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craigoscarsonI just so happen to have the week off and instead of playing Wii games or figure out my new Iphone4 ( both of which my 4 yr old daughter is better at) I decided to plow into the recruiting question.
Also it's important to note that my personal recruiting philosophy is more Nick Saban than it is Bronco Mendenhall... and that my methods would not particularly all fly at BYU.
Here's Cougarbib2s response our our bloated Cahoon, Detmer thread and my reply to it... then after that I go back into recruiting-speak.
1st Bib2; I think you need a little context about my expectations from BYUs athletic programs.
I don't expect BCS and national championships. They'd be nice, but I think we're terribly handicapped by the honor code, missions, and early marriage after missions to be great on a consistent basis;
while other top 10 programs kids are focused on sports and sports only. I have routinely scolded people here for being unappreciative after several straight double digits win seasons and I started off this football season back in August stating I could swallow a 7-8 win season, considering all the youth we play.
As for college hoops; here's the context you're missing. It's 5 times harder to make the NCAA tourney than it is to make it to a bowl game. There are approximately 320 programs competing for 64+ slots; compare that to 119 programs competing for 70 slots. Just getting to the dance is a major major accomplishment and something that the vast majority of schools don't do and many of which almost never do. Dave Rose gets to the dance and does it with regularity.
There are teams like Florida and North Carolina that have won national championships and struggled to get back to the dance.
My only expectation of BYU hoops is that they get to the dance, after that it's all gravy. Dave Rose cannot pick where we're seeded and the NCAA committee has been absolutely brutal to us in seeding, matchups, and location. This is a historical trend that borders on the ridiculous, but shows a real statistical bias against our records and RPI during those times. It's a stacked deck the equivalent of the BCS cartel, except that the rules for admission to the party are well defined and fair... once we get to the party, we're told we can't hang with the cool kids. Not Dave Roses fault.
Since we're actively discussing how important Brandon Doman, Dave Rose, Paul Tidwell and possibly Detmer and Cahoon are in relation to recruiting, I think it's time to address why I think recruiting is so important and where I'm coming from in my background (and why I wish that facebook existed 15 years ago ;) )
Let's get some context on where I actually come from as far as my recruiting roots so there's no question as to why I have the opinions that I do and why I think that recruiting is the most important thing that a football coach or hoops coach should master.
I played my high school sports at Liberty, Missouri (home to the Liberty Jail)... a well known school in the area with very competitive athletic programs. I was a gym rat that played football, basketball, and even track/tennis there. I had hoped to walk on to the Y football team, but instead decided to concentrate on school my freshman year, then go on my mission. When i got home I ran into a girl that told me about a 6 yr medical program in Kansas City where you didn't have to have a bachelors, just high entrance exam results, etc. I applied, got in and became a UMKC Kangaroo and all I had to root for aside from BYU was this pathetic inner-city program that wanted to be great and wasn't.
(The coaches I worked for at UMKC were Bob Sunvold and then Dean Demopolous. Both guys were assistants at dynasty programs. Sunvold was top assistant at Missouri under Norm Stewart in the 80s and part of the 90s, Demopolous was top assistant to John Chaney of Temple during their glory days in the 80s and 90s- both guys recruited NBA players to their programs.)
My 1st responsibility from Sunvold (as a very well paid under the table medical student.... very much so against the rules, but that was Sunvold and one of the reasons he was no longer at Missouri) was to get all the students to the games.... A VERY TALL TASK at UMKC, we succeeded in some very unorthodox ways, namely everyone got a tshirt with a kangaroo in a kilt and every male student got a kilt... I still have mine... kilt stood for kangaroos in lots of trouble... and they were in lots of trouble... much like the "antlers" of missouri that helped Mizzou become a dominant program in the 80s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Antlers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
...We were enough trouble that we got a 5 page color article in the Kansas City Star, not about hoops, just about the KILTs) When Bob saw that I could get people together to do something like that (and he knew what high school basketball program I had played for and what basketball meant to me), he asked me to quit medical school and join his staff, even using the fact that he had quit law school to go into coaching. I told him no, and he kept paying me under the table to do all sorts of things, scout at AAU games (I met some of the most unsavory people in my life at AAU games... including this guy with regularityhttp://www.cbssports.com/b/page/pressbox/0,1328,2563846,00.html " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ), befriend recruits and concoct "hand shake moments with the coaching staff", making initial contact with recruits and their families, inviting recruits to college parties, etc. etc. Eventually they hired me to work for Swinney Rec center (home of the basketball team) so that it looked more legit, but it probably wasn't, I was young and having too much fun to care, and I'm naturally a bit of a rule breaker by nature.
Sunvold got fired in a very unpopular firing, only because the KC media had no idea what Bob was doing in the background... I did and wasnt' surprised at all. Demopolous was hired and almost immediately he asked me to continue doing what I was doing, so apparently it was working. (eventually I got married and walked away from recruiting... that was my marriage to the KC Chiefs cheerleader and the biggest mistake of my life, which took me several years to rebound from, I missed recruiting, I have never missed her.)
I had a partial hand in every recruit they brought in for a 3-4 year time period; many of which I completely disagreed with and was rightfully justified as they either struggled on the court or in the classroom. The 1st one I wanted badly that we didn't get (and should have) was Tyron Lue... the guy had no major offers and had committed to us, then Nebraska showed up last minute and offered; he eventually ended up with a 10+ year career in the NBA and at least 1 championship ring with the Lakers.
The other one I wanted very badly that turned out to be an off the radar steal for us was UMKCs all time leading scorer ....played overseas professsionally for many years after getting a tryout with the Celtics, Michael Watson... he was my masterpiece, a guy that scored about 10 points a game in high school and was pathologically unselfish. I actually went to him one day before a high school game and said that I'd make sure that UMKC offered him if everytime he touched the ball within 20 feet of the hoop that day, that he shot it. He scored 38 points, was 10-12 from 3 and got his scholarship offer that weekend.http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=1819 " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
To this day, if you ask Mike how he ended up at UMKC, I'll be the guy he mentions; he also never stopped shooting; to this day he's the biggest ball-hog I've ever met, so I think I created a monster.
So what? What does any of that mean when it comes to BYU? Well for one, those 2 coaches have recruited NBA talent (Derrick Chievous, Mark Macon, Marc Jackson, Javon Crudup, etc.) been to the promised land in the dance and taught me how to do it, (except on a lower scale... very few NBA players were coming to a perrenial 10 win team with a 250+ RPI, stuck less than 3 hours from Columbia Missouri and Lawrence, Kansas). Second, I learned how to recognize talent and slowly but surely I learned that recognizing talent doesn't neccessarily equal winning college games, that fit is just as important as talent, UNLESS you're recruiting top notch sure fire NBA players, which UMKC wasn't going to sniff, ever.
So what are Bronco Mendenhalls strongsuits? He's tremendous at recognizing talent; he's honest with his recruits and he epitomizes what a coach/leader should be in the LDS faith. (He's the LDS/BYU football version of Tom Osborne, Tom Izzo, Mike Krzyzewski... guys that are known to be great at what they do and dont' regularly deviate from their plans... the difference is that he's handicapped by being a predominately white school with the honor code and missions).
He is a winner, coaching for a historically top 20 program which has a history of great offense, QBs, tradition and he brings his expertise to defense. He's organized, good with the media (or at least not bad with the media), he's handsome (try having Charlie Weis recruit your kid) and he's a former successful player.
What are his weaknesses? He approaches recruits with the same sort of tactics regardless of the recruit and doesn't think he needs to sell BYU to his recruits persay; he's not a rah-rah recruiter. He's not a snake oil salesman and doesn't believe in it and he's not going to bend the rules for recruits or for wins.
(snake oil salesmen: Lane Kiffen, Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Rick Pitino, Pete Carroll, John Calipari)
He's never played in the NFL and has very few NFL connections that weren't already intact at BYU before he got to BYU. (Midway through his head coaching career, he started realizing how important it was to milk the BYU family and it's past successes including Lavell).
Bronco puts together strong recruiting classes and doesn't have nearly the turnover rate of Lavell and Crowton because of who he recruits and how he recruits. He's had very little success recruiting dominant Dlinemen in his career, partially because of the defense he runs, and initially he avoided the JUCO route for DBs, something that BYU has always relied on in their heyday. Bronco has struggled to get and maintain commitments from the elite top notch LDS athletes during his tenure; however his program has become attractive to walkons and transfers.
Dave Rose, like Bronco inherited a program that had bottomed out. Like Bronco, he was a no-name assistant that has earned his reputation slowly.
Dave Roses strongsuits are his aggressive style of play. It's attractive to recruits and it comes with the understanding that Dave played with one of the most aggressive and impressive college teams in history, Phi Slamma Jama, in Houston with Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon. Dave is a big man but he's a teddy bear of a recruiter. Like Bronco, he's honest, but more like your favorite uncle and not like your favorite bishop. Kids and parents respect him but aren't intimidated, and they dont' hesitate to pop into his office or give him a phone call, in fact Dave gets a lot of his committments when kids just feel like suprising him with good news. He's almost like an LDS version of Bill Clinton (which means he's not a slimeball in the background)... a guy that you know is really smart, but has a way to make you like him almost instantly. Dave is remarkable at developing guards. He actually made Murdock and Burgess viable guards (these were not D1 talents) against North Carolina, a win at top 10 ranked Louisville, and against a loaded Wake Forest team and has turned good guard talent into great production with Fredette and Emery... made Michael Loyd into a 20 point a game scorer when he needed and got the most out of Lamont Morgan when neccessary. Now he's got elite guys coming into his program like Haws, Collinsworth, Carlino, Harrison, and eventually Chatman, Emery, Haws... so don't think there will be a long dropoff between Fredette and Emery and the nest set of great guards... there won't be.
Dave Rose is a winner, he's getting a reputation as one of the top 2-3 coaches west of Denver and he's a NCAA tourney regular; he's been amazingingly successful at pinpointing recruits that he wants and getting them to Provo. He has not missed on a coveted LDS recruit in years and he's absolutely dominated the Utes in recruiting. (we'll see how that goes with Jabari Parker nationally)
Dave doesn't cheat to win the college hoops recruiting game... something 99% of other hoops recruiters do... including me in my time. (this would also be considered a drawback to many an athletic director outside of BYU; for example Bill Self is probably one of the biggest cheaters in the game that has never been caught and he operates a stones throw from my current home.
http://www.kentuckysportsnetwork.com/profiles/blogs/hypocrisy-of-a-kansas-fan " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )
Dave Roses drawbacks are that he has next to no track record of improving big men. They almost all leave the same as they showed up, just a tad stronger and better shape but not a ton better at the game. He doesn't have as much access to the absolute elite guys because of the LDS nature of BYU athletics, while Bronco does have more "elite" LDS talent regularly in which to target. He's still not a national name, but that rarely hurts him because of how specific his recruiting targets are... but he's probably not enough of a name to nab Jabari Parker (we'll see) Rose also has struggled in the NCAA tourney... much of which is the doing of the selection committee and their regular debotchery when it comes to BYUs seeding. Fans in the know give him a pass for that but nationally it's the one thing that has kept him from blowing up on the scene... because they haven't made much noise in the tourney.
My opinion is that recruiting is 60-70% of the battle in college football (Which is why the TCUS and BSUs can succeed; there's enough fudge room there for say a BYU to knock off an Oklahoma from time to time but teams are so big that with regularity the same teams are in the top 20 ) but 80%+ in the college hoops game (You simply cannot dominate college hoops without NBA caliber players... it's virtually impossible to do so and NBA caliber players are few and far between AND they dont' stick around very long, making it difficult for most teams to rebound when they lose them early... look at St. Joes for example after losing Jameer Nelson and Delonte West or Marquette after losing Dwayne Wade... you have to have NBA talent to go deep in the dance... it's next to impossible to do so without it.)
This is why you have to have guys on your staff that can recruit. Roses assistant Dave Rice is one heck of a recruiter and has a tremendous eye for talent. Paul Tidwell and Brandon Doman are personable guys that recruits love.
Robert Anae is a poor recruiter with reportedly some bad blood on the islands even. Higgins has some history as a recruiting coordinator previous to his job at BYU, but has been a virtual no show in being the difference in a recruit coming or going at the Y.
Detmer and Cahoon would make for tremendous gains in the football recruiting department and I certainly hope we see them at the Y. While I don't expect it, I hope Bronco sees the value in those guys and I hope Bronco ultimately realizes that his strategy for recruiting the absolute best LDS talent requires some adjustment. If he ever wants to create a national championship worthy program (which is what he's suggested that he wants) then the 2010 recruiting class needs to be a regular thing, not a once a decade thing.
Note: I'm not of the opinion that any coach can turn BYU into a dynasty caliber team while keeping the rules, having the honor code, missions and marriages... I enjoy very much the team and the program but my bar for BYU football is set a little lower than many on this board for those very mentioned reasons. I'm not saying it's not possible, but I'd say it would have to defy a lot of odds.
Also it's important to note that my personal recruiting philosophy is more Nick Saban than it is Bronco Mendenhall... and that my methods would not particularly all fly at BYU.
Here's Cougarbib2s response our our bloated Cahoon, Detmer thread and my reply to it... then after that I go back into recruiting-speak.
But I do find it amusing that so many, including Craig, are so satisfied with Basketball recruiting and so less satisfied with football recruiting.
It boils down to this - since 1984 - BYU fans expect to go 11-2 in an off-year and undefeated with NC most years and appearing in or winning a BCS Bowl will not fully satisfy because the lowly Utes and Donkies did it twice and TCU and even UH have been sort of in there.
This is a football school and anything less than perfection requires a scapegoat.
Now, for basketball, we seem to be more realistic about who we are - happy to land the best local LDS recruits with occasional national or non-member spice and never a Shaquile O'Neal and the annual 1 and done at the dance with a once a decade or two advance to the 2nd round satisfies.
1st Bib2; I think you need a little context about my expectations from BYUs athletic programs.
I don't expect BCS and national championships. They'd be nice, but I think we're terribly handicapped by the honor code, missions, and early marriage after missions to be great on a consistent basis;
while other top 10 programs kids are focused on sports and sports only. I have routinely scolded people here for being unappreciative after several straight double digits win seasons and I started off this football season back in August stating I could swallow a 7-8 win season, considering all the youth we play.
As for college hoops; here's the context you're missing. It's 5 times harder to make the NCAA tourney than it is to make it to a bowl game. There are approximately 320 programs competing for 64+ slots; compare that to 119 programs competing for 70 slots. Just getting to the dance is a major major accomplishment and something that the vast majority of schools don't do and many of which almost never do. Dave Rose gets to the dance and does it with regularity.
There are teams like Florida and North Carolina that have won national championships and struggled to get back to the dance.
My only expectation of BYU hoops is that they get to the dance, after that it's all gravy. Dave Rose cannot pick where we're seeded and the NCAA committee has been absolutely brutal to us in seeding, matchups, and location. This is a historical trend that borders on the ridiculous, but shows a real statistical bias against our records and RPI during those times. It's a stacked deck the equivalent of the BCS cartel, except that the rules for admission to the party are well defined and fair... once we get to the party, we're told we can't hang with the cool kids. Not Dave Roses fault.
Since we're actively discussing how important Brandon Doman, Dave Rose, Paul Tidwell and possibly Detmer and Cahoon are in relation to recruiting, I think it's time to address why I think recruiting is so important and where I'm coming from in my background (and why I wish that facebook existed 15 years ago ;) )
Let's get some context on where I actually come from as far as my recruiting roots so there's no question as to why I have the opinions that I do and why I think that recruiting is the most important thing that a football coach or hoops coach should master.
I played my high school sports at Liberty, Missouri (home to the Liberty Jail)... a well known school in the area with very competitive athletic programs. I was a gym rat that played football, basketball, and even track/tennis there. I had hoped to walk on to the Y football team, but instead decided to concentrate on school my freshman year, then go on my mission. When i got home I ran into a girl that told me about a 6 yr medical program in Kansas City where you didn't have to have a bachelors, just high entrance exam results, etc. I applied, got in and became a UMKC Kangaroo and all I had to root for aside from BYU was this pathetic inner-city program that wanted to be great and wasn't.
(The coaches I worked for at UMKC were Bob Sunvold and then Dean Demopolous. Both guys were assistants at dynasty programs. Sunvold was top assistant at Missouri under Norm Stewart in the 80s and part of the 90s, Demopolous was top assistant to John Chaney of Temple during their glory days in the 80s and 90s- both guys recruited NBA players to their programs.)
My 1st responsibility from Sunvold (as a very well paid under the table medical student.... very much so against the rules, but that was Sunvold and one of the reasons he was no longer at Missouri) was to get all the students to the games.... A VERY TALL TASK at UMKC, we succeeded in some very unorthodox ways, namely everyone got a tshirt with a kangaroo in a kilt and every male student got a kilt... I still have mine... kilt stood for kangaroos in lots of trouble... and they were in lots of trouble... much like the "antlers" of missouri that helped Mizzou become a dominant program in the 80s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Antlers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
...We were enough trouble that we got a 5 page color article in the Kansas City Star, not about hoops, just about the KILTs) When Bob saw that I could get people together to do something like that (and he knew what high school basketball program I had played for and what basketball meant to me), he asked me to quit medical school and join his staff, even using the fact that he had quit law school to go into coaching. I told him no, and he kept paying me under the table to do all sorts of things, scout at AAU games (I met some of the most unsavory people in my life at AAU games... including this guy with regularity
Sunvold got fired in a very unpopular firing, only because the KC media had no idea what Bob was doing in the background... I did and wasnt' surprised at all. Demopolous was hired and almost immediately he asked me to continue doing what I was doing, so apparently it was working. (eventually I got married and walked away from recruiting... that was my marriage to the KC Chiefs cheerleader and the biggest mistake of my life, which took me several years to rebound from, I missed recruiting, I have never missed her.)
I had a partial hand in every recruit they brought in for a 3-4 year time period; many of which I completely disagreed with and was rightfully justified as they either struggled on the court or in the classroom. The 1st one I wanted badly that we didn't get (and should have) was Tyron Lue... the guy had no major offers and had committed to us, then Nebraska showed up last minute and offered; he eventually ended up with a 10+ year career in the NBA and at least 1 championship ring with the Lakers.
The other one I wanted very badly that turned out to be an off the radar steal for us was UMKCs all time leading scorer ....played overseas professsionally for many years after getting a tryout with the Celtics, Michael Watson... he was my masterpiece, a guy that scored about 10 points a game in high school and was pathologically unselfish. I actually went to him one day before a high school game and said that I'd make sure that UMKC offered him if everytime he touched the ball within 20 feet of the hoop that day, that he shot it. He scored 38 points, was 10-12 from 3 and got his scholarship offer that weekend.
To this day, if you ask Mike how he ended up at UMKC, I'll be the guy he mentions; he also never stopped shooting; to this day he's the biggest ball-hog I've ever met, so I think I created a monster.
So what? What does any of that mean when it comes to BYU? Well for one, those 2 coaches have recruited NBA talent (Derrick Chievous, Mark Macon, Marc Jackson, Javon Crudup, etc.) been to the promised land in the dance and taught me how to do it, (except on a lower scale... very few NBA players were coming to a perrenial 10 win team with a 250+ RPI, stuck less than 3 hours from Columbia Missouri and Lawrence, Kansas). Second, I learned how to recognize talent and slowly but surely I learned that recognizing talent doesn't neccessarily equal winning college games, that fit is just as important as talent, UNLESS you're recruiting top notch sure fire NBA players, which UMKC wasn't going to sniff, ever.
So what are Bronco Mendenhalls strongsuits? He's tremendous at recognizing talent; he's honest with his recruits and he epitomizes what a coach/leader should be in the LDS faith. (He's the LDS/BYU football version of Tom Osborne, Tom Izzo, Mike Krzyzewski... guys that are known to be great at what they do and dont' regularly deviate from their plans... the difference is that he's handicapped by being a predominately white school with the honor code and missions).
He is a winner, coaching for a historically top 20 program which has a history of great offense, QBs, tradition and he brings his expertise to defense. He's organized, good with the media (or at least not bad with the media), he's handsome (try having Charlie Weis recruit your kid) and he's a former successful player.
What are his weaknesses? He approaches recruits with the same sort of tactics regardless of the recruit and doesn't think he needs to sell BYU to his recruits persay; he's not a rah-rah recruiter. He's not a snake oil salesman and doesn't believe in it and he's not going to bend the rules for recruits or for wins.
(snake oil salesmen: Lane Kiffen, Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Rick Pitino, Pete Carroll, John Calipari)
He's never played in the NFL and has very few NFL connections that weren't already intact at BYU before he got to BYU. (Midway through his head coaching career, he started realizing how important it was to milk the BYU family and it's past successes including Lavell).
Bronco puts together strong recruiting classes and doesn't have nearly the turnover rate of Lavell and Crowton because of who he recruits and how he recruits. He's had very little success recruiting dominant Dlinemen in his career, partially because of the defense he runs, and initially he avoided the JUCO route for DBs, something that BYU has always relied on in their heyday. Bronco has struggled to get and maintain commitments from the elite top notch LDS athletes during his tenure; however his program has become attractive to walkons and transfers.
Dave Rose, like Bronco inherited a program that had bottomed out. Like Bronco, he was a no-name assistant that has earned his reputation slowly.
Dave Roses strongsuits are his aggressive style of play. It's attractive to recruits and it comes with the understanding that Dave played with one of the most aggressive and impressive college teams in history, Phi Slamma Jama, in Houston with Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon. Dave is a big man but he's a teddy bear of a recruiter. Like Bronco, he's honest, but more like your favorite uncle and not like your favorite bishop. Kids and parents respect him but aren't intimidated, and they dont' hesitate to pop into his office or give him a phone call, in fact Dave gets a lot of his committments when kids just feel like suprising him with good news. He's almost like an LDS version of Bill Clinton (which means he's not a slimeball in the background)... a guy that you know is really smart, but has a way to make you like him almost instantly. Dave is remarkable at developing guards. He actually made Murdock and Burgess viable guards (these were not D1 talents) against North Carolina, a win at top 10 ranked Louisville, and against a loaded Wake Forest team and has turned good guard talent into great production with Fredette and Emery... made Michael Loyd into a 20 point a game scorer when he needed and got the most out of Lamont Morgan when neccessary. Now he's got elite guys coming into his program like Haws, Collinsworth, Carlino, Harrison, and eventually Chatman, Emery, Haws... so don't think there will be a long dropoff between Fredette and Emery and the nest set of great guards... there won't be.
Dave Rose is a winner, he's getting a reputation as one of the top 2-3 coaches west of Denver and he's a NCAA tourney regular; he's been amazingingly successful at pinpointing recruits that he wants and getting them to Provo. He has not missed on a coveted LDS recruit in years and he's absolutely dominated the Utes in recruiting. (we'll see how that goes with Jabari Parker nationally)
Dave doesn't cheat to win the college hoops recruiting game... something 99% of other hoops recruiters do... including me in my time. (this would also be considered a drawback to many an athletic director outside of BYU; for example Bill Self is probably one of the biggest cheaters in the game that has never been caught and he operates a stones throw from my current home.
Dave Roses drawbacks are that he has next to no track record of improving big men. They almost all leave the same as they showed up, just a tad stronger and better shape but not a ton better at the game. He doesn't have as much access to the absolute elite guys because of the LDS nature of BYU athletics, while Bronco does have more "elite" LDS talent regularly in which to target. He's still not a national name, but that rarely hurts him because of how specific his recruiting targets are... but he's probably not enough of a name to nab Jabari Parker (we'll see) Rose also has struggled in the NCAA tourney... much of which is the doing of the selection committee and their regular debotchery when it comes to BYUs seeding. Fans in the know give him a pass for that but nationally it's the one thing that has kept him from blowing up on the scene... because they haven't made much noise in the tourney.
My opinion is that recruiting is 60-70% of the battle in college football (Which is why the TCUS and BSUs can succeed; there's enough fudge room there for say a BYU to knock off an Oklahoma from time to time but teams are so big that with regularity the same teams are in the top 20 ) but 80%+ in the college hoops game (You simply cannot dominate college hoops without NBA caliber players... it's virtually impossible to do so and NBA caliber players are few and far between AND they dont' stick around very long, making it difficult for most teams to rebound when they lose them early... look at St. Joes for example after losing Jameer Nelson and Delonte West or Marquette after losing Dwayne Wade... you have to have NBA talent to go deep in the dance... it's next to impossible to do so without it.)
This is why you have to have guys on your staff that can recruit. Roses assistant Dave Rice is one heck of a recruiter and has a tremendous eye for talent. Paul Tidwell and Brandon Doman are personable guys that recruits love.
Robert Anae is a poor recruiter with reportedly some bad blood on the islands even. Higgins has some history as a recruiting coordinator previous to his job at BYU, but has been a virtual no show in being the difference in a recruit coming or going at the Y.
Detmer and Cahoon would make for tremendous gains in the football recruiting department and I certainly hope we see them at the Y. While I don't expect it, I hope Bronco sees the value in those guys and I hope Bronco ultimately realizes that his strategy for recruiting the absolute best LDS talent requires some adjustment. If he ever wants to create a national championship worthy program (which is what he's suggested that he wants) then the 2010 recruiting class needs to be a regular thing, not a once a decade thing.
Note: I'm not of the opinion that any coach can turn BYU into a dynasty caliber team while keeping the rules, having the honor code, missions and marriages... I enjoy very much the team and the program but my bar for BYU football is set a little lower than many on this board for those very mentioned reasons. I'm not saying it's not possible, but I'd say it would have to defy a lot of odds.