HB Arnett's COUGAR SPORTSLINE 801 372 0819 hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission <mailto:hbarnett@xmission.com> PO Box 50424 Provo, Utah 84605 Vol. 27, Issue 40, July 2, 2007 Click <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type-450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions WHAT MENDENHALL HAS DONE IN JUST TWO SEASONS REALLY IS AMAZING It is no secret that we were highly skeptical of Bronco Mendenhall and his unique approach to running the BYU football program when he was first hired. We really didn't think it would fly. It looks like we were wrong. We started to realize that this guy may be for real when he did something that very few other coaches have done or would ever do. He threw his baby out with the bathwater last season when he scrapped his personal preference for his 3-3-5 defense and chucked it for the benefit of his team. That showed us that this guy may really be head coach material. Here are other things that he has done in just two years that appears to have BYU on the fast track to success. He established discipline. This was something that was lacking for the last 10 years. He brought former players into the program and let them embrace their heritage and legacy. With their involvement, he created a recruiting network with those same former players and has them involved in locating players all across the country that will fit the new BYU football mold. More Palatable He has been proactive in the public relations department. "Violation of team rules" certainly sounds more palatable to the public than "Honor Code" violations. The only time you ever hear that phrase used any more is when it is mandatory because something has hit the police blotter. The biggest thing that he has accomplished, however, in our opinion, is that he has taken what was the biggest weakness of the BYU football program and made it the strength of the program. Stay with us on this one and let us explain. Until Mendenhall, in our opinion, the biggest weakness of the program was its affiliation with the LDS Church and the concomitant code of code for athletes that came with it. This is not a debate about The Church and its beliefs, tenets and teachings, it is about how in the past they realistically made recruiting very talented football players, both LDS and non LDS an extremely difficult proposition for BYU football. It is amazing that in just two short years, Mendenhall has now branded BYU as a premium product because of those same perceived liabilities. The school of management doesn't have to look very far for a good case study for their students. Nature of Business BYU won't always win 11 games each season. We can guarantee that there will be years when fans start to wonder just how good of a coach Mendenhall really is. That is the nature of the business and his coaching acumen will fluctuate with the win-loss record. But while there will be occasional doubts concerning his coaching abilities, based on what he has done so far, there should be no doubts about his marketing abilities. Fans and supporters are embracing his stoicism and steadfastness. With his foray into summer firesides and his exceptional organization of his summer camps, he has somehow found a way to successfully couch Cougar football within the parameters of the Church. People have been waiting an entire lifetime for this. Mendenhall's approach to BYU football and the 11-2 season last year has given him a lot of football capital in the bank. We see that capital for the Cougars increasing. All Mendenhall has to do is consistently win 7-8 games a season and then about every third or fourth year, when he has a senior dominated team with a proven quarterback, turn in a big 10 or 11 win year. That is a formula that will give Mendenhall leg up on becoming a legend and also put some real money in his personal bank account. In our opinion, this year Mendenhall will have a seasoned and veteran team, but he doesn't have a proven quarterback. Seven or eight wins is how we see it, with the big money to be made the following year by BYU in the 2008 season. RECRUITING RIVER KEEPS RISING BYU added another five verbal commitments since our last newsletter. They include: Shiloah Te'o, 5-11, 190, Safety, Kahuku HS, HI Seta Pohahau, 6-0, 205, RB, Aragon HS, CA Brock Stringham, 6-6, 280, OL, Mountain Vista HS, CO Garrett Nicholson, 5-10, 180, DB, West HS, UT C.J. Santiago, 6-2, 215, punter, Orange Coast College, CA That brings the total of early commitments to 18. Others that have already given a verbal include: Kevan Bills, 6-3, 225 LB, Timpview HS, UT Jesse Taufi, 6-5, 330, OL, Long Beach City College, CA...Returned LDS missionary Masi Tuitama, 6-2, 210, LB, Pacifica HS, CA. Michael Alisa, 6-2, 210, LB, Timpview HS, UT. Atem Bol, 6-2, 205, WR, Bell HS, TX. Michael Yeck, 6-8, 260 OL, Keller HS, TX. Tolu Moala, 6-1, 230, LB, El Camino JC, CA, Returned LDS missionary Tevita Hola, 6-1, 310, DT, Snow College, Returned LDS missionary Jerry Bruner, 6-3, 225, RB/LB, Evergreen HS, Vancouver, WA Daniel Sorensen, 6-1, 200 Safety, Colton HS, CA Cameron Comer, 6-1, 180, DB, Springville HS, UT Justin Sorensen, 6-2, 215, K, Bingham HS, UT Austin Holt, 6-5, 230, TE, Bingham HS, UT Three Sophomore Commits BYU already has 3 commitments fro the 2009 recruiting class. They include: Adam Timo, 6-1, 175, RB, Snow Canyon HS, UT Jray Galeai, 6-0,185, Safety, Timpview/Kahuku HS Craig Bills, 6-2, 190, Safety, Timpview HS, UT REINING IN THE RECRUITING REVERIE If you haven't been keeping track, BYU already has 18 verbal commitments in the fold for the 2008 football recruiting year. They have at least three commitments in the bag for the 2009 recruiting class. This follows the new recruiting model instituted by Bronco Mendenhall beginning last year when he made a concentrated push to offer scholarships early and then get those early commitments. Bronco's method involves targeting recruits that can meet his stringent criteria for those who will represent the BYU football program, the university and the LDS Church. Recruiting has never looked so rosy. BYU fans have never been more excited. The model appears to be succeeding in all areas, except one, which remains to be proven. Based on what we have seen on paper, it is highly likely that this last test will also be passed, but in reality, no one really knows. We should start to get a clearer picture this season. The one question that seems to be forgotten is can any of these new Bronco recruits play? Coming off a remarkable 11-2 MWC championship season and a glittering Las Vegas Bowl win over Oregon, the sun is shining brightly on Mendenhall and the BYU Football program. The biggest evidence of that is the demand for tickets. Bought The Model We have bought into the infrastructure and organizational model that Mendenhall has instituted. How could you not be impressed? Before we go totally giddy and gaga, however, we still want to exercise some due diligence and see one or two more seasons of the system in action. That is because we still hold to our number one principle of college football: It is all about the players. If you don't have enough good ones, performing at a high enough level, you won't consistently win. BYU and Bronco Mendenhall certainly had enough good players performing at a high level last season. It turned what had been a four-year disaster into a fairy tale season. We give Mendenhall credit for working his magic with those players last season. Now we want to see him work that same magic in the next season or two, with his own players. Nobody wants to rain on the parade, but the magic of last year was accomplished almost entirely with Gary Crowton's players. It probably is a testament to how good a coach Mendenhall really is that he was able to take players that had underachieved and made them big winners. We think there is some validity to that, but we also think you have to keep talented players in the equation. Urban Meyer reaped the benefit of players left in the cupboard by Ron McBride at Utah. He rode those players to two big seasons and a BCS bonanza at Florida. We would have loved to see if he could have maintained that same level at Utah with players that he and his staff recruited. We will never know. We will know, however, in about two seasons, just how Mendenhall will fare with a roster of only players he has recruited. On Paper Again on paper, it is very exciting, but on the field, we still know nothing. That will start to change slightly this coming season and then we can truly judge whether we should fasten our seatbelt on the BYU bandwagon. Here is list of players from last year's championship team on both offense and defense that were all recruited and signed by Gary Crowton or walked on during his tenure: John Beck, Fui Vakapuna, Curtis Brown, Jonny Harline, Daniel Coats, Michael Reed, Matt Allen, Nate Meikle, Bryce Mahuika, Zac Collie, Dallas Reynolds, Ray Feinga, Jake Kuresa, Travis Bright. Only Sete Aulai, Mckay Jacobson and Manase Tonga, on offense, were signed by the new staff. On defense, we had some promising glimpses of Mendenhall recruits. Almost the entire defensive line was his. Ian Dulan, Romney Fuga, Jan Jorgensen and Russell Tialvea were all early Mendenhall recruits. The linebackers were almost all holdovers from the Crowton era. Cam Jensen, David Nixon, Bryan Kehl, Aaron Wagner and Markell Staffieri were Crowton guys. Kelly Poppinga came in under Mendenhall. The starting safeties from last year, Dustin Gabriel and Quinn Gooch were Crowton guys, while the corners, Justin Robinson and Ben Criddle started their BYU careers with Mendenhall. We definitely feel that recruiting under Mendenhall looks promising and maybe even a little exhilarating, but it still lacks two more years before it is proven. That will be done by the players on the field. It's A No Brainer, Cade Cooper Transfers Cade Cooper, the highly-touted jc quarterback transfer from Snow College in Utah, has decided to transfer again. It was a no-brainer. Cooper, who enrolled at BYU in January, will not be in the program this fall. Where he lands is still up in the air, but why he transferred isn't hard to figure out. He battled Max Hall for the starting job this past spring. He came in second. He still may have had a chance at unseating Hall this fall, but when he seriously injured his foot during the spring game, those chances went out the window. Instead, Cooper will be rehabilitating his foot this coming season at another school. Had Cooper been a John Elway or Tom Brady type qb, he may have been able to give Hall a run for his money in 2008, but he is no John Elway. He is good, but not an elite quarterback. For that matter, neither is Hall or his new backup Brendan Gaskins. There is no way that Cooper, coming off an injury and missing a year was going to overtake Hall or Gaskins, both of whom were going to gain a year of D-1 experience over Cooper. These are all competitive guys and they all want to play. It wasn't hard to read the cards and see that barring injuries to Hall and Gaskins, Cooper wasn't going to be in the BYU qb picture. It was a bad break, literally, that cost Cooper, but in our opinion, he is doing what is best for him and his departure from the program will have no impact this fall or beyond. Attrition in any program, including BYU's, is normal, but when that attrition is a quarterback, it attracts attention. BYU has had its share of qb attrition, especially this season. Besides Cooper, Jacob Bower also left the program and will play a year at Bakersfield JC and them more than likely surface again in 2008 at another Division I program. Before Cooper and Bower, it was Ben Olson transferring to UCLA. Other BYU qbs to transfer from Provo to other schools over the years are Drew Miller, to Montana, and Todd Mortensen to University of San Diego. Attrition at quarterback is normal for BYU. Here are some other quarterbacks that signed with the Cougars and didn't last: Kevin Gilbride, Lance Pendleton, Danny Southwick, Paul Shoemaker, Brian Vye and Gym Kimball. FOOTBALL FLUFF AND STUFF BYU released its fall roster last week. We noticed they have already switched incoming freshman Eathyn Manumaleuna from the offensive line to the defensive line. That says to us that there could still be some depth issues at that position. Manumaleuna will join David Angilau as the other freshman defensive lineman joining the team this year. BYU signed Star Lotulelei this February as a defensive lineman, but he isn't on the roster. There is no official word on why he isn't on the roster, but there were some previous concerns about him qualifying academically. There was some hope that Matangi Tong, the talented lineman and brother of running back Manase Tonga, would be back on the team this fall after some "violation of team rules" problems earlier this year. We would be willing to bet a bag of ipods that he won't be back this fall or any time soon. We are also not holding out any hope for Brian Soi and his academic issues. Of the most recent recruiting class, seven signees will be serving LDS missions before enrolling in school. They include; Famika Anae, Braden Brown, Aveni Leung Wai, Devin Mahina, Marcus Mathews and Houston Reynolds. Despite having plenty of recruiting suitors from the Pac 10, Big Twelve and other BCS teams, we have people telling us now that Sausan Shakerin, the extremely talented running back prospect from Alta HS in Sandy, UT, will likely stay in the state to play his college football. Those same people are now telling us that he will either choose Utah or BYU. We still think he is a long shot for the Cougars to land, but he certainly is worth the effort BYU has and continues to put forth in trying to land him. BASKETBALL BRIEFS Dave Rose announced that Terry Nashif will replace Walter Roese as a new assistant coach for the BYU basketball team. Nashif had been the director of basketball operations. His spot was recently filled by Tim LaComb, who comes from Utah where he worked in similar capacities for former Utah coach Ray Giacolleti. Mike Hall, the former Cougar player, was also interested in that job, but it went to LaComb, who also served as a manager for Rick Majerus. BYU has announced its non-conference schedule for the coming season. Sat Nov 10 Long Beach State at Long Beach Wed Nov 14 Idaho State at Provo Fri Nov 16 Jackson State at Provo Tue Nov 20 Hartford at Provo Fri Nov 23 Louisville at Las Vegas Sat Nov 24 either North Carolina or ODU at Las Vegas Sat Dec 1 Portland at Portland Wed Dec 5 Weber State at Provo Sat Dec 8 Michigan State at Salt Lake Wed Dec 12 Lamar at Provo Sat Dec 15 Pepperdine at Provo Fri Dec 21 Southern Utah at Provo Sat Dec 29 Boise State at Boise Thu Jan 3 Loyola Marymount at Provo Tue Jan 8 Wake Forest at Winston-Salem You might notice that Utah State is not on the schedule. It looks like Dave Rose won this scheduling war with the Aggies. He wanted to play them in Salt Lake City instead of going to Logan again. That is what will happen. BYU and USU will face each other in 2008 at Energy Solutions Arena. In 2009, they will play in Logan and then again in Provo in 2010.