Provo • On successive plays Friday night at BYU’s preseason training camp, freshman quarterback Zach Wilson lofted passes to tight ends Matt Bushman and Moroni Laulu-Pututau, the latter reaching high to snare the football over the outstretched arms of an overmatched defender.
The Cougars could have used that kind of one-two punch at one of their marquee positions last year, but the 6-foot-5 Laulu-Pututau — known as MLP to teammates, coaches and media members who have trouble pronouncing his full name — missed the entire season with a Lisfranc foot injury.
Then-offensive coordinator Ty Detmer didn’t like to use excuses for his abysmal offense in 2017, but in one moment of weakness the former Heisman Trophy winner wondered aloud what might have been if Laulu-Pututau hadn’t injured his foot three days before the opener against Portland State.