A lot of focus is put on BYU’s recruiting in the off season, seeing which holes need to be filled by incoming freshman and Junior College transfers. In writing a recent post, a noticed a large amount of players listed that have walked on. The list is by no means final and some will likely not make the team. Who knows, the next Ben Criddle or Nate Meikle may be in this group.

Here are the names and the information I was able to dig up:

Cortney Barton (5′9, 200 WR/KR/PR): We have heard of this guy before. He is the big-haired speedster that will likely be returning punts and kick-offs this year. You can check out his highlights here. He has good size for a returner and great speed.

Matt Marshall (5′11, 185 WR): Appears to be the QB from Skyline in 2005. He was All-state QB and appears to have made the switch to wide receiver.

Griffin Miller (6′2 185 WR): Stand-out basketball player at Timpview. He has only played football since 2005. I was unable to find any 2006 stats on him.

Blake Morgan (6′0 185 DB): Great player out of Colorado’s Greeley West HS. Morgan rushed for 1623 yards, had 540 receiving yards, and scored 27 touchdowns on offense and picked off 6 passes on defense. He was All-State on defense.

Chris Muehlmann (6′0 200 DS): According to my research, he played safety at Snow. He is listed as a deep-snapper on BYU’s site, not sure if that is correct.

Matt Shirley (6′5 200 TE): Shirley played WR and linebacker during his prep days in Flagstaff, AZ. He caught 29 passes for 435 yards and 7 TDs and had 64 tackles (and 2 sacks) on defense.

Brian Smith (K): Too many Brian Smith’s playing football, can’t find any info. Another kicker is always good in a shaky kicking situation. CJ Santiago, a JC walk-on, is a good punter, but his place kicking skills are unknown at this point.

I know there are several others (Wolfey, Fendry, etc.) but they are not on the list.

My 3 Cents: If you have any information on these guys or any other walk-on not listed, please send me an email or leave a comment here. I can be reached at morethantwocents@gmail.com

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Cade Cooper is leaving BYU. The Deseret News is reporting that Cooper has spoken with Coach Bronco Mendenhall and has been granted his release from the program. Continue Reading »

If you haven’t yet seen the article on Scout.com (I found it via Cougarfan), Austin Holt is being courted by other schools in spite of his verbal commitment to BYU. The weird part is that he’s acting like his commitment to BYU isn’t a commitment at all. The article points out Holt’s active dialog with Stanford and that Holt likes what he sees with Stanford. He’s also getting attention from UCLA and Florida. Wait, um…you commit to a school and then take other recruiting trips? How do you even still have a “top 4″ list?

This quote just blows my mind:

“BYU has to be number one for me right now,” he maintains. “They were the first ones to offer me; they did all that stuff. I committed to them. The other three that I have, they are all right there.“

Right where, Mr. Holt? If you told BYU that you would play for them, why are you keeping other schools on the line? Does that make any sense at all?

Austin Holt is an outstanding talent, but what kind of loose garbage is floating around in this kid’s head? This even goes beyond the fickleness of Haloti Ngata. At least Ngata had enough of a conscience to be ashamed of defecting, so he didn’t tell anyone. Holt seems to not even grasp that when you commit to a school, you’re supposed be done with recruiting. Sure, some kids flip-flop a la Haloti Ngata, but those kids have usually been taught that flip-flopping is an embarrassing sign of moral weakness. Even if they go through with it, they still know that what they did was lame. This whole episode has me shaking my head thinking, “Kids these days…” And I’m only 27.

Another head-scratcher from the article:

Is Stanford then a serious and viable option for the nation’s #2 tight end?

“Very much. They’re at the top with me,” Holt states. “They offered me barely when I was into my junior year. When Coach Harbaugh came in, I called him like a week into his coaching job. We talked for a while, and it was good. They have still recruited me, and I still get text messages from all the coaches - Coach Harbaugh, Coach Anderson and Coach Drevno - a couple times a week. I keep in good contact with them.”

Someone needs to intervene here. Odds are that someone who knows Austin Holt or his family is going to find this article and pass it on to him or his parents, so I plead with you to point out how lame he looks right now and encourage him to honor his commitment. Point out the fact that BYU’s offense features the tight end position in the passing game. Remind him that BYU is a program on the rise, not just talking about being on the rise like Stanford. Point out the serious nature of a commitment and the importance of being a man of your word. As an LDS missionary, how will he be able to look someone investigating the Church in the eye and ask him or her to make commitments if he himself flaked on a big commitment? This is absolutely a matter of integrity and Austin Holt should understand that his is at stake.

I was actually preparing a different post and saw a news release by BYU:

Cade Cooper is transferring

I don’t think anyone saw this coming. Cooper has to sit out a year due to injury anyways (which would have been required regardless of injury if he transfers to a D1 School.)

Cooper lost the starting job to Max Hall in spring and suffered a season ending injury. Brenden Gaskins will likely be Hall’s back up this season unless Jason Munns is able to overcome him.

My 3 Cents: I’m literally in shock. Cooper is a local guy and a BYU fan, but he wants to see the field. Next year all three quarterbacks would have been Juniors and Cooper would have had a long way to go to ever start a game. It is sad, I think everyone was excited he was here. I can’t help wonder if he realized he was too far behind the curve or didn’t feel he got a fair shake like Bower.

Best of luck to Cade wherever he ends up!

The term pipeline in NCAA recruiting refers to a school/part of the country that a college seems to mine for prospects and does so successfully. Due to NCAA restrictions, college coaches are unable to contact prospects at will through most of the year and must rely on the high school coach to pass along information and find out how the student athlete is doing. The trust between the two can make or break the deal for many players.

BYU has been effectively recruiting from Timpview High school in Provo and Kahuku in Hawaii.

2007: 3 Timpview and 1 Kahuku.
2008: 2 Timpview and 1 Kahuku.
2009: 1 Timpview and 1 Kahuku.

From 2007-2009, BYU will get a safety every year from Kahuku, the powerhouse of Hawaii.

The latest additions, one in 2008 and one in 2009, both come from one of these schools.

Craig Bills (6′2 202) recently committed for the class of 2009. This now brings the tally up to 3, the same number as the second best MWC team has for 2008. Bills, who plays for Timpview, is the only sophomore in the state of Utah to be All-State, with 84 tackles, 6 interceptions and 10 pass deflections. This kid is special and comes from a great BYU football family, his older brother KC played for BYU, Kelly is on the roster at DB, and Kevin just committed to BYU a couple weeks ago at DE. He wants to continue playing safety, but if he bulks up too much more he may have to move to OLB.

The other new recruit is one I have been watching for several months. Shiloah Te’o (5′11, 190, 4.5) is a great prospect out of Kahuku and one tough safety. He and Sorensen are both dominating safeties and will have the opportunity to fight for time as freshman as the top 4 safeties graduate after this season. Shiloah, an amazing get on his own, will also help BYU in recruiting one of the best players out of Hawaii..ever. Manti Te’o, his cousin, already holds offers from USC, ND, UCLA, etc.

Watch Shiloah knock kids silly here.*

My 3 Cents: BYU is loading up at Safety, and some people are wondering if BYU is headed back towards a 3-3-5. I highly doubt it, I think BYU is just working to fill in gaps that are being created, not changing the alignment.

*The highlight video is non-YouTube for the poor BYU students who are blocked from it.