Buenos Aires, like Ryan. But there are benefits to being in the U.S., like fast-food restaurants. People made great Mexican food. They’d invite us to barbecues. There was plenty of door slamming, too.
BYU relatively familiar
Brett Denney’s favorite things about having a family tradition at BYU:
1. Familiarity with the program.
2. My redshirt year in 2003 (middle brother) John was still here. He’s six years older, but that’s how it works with missions and redshirts.
3. Because (brother) Ryan played here, it’s where his home is in the offseason and he trains at the BYU facility.
4. My sister, Kimberley, is the oldest in the family. She went to school here and it’s nice to have her around.
5. I grew up coming to football and basketball camps here because my mom and dad met here.
