A Guest Commentary on BYU Recruiting Day Luncheon

My father attended the BYU Recruiting Day Cougar Club Luncheon.  Here are his thoughts, with some slight editing on my part.

Recruiting Tactics
I sat next to the parents of the top recruit from Utah, Ryker Matthews. I asked his dad about his recruitment. He told he was not a Cougar from birth but decided on the Y last fall. I asked him why and he told me the difference in recruiting was quite stark. Utah wrote him a letter stating the they were moving to the PAC 10, they would play him right away, and they sure hoped he would become a Ute. Bronco wrote him and said he and his family had just gotten back from Peru and realized how blessed we were to live in this country. He hoped things were going well with him, just wanted to stay in touch. Quite a difference in recruiting. When Ryker came to visit, he asked for Jake Heaps to be his mentor and they became good friends; also Quesada spent a lot of time with him. He loves BYU after his first year and is glad he came. He is really a fun guy.


Quick Notes on the Recruits
We got 8 of the top 20 recruits in Utah, more than any other school. We had eighteen total recruits, thirteen of which were from Utah. Five of them were rated in the top 50 at their position in the country. We had two JC guys, the rest were high school seniors, a couple of which are already in school and will participate in spring practice. A lot of tall guys in the bunch. We also have 14 RM's returning, most of whom played as freshman and a couple even started. The kicker from Bingham is back, having ridden a unicycle his whole mission.
 
Coaching Changes
Bronco also addressed all the coaching changes he made. He sounded like he brought in the buy from Navy to make their running attack even better. Only seven teams have a better record over the last five years but he wants to improve to make up that difference. And only 11 teams have won four of their last five bowl games.
Ben Cahoon, a former wide receiver and a CFL player the last 13 years was mentioned by Bronco. He is the all time leading receiver in the CFL. Only six people in the history of football have caught more passes than he has.



Independent Thinking
Independence has been liberating. They thought it would be really difficult to put together a schedule and it was for this year. They now get about one call a day from teams wanting to play us. Holmoe calls him every day asking about playing in one venue or another, NFL venues for the most part. They have had a lot of interest from other schools asking how it is going for them. He did say if they are good enough to be in the top 12 at the end of the season they are eligible for the BCS. The deal to play TCU in Cowboys stadium is just about done and looks like it will be done.
They are really looking forward to the exposure from ESPN. They will have to play around the TV schedule at times which might include a Thursday night or late Saturday night game on occasion. Bronco was in San Diego the night of our game with them, staying in the Marriott, but could not find the game to watch it. The exposure all of them are looking forward to. Every game not televised by ESPN will be on BYUTV. It is liberating, said Bronco, to play whomever you want to play and not to be tied down by someone else.