I had to run home during work today and heard Jake & Jim on 1280 The Zone pose a question to the listeners that I want to modify for our purposes here:

If you could pay homage to any four past BYU athletes by hanging their jerseys in your sports den, who would they be? 

Don’t worry if somebody else steals one of yours; redundancy doesn’t matter. It’s your dream, so choose your four and put ‘em down here.

Here’s mine:

1. Ryan Millar: greatest all-around men’s volleyball player to come through Provo. May be the first to win one as a player and a coach, if this year’s squad can live up to expectations.
2. Erin Thorn: not only is she my cousin, she also had more impact on the BYU women’s basketball program than any other player.
3. John Beck: helped bring BYU football back from the dead. Beck was also a class act from day 1, even when people were all over him in the losing years. He deserved all of his senior-year accolades.
4. Steve Young: the consumate BYU ambassador and quintessential success story. His athleticism revolutionized the quarterback position.

Bronco’s recent comments about winning the in-state recruiting battle and anticipating to never lose the in-state recruiting battle again have drawn the ire of Little Brother. Here’s a hilarious article in the Salt Lake Tribune from Michael C. Lewis, the Ute Homer.

My favorite part is how the Utah coaches totally try to refute the idea that they lost the recruiting battle with BYU when it’s totally obvious that they did. They don’t even believe it themselves, you can tell. Enjoy a chuckle at the Utes’ expense.

The final tally is in and there are no surprises to report. In all, BYU signed 24 players to National letters of intent this morning. Here’s the final rundown of future Cougars:

• Famika Anae (UNLV, Colorado, Texas Tech and Hawaii)
  6-5, 260, OL
  Provo, UT (Timpview HS)
  
• David Angilau (Colorado, Colorado State, New Mexico and Wyoming)
  6-2, 255, DL
  Longmont, CO (Niwot HS)
• Tyler Beck (Arizona, Nebraska, Oregon, Portland State, UCLA and Utah)
  6-1, 205, LB
  Murrieta, CA (Vista Murrieta HS)
• Brannon Brooks (Alabama, Boston College, Fresno State and Oregon)
  5-10, 175, DB
  Elk Grove, CA (Elk Grove HS)
• Braden Brown (Oregon, UCLA, USC, Utah State, Washington and Washington State)
  6-6, 230, TE
  Salt Lake City, UT (Highland HS)
• J.J. Di Luigi (Colorado, Colorado State, Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State)
  5-9, 188, RB
  Canyon Country, CA (Canyon HS)
• Scotty Ebert (Utah, Utah State and Weber State)
  6-0, 185, WR
  Sandy, UT (Jordan HS)
• Kaneakua Friel (Boise State, Oregon and Nevada)
  6-4, 220, TE
  Honolulu, HI (Kamehameha HS)
• Austen Jorgensen (Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Boise State, Georgia Tech, Arizona State, Utah, Illinois, Cal and Notre Dame)
  6-3, 210, LB
  Mt. Pleasant, UT (North Sanpete HS)
• Ryan Kessman (Arizona State, Hawaii, Miami (Fla.), Oregon, Texas Tech and UCLA)
  6-0, 190, WR
  San Jacinto, CA (San Jacinto HS)
• Star Lotulelei (UNLV and Utah)
  6-3, 245, DL
  South Jordan, UT (Bingham HS)
• Levi Mack (Arizona State, Nebraska, Oregon State, Texas, Texas Tech and Utah State)
  6-5, 315, OL
  Thatcher, AZ (Eastern Arizona JC)
• Devin Mahina (Colorado, Oregon and UCLA)
  6-6, 225, TE
  Upland, CA (Upland HS)
• Eathyn Manumaleuna (Oregon)
  6-2, 269, OL
  Provo, UT (Timpview HS)
• Marcus Mathews (Cal, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State and Utah)
  6-4, 200, WR
  Beaverton, OR (Southridge HS)
• Jason Munns (Arizona State, Nebraska, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, Washington, Washington State and Utah)
  6-5, 225, QB
  Kennewick, WA (Southridge HS)
• Gary Nagy (Arizona, Boise State, New Mexico State, Washington and Utah)
  6-1, 175, S
  Kahuku, HI (Kahuku HS)
• Jordan Pendleton (Utah)
  6-2, 195, S
  South Jordan, UT (Bingham HS)
• G Pittman (Colorado State, Oregon, San Diego State, UTEP, Washington State and Utah)
  5-9, 175, DB
  Rancho Cucamonga, CA (Rancho Cucamonga HS)
• Houston Reynolds (Arizona State, Iowa, Oregon, Stanford, Utah and Washington State)
  6-2, 295, OL
  Provo, UT (Timpview HS)
• Jordan Smith (Arizona State, Oregon, Utah and Utah State)
  6-4, 200, WR
  Spanish Fork, UT (Spanish Fork HS)
• Steven Thomas (Utah)
  5-11, 180, S
  Chino Hills, CA (Chino Hills HS)
• Manaaki Vaitai (Baylor, Colorado State, Houston, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Texas A&M and TCU)
  6-3, 299, OL
  Euless, TX (Trinity HS)
• Aveni Leung Wai
  6-1, 220, LB
  Aiea, HI (Grossmont JC)

This was the most anticlimactic Signing Day that I can remember, but it’s a solid class for BYU that ranks somewhere in the 40’s nationally. This coming season is critical for Bronco Mendenhall’s recruiting momentum because a lot of Crowton’s players are gone and future recruits will want to see Coach Mendenhall win with his own players before committing to the program.

On a side note, I was pleased to see how many players BYU got that Oregon was recruiting. Nice to see the bowl smackdown paying off somewhat. Forget Simi Fili. Those Cottonwood kids get easily dazzled by PAC-10 money and prestige. BYU will be putting the wood to the PAC-10 many times in the next few years.

Bronco Mendenhall announced today Matangi Tonga has been suspended indefinitely for violation of team rules. I guess this means that Tonga will probably be suspended for the first game of the 2009 season, since that’s usually what happens when players violate team rules during the offseason.

This is an interesting issue because it raises a lot of questions that, so far, have no publicized answers. Indefinite suspension usually means criminal activity or major bucking of non-law-related team rules. However, Tonga’s unique position–of mission age, but electing to wait one more year so he can play another year with his brother, Manase–this could mean a number of things:

1. Is the suspension serious enough to prompt Matangi to just go on a mission?
2. If this involves the law, will he still be eligible to serve a mission?
3. If he’s not eligible to serve a mission, will he be kicked out of school or will he just return to the football team and serve whatever suspension?

BYU loses big in the football aspect if he’s kicked out of school and can’t come back to the team. Matangi Tonga is a big-time talent that will have a shot at the NFL after college. You hate to lose a player of his caliber for any reason. If he elects to go ahead and serve a mission, Bronco’s carefully calculated incoming/outgoing recruiting plan gets a wrench in the works. If he serves a suspension and remains with the team for next season, a less experienced player is going to have to step in and fill his shoes.

It’s gonna be interesting to see how this plays out. If anyone gets any news on the subject, let us know.

Fans in attendance for both men’s volleyball matches this weekend saw two very different Cougar teams.

On Friday night, the Cougs were crisply executing their offense and defense while minimizing errors in a convincing win over the UCI Anteaters. UCI was sharp as a marshmallow, committing errors by the bucket load. The final score indicated as much: 30-21, 30-22, 30-27.

Saturday night was a complete role reversal, but it didn’t start that way. BYU coasted to an easy win in game 1, 30-26. You could tell Irvine was much sharper than on Friday, but the Cougars were still poised for the sweep if they continued playing reasonably well. They didn’t. BYU all of sudden starting hitting everything out (22 service errors, 33 hitting errors) and couldn’t get an effective block going. The Cougs managed to fight hard in game 4 (31-29) and force a 5^th game after dropping games 2 (23-30) and 3 (31-33), but Irvine proved the sharper team that night and polished off BYU in the 5^th, 15-8.

Everybody will look at the hitting errors and say, “What is up with BYU’s big guns?” The truth is that Yamil Perez had a horrific night setting the ball, in large part due to the inability of BYU to effectively receive serve. Perez continually had to chase errant passes away from the net, which took BYU out of its offense and allowed Irvine to key on blocking the outside hitters. Russell Holmes and Rodnei Santos couldn’t get anything going because Perez couldn’t get them the ball off bad passes.

Overall, I still feel great about BYU’s chances of winning the national championship. Irvine played probably one of their best matches of the year and BYU couldn’t play much worse than they did, yet BYU still took them to 5 games. I hate moral victories and you certainly have to win it on the court, but I’m not hitting the panic button. Shawn Patchell and Ryan Millar will have the Cougs ready come the 13^th to put the wood to Cal Baptist again.

Allow me also to briefly lament the lack of fan talent at BYU volleyball games. Knowing when to cheer is easy. Everybody can do it. Knowing how to cheer is a different matter altogether. There were moments on Saturday when the Cougars’ shoulders were slumping and frustration was building. Those are the moments when the fans can really make the difference. There were moments when a united “B-Y-U!” cheer would’ve provided a huge mental boost to the team, but the cheer died on the lips of a few because everybody foolishly thought that making noise while Irvine served was somehow helping (it wasn’t after about half of the match on Friday). Maybe it would have made the difference, maybe not. The point is that fans have a responsibility to support the team. It was a shame to witness a lost opportunity by the home crowd to make a real difference. The SCL gospel must reach the masses!