Weighing in on Nelson
Well I get back from a few days off and it seems the world of BYU/Utah football is buzzing with news that Utah State QB Riley Nelson is going to transfer to BYU when he returns from his mission.
I had the pleasure of covering Nelson when he was at Logan High and I was amazed he wasn't more heavily recruited. The guy is a player and he showed some of what he could do after he earned the starting job during the 2006 season with the Aggies. Many of us, and fans too, probably assumed when he packed his bags for his mission he was packing up his Aggie gear for good. Now he is going to be in the mix of quarterback battles at BYU.
The immediate concern now, rather than worrying about how the Utes are going to stop the guy when the teams play, is how the recruitment of Riley happened. According to my co-worker's Jay Drew's report in today's paper, there were "casual conversations" between BYU coaches and Logan High coach Mike Favero that led to Monday's announcement.
So were the Cougars wrong in recruiting Nelson? Not in my view. I'd say Mendenhall wasn't thinking things all the way through when he said he wouldn't recruit athletes on missions. Really, the way recruiting is getting more and more competitive these days there are no safe havens anymore, and I guess we can expect now that goes for athletes on missions.
The thing other coaches need to be concerned with is how the church is going to handle such recruitings. Supposedly, Nelson's mission president approved the contact between BYU and Nelson. I have to wonder if such permission would be granted to BYU's biggest rival, Utah? What if the contact was coming from a school totally out of the area, such as Nebraska? Or a smaller school that doesn't have the wow factor of the Division I programs? Is the church going to treat all schools equally or give BYU, its private institution, favored access?
Obviously Riley isn't the first athlete who has changed his mind about where he'll go to college following a mission (for the Utes most recently was Isley Filiaga's decision to attend Utah after his mission, following a year at BYU) and we can't be naive to think athletes haven't been recruited while on missions by BYU coaches or others, but how much is the church going to get involved in approving such matters? I guess we're all about to find out.
I had the pleasure of covering Nelson when he was at Logan High and I was amazed he wasn't more heavily recruited. The guy is a player and he showed some of what he could do after he earned the starting job during the 2006 season with the Aggies. Many of us, and fans too, probably assumed when he packed his bags for his mission he was packing up his Aggie gear for good. Now he is going to be in the mix of quarterback battles at BYU.
The immediate concern now, rather than worrying about how the Utes are going to stop the guy when the teams play, is how the recruitment of Riley happened. According to my co-worker's Jay Drew's report in today's paper, there were "casual conversations" between BYU coaches and Logan High coach Mike Favero that led to Monday's announcement.
So were the Cougars wrong in recruiting Nelson? Not in my view. I'd say Mendenhall wasn't thinking things all the way through when he said he wouldn't recruit athletes on missions. Really, the way recruiting is getting more and more competitive these days there are no safe havens anymore, and I guess we can expect now that goes for athletes on missions.
The thing other coaches need to be concerned with is how the church is going to handle such recruitings. Supposedly, Nelson's mission president approved the contact between BYU and Nelson. I have to wonder if such permission would be granted to BYU's biggest rival, Utah? What if the contact was coming from a school totally out of the area, such as Nebraska? Or a smaller school that doesn't have the wow factor of the Division I programs? Is the church going to treat all schools equally or give BYU, its private institution, favored access?
Obviously Riley isn't the first athlete who has changed his mind about where he'll go to college following a mission (for the Utes most recently was Isley Filiaga's decision to attend Utah after his mission, following a year at BYU) and we can't be naive to think athletes haven't been recruited while on missions by BYU coaches or others, but how much is the church going to get involved in approving such matters? I guess we're all about to find out.
11:26 AM
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12 Comments:
My money would be on this completely depending on the individual mission president. Some will be big Utes, others will be Cougs, some will think that sports are a waste and a distraction, some will have a more progressive view and recognize that the kid needs to think about the future (at least a little) while on his mission. I really doubt this will ever merit a church-wide policy.
So let me get this straight:
The LDS church is conspiring with BYU to gain an upper hand in recruiting by forcing it's mission presidents to allow BYU to recruit players, and forcing mission presidents to deny any such allowances to other schools or any other players considering playing football elsewhere?
How does this even concern Utah in the first place?
I thought this was a Ute blog? Why am I logging on and having to read this crap about BYU? I could care less if they get a QB the Ags.
And spare me the crap about some LDS church conspiracy to give BYU a recruiting advantage. Makes us sound like a bunch of pansy excuse makers instead of the proud fans of a great athletic department founded on principles of accountability and piracy.
Wow Lya, you owe Ute fans, BYU fans and the LDS church an apology on your bizarre anti-Mormon conspiracy theory. That is really sad on your part.
No she does NOT!! I am an LDS Ute fan, and I have no problem with anything she said.
It is not a stretch to think that the LDS church would allow BYU to speak with missionaries but tell all other schools that they will have to wait until the mission is over to have contact with them. The church would likely justify it by saying that BYU is an extension of the churches missionary program and therefore is mission related.
It's not like the church hasn't already been guilty of shady dealings in the past.
Lya is spot-on with her comments. Although, I do think that if BYU did pull such a stunt, the NCAA would step in and say that anyone that leaves school for a mission would lose those two years of eligibility.
Good stuff Lya, keep it coming.
Is it 'conspiracy' to think that a general authority can 'over rule' local priesthood leadership in a priesthood disciplinary matter regarding a BYU athlete? Of course not.... Unless we are talking about an 'overzealous church leader' dealing with a BYU Baseball player....
Yeah, not a stretch at all to think "the church" would let BYU recruit kids while on their missions but would tell other schools to stuff it.
"Lya was spot on"...sure, spot on for a conspiracy theory that almost merits medication. I'm sure my Ute coaches have never contacted missionaries once they became recruitable, and it is apparent that when UCLA coaches tried to initiate contact with Ben Olsen that "the church" told them to stuff it.
This story has been blown up quite a bit but it is still worth writing about and looking into.
The fact that a missionary was offered a scholarship by byu while he was on a mission and having already been a member of a different team does seem a bit questionable, dont you think ?
So now writers arent even supposed investigate and write about things to get the whole story ? Lya is doing her job writing about something that many feel is controversial in the local college sports scene.
Maybe byu coaches arent acting in anyway out of line when they contact kids while on missions. Then again maybe they are.
Lya, why do you care about a transfer that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the Utes? Seriously, I would like an honest answer to that. This is a UTES blog is it not? Are you experiencing so great a shortage of Ute news and info that you feel it necessary to weigh in on the dealings of another team? Or, as is more likely, are you just once again displaying your disdain/obsession with everything BYU?
As some of the other posts have pointed out, your "weighing in" on this matter isn't journalistic or investigative or even informative. It is simply a venue for you to display your anti BYU rhetoric and your newly revealed religious bigotry. Whas it seriously worth it to type up those pathetic paragraphs and lose the last shred of integrity this blog had? And by the way, I would challenge you, as I would challenge every Ute fan, to post the exact quote in which Bronco Mendenhall said he would not recruit missionaries. On every message board and comments section, the Utes keep repeating this and yet when asked to show where they heard that statement, they inevitably vanish or try to change the subject.
Next time you think to post a blog that includes lies and false criticism of the LDS Church, remember that you work and live in an LDS community. Many of the fans who faithfully read your blog belong to that faith and many more belong to the Ute fanbase. Show a little respect and gratitude for a community that has allowed your pathetic ravings to continue as long as it has.
The University of Utah football program is quickly losing ground. Instead of helping to perpetuate that trend with these pathetic blogs, how bout you actually write about your own school, get BYU off your mind(this will be the hardest part of all for you) and bring some credibility back to the program?
Utah's problem is that they've gone 10-6 in conference play the past two years (while BYU has gone 16-0), NOT the LDS Church!!
Dear Zoobies,
Part of being a Utah fan is hating BYU. Part of hating BYU is nailing them when they engage in shady behavior. We don't hate BYU because they win, we hate BYU because of their arrogance and hypocrisy. When a church-owned school goes through a back door to steal a player from another school, you better believe it irks us. It's one more reason to hate the Team Down South. A lot of Utah fans are LDS, and they don't appreciate the way you represent our church as a bunch of self-righteous ignorants.
Sincerely,
Utah Fans
majerussweater -
Great comments. I don't understand how BYU fans think it makes us less of a fan of our own team because we hate them in addition to loving the Utes. If anything, as fans, hating BYU makes us more 'Fully Invested' as Ute fans; if I may borrow a phrase from Bronco which he stole from Urban.
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