Grade Signing Day

I thought it would be interesting to grade the class yesterday. ESPN gave BYU a C grade. Do you agree or disagree with them?



I would give the day an A.



My reasons:



1. The coaching staff was able to keep all of the Bronco recruits the previous staff was working on. That in itself is amazing! I don't know if that has ever happened before. It probably has somewhere but I don't follow recruiting for every school out there. If you think about it, there was only 1 coach retained by Kalani so the majority of the recruits didn't have the coach who was recruiting them still at BYU.



2. The new staff only had a matter of 6 weeks to keep the current class and then sway new recruits to BYU. They were successful for a couple of flips or getting some of the decommits to choose BYU. I believe if they had more time they could have swayed a few more on over to BYU. I am excited to see what he can do with a full year of recruiting for next class.



3. As I stated in point 2 the coaches only had 6 weeks for recruiting in reality only Kalani, Ty, Lamb, and Tuiaki did most of the recruiting, they were the only ones on the staff. Think about that for a second, 4 guys doing all of the recruiting plus trying to build a staff. Kafusi and Empey got hired Jan 14 only 3 weeks before LOI day, Cahoon didn't get hired on until Jan 20, only 2 weeks before LOI day. Clark and Tialavea were hired Jan 25, one week before signing day, while the weekend before LOI day they finished out the coaching staff with Gilford, Mahe, and Ofahengaue. So huge applause for Kalani, Ty, Lamb and Tuiaki.



4. They got some high profile recruits interested in BYU even making official visits to BYU. That is impressive by itself because the recruits are only allow 5 official visits, so to have one of them be BYU is absolutely amazing. I think maybe with more time Kalani and staff may have gotten 1.



I think this is a very promising start to the new era, or am I just getting suck into the hype of a head coach that has a personality?

I'd give it a B, and I give credit equally to both staffs.



Very impressed this staff kept all of the previous recruits, sealed the deal on a couple that Bronco had gotten BYU in the conversation for, and went and got a few guys that will be needed to move forward with the change in offensive and defensive philosophies.



The recruiting class was already good before this new staff came in, and the team talent as a whole is the best it's ever been at BYU. This staff has a lot to work with.



One thing that I'm not as pumped about as everyone else is getting high profile LDS athletes to come for an official visit. I wonder if it's just a waste of resources and time at this point in the program's progression. It's not like Bronco didn't get kids to come visit, even got big names to sign (Heaps and Kurtz were "bigger" recruits than Mique Juarez). BYU has always reached out to all the LDS recruits they've known about, but this staff wants to push to get all of them. Noble, but sometimes it's better to know who you are and work on internal development.



Anyway, excited for next year. I think Ty is going to be great at his job. Actually worry quite a bit about the defense.

C is too low, A is way too high. I'd give it a low B or a B-.



I do think it was great that BYU kept all the recruits. I've heard that there were some recruits that contacted UVA to swap their allegiance but that they were told by Bronco that they had committed to BYU and should stick with it. Of course that doesn't seem to apply to Taysom, whom I think UVA wants desperately. But that's a unique situation.

hawkwing wrote:
C is too low, A is way too high. I'd give it a low B or a B-.



I do think it was great that BYU kept all the recruits. I've heard that there were some recruits that contacted UVA to swap their allegiance but that they were told by Bronco that they had committed to BYU and should stick with it. Of course that doesn't seem to apply to Taysom, whom I think UVA wants desperately. But that's a unique situation.

That's interesting what you say that Bronco did. What do you think about that? I'm not trying to be cynical, but was that because 1. He felt he could do better at UVA, 2. UVA already had enough recruits, or 3. Bronco legitimately thought they should stick with their commitment? I am guessing it was a combination of all three. UVA already had a lot of recruits coming in, he probably felt he could get some even better ones, and he legitimately did not want to hurt BYU. Rarely do we do things for only a single reason.

Cougarfan87 wrote:

C is too low, A is way too high. I'd give it a low B or a B-.



I do think it was great that BYU kept all the recruits. I've heard that there were some recruits that contacted UVA to swap their allegiance but that they were told by Bronco that they had committed to BYU and should stick with it. Of course that doesn't seem to apply to Taysom, whom I think UVA wants desperately. But that's a unique situation.

That's interesting what you say that Bronco did. What do you think about that? I'm not trying to be cynical, but was that because 1. He felt he could do better at UVA, 2. UVA already had enough recruits, or 3. Bronco legitimately thought they should stick with their commitment? I am guessing it was a combination of all three. UVA already had a lot of recruits coming in, he probably felt he could get some even better ones, and he legitimately did not want to hurt BYU. Rarely do we do things for only a single reason.

Yes, you're probably right. All of those factors probably weighed on the decision.

Bronco was offering guaranteed starting jobs to walk-ons who played at BYU last year. I don't think he was really pulling his punches.

B-



It is a better recruiting class than we typically have, but there are still 50+ teams that are recruiting better than us. If we want 10 win seasons with our schedules, we need better talent. Especially on the offensive line.

mormonrasta wrote:
B-



It is a better recruiting class than we typically have, but there are still 50+ teams that are recruiting better than us. If we want 10 win seasons with our schedules, we need better talent. Especially on the offensive line.

THIS.



BYU's recruiting class was pretty ho-hum on the national radar - but par for the BYU course. I'd even say that BYU's class was C, may be C+. One of the top non-P5 recruiting classes, but easily among the bottom wrung when compared to the P5. BYU needs 1 or 2 more elite recruits and a half-dozen more 3-star commits - and fewer 2-star guys - to improve to grade B recruiting class.



From BYU's standard class perspective, I'd give us a solid B+, may be even A-.



Not often that BYU lands three or four 4-star guys, wins a bunch of head-to-head commits against the Ewetes, USC, and Oregon, and actually has signing day flips to BYU.