Coach Bronco Mendenhall has asked the team to strive for perfection this year.  Perfection in their assignments, perfection in their effort, perfection in their focus.  The national media has taken this quest and imposed a destination, a BCS bowl game.

Taking a few weeks (months) off to regroup, Cougar Legion is putting its best foot forward to cover what could be a special year and what is already a unique program.  Anyone mentioning the Cruiser episode gets slapped with a wet tuna.  End of story.

Since there is no easy way to catch up, I’ll hit on some things I’ve found interesting in the off-season thus far and we’ll take it a bit at a time, because..well..who are we kidding, we still have about 60 days of summer doldrums until LES rocks again (no… Stadium of Fire doesn’t count.) Let’s get going.

1. Manase Tonga - In what is possibly the biggest story of the off-season, Manase Tonga was ruled academically ineligible for the 2008 season.  Tonga was set-up for a stellar senior season, paving the way for Unga to roll, creating problems for the defense in the redzone and protecting Max Hall on route to “perfection.”  Another player needs to step up, and the spotlight is on fellow senior Fui Vakapuna.  Fui needs to step up and block with the same intensity as his running game.  If he has his eyes on the NFL, he needs to realize his best shot is as a fullback.  Other players who could make an appearance are Isaac Taylor and Kelly Bills.

2. Honors are rolling in - A quick glance at BYU’s football page reveals the following nominations: Outland Trophy (Dallas Reynolds and Ray Feinga), Lombardi (Ray Feinga, Jan Jorgensen, Dennis Pitta, Dallas Reynolds), Lott (Jan Jorgensen), Maxwell (Max Hall.)  Most polls are ranking BYU in the 12-20 range, putting BYU in a great position for a BCS bowl game and, dare I say National Championship game?  If we are going to blame Jeff Reynolds for the lack of recognition of the players, he deserves a round of applause for the accolades coming to BYU right now.

3. Attrition - A few months ago Coach Mendenhall told the media that there were only a handful of scholarships available for the 2009.  However, with a good amount of scholarships handed out and even more in the wings, where are they all coming from?  If you want the full scoop on who is missing, I’d head over to Total Blue Sports to get all the details, but a handful of players have quietly slipped away from BYU (for example, David Angilau will be playing at Snow college next year.) As far as I can tell, the cases are all unrelated, but more spots are opening up on the team for new players.  I feel safe saying not everything is perfect at BYU, but only because it is run by humans.

4. NFL - Quick update of 2007 graduates. Kehl has signed with the Giants and doing very well in camps thus far.  With a high turnover of linebackers, Kehl may see the field in a meaningful capacity this year.  Poppinga is still with the Dolphins for now, even listed on some fan sites in the 2 deep.  Staffieri was recently cut from the Eagles.

I’ll go in depth about recruiting here in the next couple days because so much has happened and changed in the recruiting world.

Glad to be back.