BYU football: Clawson feels bad that Bradford got hurt

The BYU linebacker whose hit on Oklahoma's Sam Bradford caused the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback to leave Saturday's 14-13 Cougars win with a shoulder injury says he feels bad that Bradford was hurt but acknowledged that injuries are part of football.

Coleby Clawson , a senior from the tiny town of Wales (population 300) in central Utah, said he wasn't able to talk to Bradford after the game to express his regrets.

"I really do feel bad, because he's a great player," Clawson said. "Sam Bradford is a great player and a good person, too. I feel bad that he got hurt, and I hope he can get back soon. As far as our game, it probably helped us win" because Bradford did not play in the second half.

Clawson said it is the "nature of the beast, playing football," that players get hurt.

"I am always trying to get big hits, but I am never trying to put anybody out or hurt somebody," he said.

A transfer from Snow College, Clawson said he watched the highlights a few times on the charter plane ride home from Dallas, but hasn't turned on the television to watch it since.

"But people have told me it has been on over and over again," he said.

Clawson said he has received a few non-positive messages through Facebook from OU fans, but nothing alarming.

"I think it was mostly sarcasm, but there was a few OU fans who kind of told me where to go. But I think there was sarcasm in there, though. Overall,

everybody has been really good and really classy about it," he said.

Injury update

The Cougars practiced Monday night in the indoor practice facility for the first time since the upset win.

Starting middle linebacker Matt Bauman watched from the sidelines, and will be held out a few more days with a concussion.

Bauman left the game early, while running back Harvey Unga did not play at all.

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said Unga was progressing from a hamstring strain, but "plateaued on Wednesday" and wasn't able to go 100 percent at game time.

"It didn't take the last jump we thought it would," he said.

Ties to Tulane

Tulane coach Bob Toledo said during his teleconference remarks Monday that he has several ties to BYU, mostly because he was head coach at UCLA from 1996 to 2002.

Current BYU offensive line coach Mark Weber was a line coach under Toledo at UCLA for five of those years.

Prior to that, Toledo was offensive coordinator at Texas A&M when the Aggies smothered the Cougars 65-14 in the 1990 Holiday Bowl just weeks after Ty Detmer won the Heisman Trophy.

" LaVell Edwards was a good friend of mine and got [BYU's program] going," Toledo said.

Toledo was a New Mexico assistant coach in 2006, so he was familiar with what Mendenhall did with the Lobo defense in the late 1990s and earlier this decade.

Toledo said he coached against Mendenhall when he was at Oregon and Mendenhall was at Oregon State. Also, he coached against BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe when Holmoe was the head football coach at Cal and Toledo was at UCLA.

Briefly

Mendenhall said he and his family celebrated the biggest win of his coaching career on Sunday by sleeping in (church services weren't until 1 p.m.) and eating cinnamon rolls and s'mores. "And then we just tumbled around on the floor with the boys, and it was just a great night. We had s'mores last night by the fire, so it didn't feel like the season. It was really nice," he said. ... BYU quarterback Max Hall is the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Week and safety Andrew Rich is the Defensive Player of the Week. It is the fifth time Hall has been honored and the first time Rich has earned the award.