The Horned Frogs used their bye-week practices to recharge before conference play opens Thursday against the BYU Cougars, head coach Gary Patterson said at the weekly coaches luncheon Tuesday.”It’s ‘get better’ week,” Patterson said. “We hadn’t had a bye week yet, and we had big practices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday working on ourselves. Then on Saturday, we started getting ready for BYU.”

Patterson said the Cougars have made improvements from last year and are a better team as a result.

“They’re on a new scheme of defense where they aren’t giving up many points,” Patterson said. “A lot of their kids are older and more mature. They can handle adversity better.”

Patterson also said with a change in its offensive strategy, BYU is stronger.

“They changed their mindset and started running the football more,” Patterson said. “They have two great tight ends that will get a chance to play in the NFL. Some pro scouts say John Beck is maybe the top NFL quarterback prospect. They are very dangerous.”

Patterson said that although the Frogs’ young corners have only allowed one touchdown pass this season, out of the 11 touchdown passes thrown against TCU last season, five of them were in the BYU game.

Thursday’s game is the first conference game of the season, and Patterson said these games are a different level of play.

“The Baylor and Texas Tech games are good because they’re good state rivalries,” Patterson said. “But it’s not anything like playing conference. When you are playing for a conference title, you throw all the records out of the window, and you have to just go play.”

Since the game is Thursday night, some students will have classes and might have to miss some of the game, but Patterson said it will be a good game regardless of when fans show up to Amon Carter Stadium.

“It will be a great game to go watch,” Patterson said. “It’s a 5 o’clock game. I don’t care if you show up in the fourth quarter, just get there. We’re going to need as many people in purple there as we can get.