When Bronco Mendenhall was hired to be the 13th Head Coach of Brigham Young Football in December of 2004 many peoples doubted his capabilities to recruit potential student-athletes.  He never really recruited as a Defensive Coordinator at BYU, he was basically an X's and O's type of guy.  But, I firmly believed when Bronco was hired that he was going to be a good recruiter.  The reason?  Vince Feula.

Die-hard Cougar fans will remember when Bronco made his only recruiting visit of the year to BYU's #1 Defensive priority and that was the 4-star recruit out of Cerritos JC, Mr. Feula.

Feula looked as though to be a done deal for the enemy up north, Utah.  Mendenhall went with Crowton, and Steve Kaufusi.  Then after that the rest is history.  Feula didn't necessarily live up to all his billing but he was very good still.  But Mendenhall was one of the main reasons Feula made his decision to play for BYU.

An actual photo of Walt Williams

I bring this up because recruiting at BYU used to be a whole lot different.  Before, the coaching staff would wait for a talented JC player/high school who didn't necessarily have the grades or the desire to go to BYU, but was very talented so BYU would take a chance.  Nine times out of ten they would bite us in the butt, and the players would never show up.  Ask Paul Tidwell about guys like Eddie Scipio and Walt Williams, those players are internet legends.

When Crowton's 2004 class came it was one of the most talented classes ever at BYU....on paper.  The class never really produced much other than Austin Collie, Todd Watkins, and Ray Feinga.  That class was basically the demise of Crowton with the off-field turmoil surrounded by that group which paved the way for many of Bronco's tactics today.

Now when a potential recruit meets with Bronco Mendenhall to play at BYU, its not Bronco flabergasting all this stuff that the recruit wants to hear.  Bronco is making the recruit sell himself to why he wants to play at BYU.  He emphasizes that BYU is a unique place and one that requires a full commitment.  And if you decide to live by the commitment to the fullest, Bronco believes that you will be rewarded on the field and off.  Bronco is such a down to earth guy and yet to the point that its almost impossible for these recruits to deny him.

Now instead of relying on signing day commits who might not be eligible we are getting at least 90% of the class to be eligible on average, and they are all players who are just yearning to play for football for one of the most storied programs in all of College Football.

The sky is the limit for this program.  People around the nation need to take notice that BYU is back.  2006 was no joke season, the team is going to build on that this year and in the future.  The fans, players, and the coaches all believe that BYU is a BCS-caliber team now it's time to go out and prove it but it all starts with recruiting.  From being a coach who just knew defense and never showed an interest in recruitng, to now locking up 20 commits in Mid-July let's just say Bronco knew all along what he was going to do, and he proved the nay sayers wrong.

Coming soon I'm going to post a 2008 Recruiting Dashboard with the current commits, top targets remaining, and other information so watch for that.  Go Cougs!

--Mitch