HB Arnett's 801 372 - 0819 hbarnett@fiber.net 1391 West 800 South - Orem, Utah 84058 Vol. 34, Issue 37 -April 14, 2014 Click <http://cougarclicks.com/product/Order-Cougar-Sportsline?ID=3173> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions This Guy was a BYU Recruiting Guru and Didn't Know It Jenkin Lloyd Jones (November 14, 1843 - September 12, 1918) was a Unitarian minister in the United States. He founded All Souls Unitarian Church in Chicago, as well as its community outreach organization, the Abraham Lincoln Centre. A radical modernist, he joined the "Unity Men" and stressed a creedless "ethical basis" as the common element for churches. He tried to move Unitarianism away from a Christian focus and became a prominent pacifist at the time of World War I. He was a founder and long-time editor of Unity, a liberal religious weekly magazine. President Gordon B. Hinckley made him relevant in Mormon circles by quoting Jenkins in a couple of the LDS Prophet's talks. The quote most often referenced by President Hinckley is: "Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just ordinary people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride." ― Jenkin Lloyd Jones Unbeknownst to President Hinckley and Jones, that quote also made Jones a BYU recruiting guru. The reality of life in general and BYU football recruiting in particular, is that most highly touted (by parents) children and highly touted (by fans) football recruits grow up to be just ordinary people and ordinary college football players. In BYU Football's case, there wasn't a more highly touted triumvirate than Jake Heaps, Ross Apo and Zac Stout of the Iggy's press conference fame. All three, as predicted by Jones over 100 years ago, grew up to be highly ordinary college football players. All of which brings us to the most recent recruiting smoke, dust, cinders and thrilling bursts of speed as it applies to BYU football. His name is Porter Gustin. They don't come more highly touted than this kid. Click <http://utahvalley360.com/2014/04/11/the-4-star-uscflorida-state-recruit-jil ted-by-byu/> here for proof. The 6-5, 240 pound linebacker from Salem Hills HS, as in Salem, Utah, just 12 miles south of the BYU campus, doesn't have a PhD behind his name, but he does have a USC, FSU and LSU there. Those are just three of 26 schools that have football scholarship offers on the table for Gustin. What makes it interesting, especially to BYU football fans, is that BYU has not yet offered a scholarship. Hence the touting and pouting by recruiting services and Cougar fans. As one who has been around the recruiting block for 30 plus years as it pertains to college football in general and BYU football in particular, in my estimation, not only this kid, but any BYU football recruit in general, has a 15 percent chance of being the next Haloti Ngata or Star Lotululei that BYU missed on and an 85 percent chance of just being an ordinary college football player. That's not meant to be disrespectful of this latest can't miss prospect, but as an evaluation of recruiting in general. And remember what Jenkin Lloyd Jones said. Most kids do miss. Even if BYU is wrong about this guy and he turns out to be the next Mike Singletary or Dick Butkus, in football, it doesn't really matter because it takes 22 very good players to make a very good football team. The only exception to that rule is if the kid is an exceptional quarterback and BYU misses on him. That doesn't happen very often when it comes to LDS high school QB prospects. Now when it comes to college basketball, one prospect can spell the difference between a WCC also ran and an NCAA elite eight. I'm still pouting about Parker, as in Jabari, going to Duke. Here's one more Jenkin Lloyd Jones' football reference. He was also right about the relationship between Bronco Mendenhall and BYU football fans. It requires a high degree of tolerance from both sides of the relationship. I am more than willing to tolerate Mendenhall's apparent recruiting decision on Gustin, the latest can't miss prospect because he already has Fred Warner, Troy Hinds and Tyler Cook entering the program this fall. I am betting that those three players will turn out to be trio of beautiful vistas. BYU Potentially Dropping Sports Responses Ranged from Bodies to Baptisms Last week I wrote a few paragraphs about the possibility of BYU-Provo someday dropping sports. The piece was generated by the fact that BYU-Idaho and now BYU-Hawaii have both dropped college athletics. I must say that the responses I received from just mentioning that possibility were extremely interesting. Those responses ranged from bodies (like over my dead one before that will happen) to baptisms (as in never because BYU Sports is essential to LDS missionary work). And then there were a few that were thoughtful, articulated well and actually intriguing. I have asked permission of the authors of two of those responses to reprint their thoughts on the subject. Their only caveat was that I don't use their names. See, Cougar Sportsline is just like the US Department of Justice. We both have witness protection programs. The two reader's responses to BYU potentially dropping sports are printed below. I might mention that both of these men are academically, ecclesiastically and professionally credible individuals. Translated, that means that they currently don't still reside in their parents' basements or in a dorm room on campus. HB, Last week, I spoke with a prominent LDS legal scholar. Because of the controversy surrounding same-sex marriage and gay rights, he foresees possibly the following being challenged: The Church's tax-exempt status, BYU's receipt of federal funds (research grants, Pell grants, federally-guaranteed student loans), and even BYU's actual academic accreditation. In my opinion, as the pressure grows, we may see a replay of the blacks and priesthood days, with gay protests at BYU games and pressure on our opponents to boycott scheduling BYU. Finally, ESPN may drop our contract, when the pressure and boycotts reach a certain point. If our religious beliefs prevent us from being part of a Conference and if those beliefs narrow the field/number of our opponents (i.e. Catholic schools that play football), home and away football attendance and revenues will dramatically decrease. BYU and the Church do subsidize BYU sports. A full 21 percent of the athletic department's budget comes from the student tuition allocation. Remove that allocation, and the Church could reduce or maintain tuition levels. I think the gay rights and same-sex marriage issues will more likely result in the death of BYU sports than player unionization and the payment of salaries to players. Take care, Name withheld HB, The big problem for BYU is that it plays in the BCS neighborhood, but it has standards that are tougher than those applied by the Ivy League schools or the service academies. BYU's standards mostly go to character and they are stringent indeed, but BYU also has academic standards. Students who are athletes are expected to be student-athletes. You won't find special majors for athletes (as at Duke) or laughable classes and standards (as we recently saw at North Carolina). So, if you're a big, tattooed dope who seeks anonymous sex on a nightly basis and has the reading ability of a third-grader--a not-uncommon "type" at our nation's elite football and basketball factories--then you aren't going to get in the door at Harvard, or at Army, or at BYU. That's fine for Harvard and Army because they aren't expected to compete at the highest levels. But those expectations do exist for BYU. We have reached the point, in college athletics, where the only requirement is athletic ability. You can be a truly breathtaking idiot, unable to count to ten, unable to recite the alphabet, with three kids out of wedlock (in high school) and with arms covered with obscene graffiti. You can be that person, and someone will recruit you if you have a good 40 time and if you have NFL potential. If you don't believe me, read this: http://www.chatsports.com/michigan-wolverines/a/Yuri-Wrights-tweets-are-why- Michigan-stopped-recruiting-him-10-2-1807 This kid was rejected by Michigan, but he was scooped up by Colorado. And if Colorado had passed on him, someone else would have taken him. And he's hardly unique. He shouldn't be going to college anywhere; he's almost certainly not able to do high school level work. You don't want to live next door to this guy, and you certainly don't want to find out that your daughter is in the same dorm with him. But dozens of students like him, every year, will be fought over by major programs, and recruiting services and ESPN will celebrate the schools that are able to grab the most four- and five-star recruits, regardless of whether they can add and subtract and write a coherent paragraph. We should recall that Dexter Manley, a major star at Oklahoma State and with the Washington Redskins, was eligible for four seasons at OSU. Later it was disclosed that he was essentially unable to read. Players like Frank Gore (Miami) and Vince Young (Texas) have Wonderlic scores that place them at the second-grade level intellectually, but they got through college just fine, as long as they performed on the football field. Then there are the criminals. Back in 1998 Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger wrote a book called "Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL." You can still buy a copy on Amazon. Benedict and Yaeger checked a sample consisting of a third of the players on National Football League teams during the 1996/97 season, and they discovered that more than one-in-five had been arrested or indicted for serious crimes ranging from fraud to homicide. They also discovered that the NFL--at least back then--continued to employ players with multiple arrests and multiple convictions, just as long as they were still capable of playing winning football. The problems don't start at the pro level. Under Urban Meyer's program at the University of Florida, there were 31 arrests, many for serious crimes. A former Meyer player, Aaron Hernandez, has now been arrested for murder. Meyer won't talk about that. The problems have continued at Ohio State. And when Meyer was asked about this he said, "I don't read, I don't really get involved with following stuff." All righty then. Finally we get to sex. Sex is something you're not allowed to have at BYU unless you're married, and then it has to be confined to your legal spouse. That one little rule eliminates a whole lot of potential recruits for BYU, and boy has the culture changed in this area over the past thirty years or so. The press doesn't bother to report it either; that wouldn't be cool. Calvin Murphy has 14 kids out of wedlock by 9 women. Marshall Faulk has six kids by three women, all out of wedlock. Scott Skiles has been charged with felonies, has spent time in jail, and has at least six illegitimate kids. None of that stopped three different NBA teams from hiring him as their head coach. This is the culture that BYU is up again. Anything goes, as long as you just win, baby. It's cool, and it's nobody's business. But there is still one thing that's really uncool, and that's talking about religion. Just ask Tim Tebow. He's "controversial." He's not a hero, like all of those homosexual athletes who have "come out." Most of the athletes at BYU, especially on the basketball team, are actual college students who are actually capable of doing college-level work and who actually graduate. They are not sociopaths; they have not populated the world with illegitimate kids; and most of them will be gainfully employed, solid citizens soon after graduation. BYU expects and requires that. It makes BYU unusual and it puts the school at a tremendous competitive disadvantage when it comes to recruiting. College athletics, these days, is strictly about alumni relations and making money. Recruit the big nasty gladiators, watch them get the alumni excited, and watch them go pro after one year. Pretend that they're "students." Everyone will cheer, just as they cheered that Kentucky versus Connecticut game the other night. This culture has become so degraded that I'm not sure BYU can or should try to compete in it for very long. BYU has long had one of the best athletic departments in America. This past fall it finished eleventh in the nation in the Director's Cup, which measures an athletic department's overall performance. BYU beat UCLA, Washington, Oregon, USC, Michigan, Texas, Texas A&M, and all but ten other schools in America. Athletically, BYU has always been and remains a power. But BYU has been shut out from the big-money conferences because it opposes gay marriage, because it won't play on Sunday, and because it's religious. Remember, if you're religious you are "controversial." You're probably also clinging to a gun. Academically and athletically, BYU leaves Colorado and Utah in the dust--but the Pac-12 wasn't about to reward a religion that worked hard (and successfully) to defeat a gay marriage referendum in California. So the University of Utah--it was 79th in the Director's Cup standings for the fall--gets that check for $20 million a year and pretends that it's a big deal. Should BYU even be hanging in this bad neighborhood? College basketball and college football--that's really the wrong side of town. Eventually it's entirely possible that BYU's leaders will come to that conclusion, and I can't say they'll be wrong. Thanks for letting me rant, Name withheld Four Game Fade BYU will host a quarterfinal match of the MPSF Volleyball playoffs this Saturday in Provo. They will be coming off a four game fade and losing streak. The Cougars lost a pair of back to back matches in Hawaii two weeks ago and this past weekend were defeated on the road again by both UC Santa Barbara and UCLA. BYU will be hosting No. 8 seeded USC. Television Timetable BYU vs. Loyola Marymount (Baseball) Thursday, April 17 at Provo First Pitch: 6:00 pm MDT TV: BYUtv BYU vs. Weber State (Softball) Friday, April 18 at Provo First Pitch: 5:00 pm MDT TV: BYUtv BYU vs. Loyola Marymount (Baseball) Saturday, April 19, at Provo First Pitch: 1:00 pm MDT TV: BYUtv BYU vs. USC (Volleyball MPSF Quarterfinals) Saturday, April 19 at Provo Match Start: TBA TV: Most likely BYUtv
