Spring Practice

[Fido]

I don't think we really saw how good Huntsman could be. As a true freshman he played in 5 games (@ Nebraska, #20 Boise State, @ #10 UCLA, @ Michigan, UConn) and notched solo tackles against Boise State and UCLA before suffering his injury.

[snoscythe]

Don't kid yourself by saying Huntsman was not a scholarship athlete. He turned down athletic scholarships at Texas A&M and Houston (both of which have in recent years outperformed BYU) among others to walk-on to the football team at BYU and taking an academic scholarship through the Kennedy Center that probably was a better deal for him financially and long-term (Kennedy Center scholar carries more weight on a resume than football scholarship) than a football scholarship would have been.

When Bronco went to UVA, he immediately offered Huntsman a scholarship to transfer, because (i) he knew Huntsman deserved it athletically, and (ii) he thought the academic prestige of UVA might help convince him to go East Coast with Bronco and crew.

Huntsman is a very talented, very smart kid, and it's a pretty big loss for the team.

[Fido]

[BroncoBot]

Don't kid yourself by saying Huntsman was not a scholarship athlete. He turned down athletic scholarships at Texas A&M and Houston (both of which have in recent years outperformed BYU) among others to walk-on to the football team at BYU and taking an academic scholarship through the Kennedy Center that probably was a better deal for him financially and long-term (Kennedy Center scholar carries more weight on a resume than football scholarship) than a football scholarship would have been.

When Bronco went to UVA, he immediately offered Huntsman a scholarship to transfer, because (i) he knew Huntsman deserved it athletically, and (ii) he thought the academic prestige of UVA might help convince him to go East Coast with Bronco and crew.

Huntsman is a very talented, very smart kid, and it's a pretty big loss for the team.

That's right. Now I remember a few videos of him. He was fast (or at least as fast a T. Hill post foot injury. Was excited to see him play for BYU. Kind of forgot about him in the last year. When did he get injured last year? It sounds like he was destined to become like Pendleton, tons of talent and always injured.

[frdbtr]

Whether he was "good enough" for a scholarship before injury is irrelevant. The fact is, there are only 2 reasons why he would "retire" post injury. 1. he decided that he didn't want to play football anymore and put more wear and tear on his body and/or risk another injury like that one. 2. he was told by the coaches post injury that he would not see the field. Unless someone has inside info that can clear this up for us, we will never know. Football is a meat market and coaches are going to play guys that are healthy over ones that are not.

[Fido]

Don't kid yourself by saying Huntsman was not a scholarship athlete. He turned down athletic scholarships at Texas A&M and Houston (both of which have in recent years outperformed BYU) among others to walk-on to the football team at BYU and taking an academic scholarship through the Kennedy Center that probably was a better deal for him financially and long-term (Kennedy Center scholar carries more weight on a resume than football scholarship) than a football scholarship would have been.

When Bronco went to UVA, he immediately offered Huntsman a scholarship to transfer, because (i) he knew Huntsman deserved it athletically, and (ii) he thought the academic prestige of UVA might help convince him to go East Coast with Bronco and crew.

Huntsman is a very talented, very smart kid, and it's a pretty big loss for the team.

That's right. Now I remember a few videos of him. He was fast (or at least as fast a T. Hill post foot injury. Was excited to see him play for BYU. Kind of forgot about him in the last year. When did he get injured last year? It sounds like he was destined to become like Pendleton, tons of talent and always injured.

He played in the first 5 games of the season--last appearing in the UConn game in week 5. So I would think it was in that game.
And when Bronco was trying to get Taysom Hill and Scott Huntsman to go to Virginia with him, he told Huntsman he would start at Virginia.

[hawkwing]

Good news for all of our out of Utah members. I worked out a deal with BYUtv to broadcast the spring practice.

[scott715]

Way to go Hawk. You're the man !!!! Wait I am on Spring break. Hopefully I will get to see it.

[hawkwing]

Of course my deal to get the game on BYUtv was to sit back while fans called and emailed Tom Holmoe and demanded it.

[Fido]

Jay Drew's update on spring practice--has some good stuff.

If they stay healthy, senior Fred Warner and juniors Butch Pau'u and Francis Bernard will form one of the best groups of linebackers in recent BYU football history.
...
"Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely," [Bernard] said Wednesday when I asked him if the problem that caused him to be suspended [for the bowl game] has been cleared up. "I am just excited to be here in spring ball, excited to be back with the boys, so we are just going to get it rolling. … I am excited for what is to come and for the future."

A couple leftover tidbits from tight ends coach Steve Clark:
If the season started today, Laulu-Pututau would be the starter at tight end, with freshman Matt Bushman behind him. Last year's starters — Tanner Balderree and Hunter Marshall — had surgery recently and will re-join the team in the fall.

"We use a lot of two tight end sets, so it would probably be those two, is the way we would start," Clark said.

Clark said Bushman has the potential to be really, really good.

"He has put on a little weight — he's just right off a mission. So we have to be a little patient with him. But he caught seven balls in our team [sessions] on Friday. Yeah, he's got a great feel for the game, good hands, big body, just needs to get more strength," Clark said.

Clark isn't concerned that Bushman is also giving baseball a try.

"The baseball coaches there say he could get drafted. He's that good of a baseball player," Clark said. "But he's on scholarship for football. Football is paying the bills right now. So, we have him when we need him … But he goes up and goes through batting practice with them. But when we need him here, he's here."

"I am happy with the numbers at running back," [Sitaki] said. "We have a bunch of guys. it is just a matter of who is going to get the bulk of the carries. It is hard to replace an athlete like Jamaal [Williams]. But you do it with numbers and a lot of guys who are skilled. So we will let them compete and the best will start the game. We are not going to rely on just one guy to carry the load. I think Jamaal deserved that last year and throughout his career. We will see if someone emerges this year, but for now we feel really good with [by] committee, the whole group. We will just see how they progress in the offseason and through spring ball."

Here's Sitake's rundown of the battle at safety:
"Well, having Tanner Jacobsen and Micah Hannemann there, we were able to move Matt Hadley a little bit, and give him a look at running back. We feel good with the guys who could be at that position. We also have the ability to move any of our corners to safety if we feel like we have the need. But we feel good with the numbers that are there with [Utah transfer] Austin Lee and some of the others that are starting to emerge as guys in that position.