A Guest Commentary on the BYU Recruiting Luncheon

This year is one of, if not the, best football recruiting class in the history of BYU.  There were several noteworthy things about the class, but my favorite part was: no surprises.  My father attended the luncheon, highlighting the class.  Here are his notes from the meeting:

I just returned from a Cougar Club luncheon at the stadium; easily 500 people there. After a nice lunch we had a film showing each recruit's highlight plays. Coach Mendenhall spoke for about half an hour and then Coach Tidwell (head of recruiting) answered questions for another half hour. None of the recruits were there, although four of them are in school.


Having attended three of these I noticed the differences immediately. First of all, with 11 wins and an impressive bowl victory over a good Pac 10 team the enthusiasm in the room was at a high level. You could feel the excitement. Bronco, on his video presention, pointed out that BYU was one of seven schools in the country that had been ranked in the final poll four straight years and one of four teams to win ten or more games each of the last four years. ( As a side line it was announced later that BYU is the only school in the country whose football and basketball teams have won 75% of their games the last four years.) Also, for the fifth year in a row we had a freshman all American. Another difference noted, last year Bronco was defending himself during his presentation; this year he did not have to. He isn't under the same criticism this year. And there was no mention of stars this year, an obvious difference from last year, when the lack of high star athletes was defended.

BYU has signed acceptance from 27 players; the NCAA allows 25 per year, but 4 of these players are going on missions before enrolling at BYU. There are also 8 players returning from their missions; 3 or 4 are home and the others will be back before the fall camp begins. That means that of 80 players on scholarship, 31 will be new this year; almost 40% of the players will not have been on the team last year.

The 27 recruits were from all over the country with 11 of them being from Utah. Half of those were ranked in the top 15 players in Utah. It seemed like a great recruiting class as time after time on the video we were told that the player was in the top 15 in the country at his position and a few even in the top ten. And we even have a running back that ran a 4.39 on a track in Alabama with electronic timing. When asked if he looked that fast, Tidwell said at least that fast. Also of interest, I did not notice one JC recruit which is a symbol of a strong program in good shape with their current players. There were some non Mormons that signed, including one from Arizona whose father has box seats at Sun Devil Stadium. He was Catholic I believe and was offered a scholarship by ASU. His parents came with him on his visit here and told him they wanted him to come here. They loved the school. There was also a non Mormon running back, I think from California, that is coming and is already in school. He has had his dreadlocks cut off to enroll. As expected the recruits all came from programs with great records, many of whom finished near the top in their state. It is always important to have kids on your team who expect to win because that is all they have ever done. Austin Ainge, a former basketball player at BYU and son of Danny Ainge, referred a player from Massachusetts which they signed. They also got a recruit from Georgia and Alabama from referrals. I think every recruit had at least two offers from BCS schools which is a little bit of a change from previous years. But then Jake Heaps, the #1 rated high school QB from Washington, got on the phone on his own and recruited players he knew to come here.

If you were a BYU fan, it was definitely a red meat day. The Cougar Club room was overflowing (another difference from last year), the excitement could not be missed, and the attitude from those asking questions was markedly different. But then it was a top 25 recruiting class for BYU.