I am starting to wonder how many scholarships BYU has available this year. The logistics of BYU football make it nearly impossible for an average Joe to understand how many scholarships come available. The coaches continue to offer and receive very early verbal commitments, number 13 arriving yesterday.
Kevin Bills, 6'3 215, is the most recent verbal commitment. Bills is another local Timpview who comes from a football family. Two of his older brothers play(ed) at BYU (Kelly is currently on the team) and his younger brother, a star safety, also holds a BYU offer as a sophomore.
Bills played DE for Timpview this season and the coaches wanted to see him at Junior day playing as a linebacker, the position he will be playing for the Cougars. Bills was no slouch as DE, earning 4A First Team All-State after a 50 tackle, 5 sack and INT season.
My 3 cents: It is great to see football families with BYU connections continuing their pipeline to the team. If Bills is quick like his brothers (all of whom play in the secondary) he should make a great OLB.
Also, Craig Bills will only be a junior this coming year, but I am really hoping BYU can land this kid: 6'1, 180, 4A First Team All-State who had 84 tackles, 6 INTs, 10 pass deflections as a sophomore.
My question/concern is: Are we relying too much on a Timpview pipeline? This is the second LB commit from Timpview this year (Alisa committed recently), and we had 3 from them last year. If they are good talent, all the better.
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Yeah, I think BYU is. While I like that Mendenhall is going after guys that understand and can handle the BYU culture, I think he may be overdoing it a bit. Maybe we should make Cosmo a Thunderbird and be the BYU Thunderbirds. Having played high school football in Texas, I'm a big believer in out-of-state talent. We have yet to see if the Ungas, Ashworths and the Coveys pan out, but I hope some talented, out-of-stater that wants to play for BYU doesn't get denied because all of the available scholarships were given to some sophmore local boy.
We are definitely too dependent on the Timpview pipeline. Having been in the program as a player, it was a joke how many Timpview guys were on the team. To be honest, there were only a few who could really play. I really think BYU relies too heavily on local talent. Having grown up watching football in the south (Florida & Texas) and played High School ball in one of the toughest leagues in Washington State, I can tell you from experience that Utah is NOT the hot bed for talent that it appears to be. Most of those Timpview kids would never have been stars in more talented states.
My two cents, Ashworth has a chance, but if the Covey's and Ungas are our "go to" guys, I think we're in trouble. And for the other 10 Timpview guys on the teams. They are definitely taking up space of more worthy players who could possibly have a chance to contribute.
Think what would've happened if walk-ons Nate Meikle and Ben Criddle didn't get on the team because of too many Timpview kids?
For every Timpview kid that didn't pan out, we could easily find a couple of out-of-staters that didn't pan out. I think it's a moot point.
I love it when some hot California team gets worked by a Utah, Mormon-boy team. Granted you see this more in basketball because of the nature of the sport (tournament play and such), but I don't buy into the notion that you find better talent out of state. Yes, you find more talent, because there are more people. So there are disproportionately more Timpview kids. I don't mind. . .just keep on winning.
Aaron, my point is that it is wrong to sign so many kids from the same high school. Utah has talent, but I don't think that all of it goes to Timpview. One of the high school teams I played on was amazing, and there were three of us that got schollies to D-1 schools. I got an injury that I couldn't recover from, my other two buddies are playing pro ball.
Is there talent in Utah? Yes, is there just as much talent per capita as other states? Arguable.
My point is I get tired of seeing 5 or 6 guys from Timpview get on the team every year at BYU. There are very few high schools in the nation that can say they landed 5 or 6 of their players at D-1 programs of the caliber of BYU.
I think BYU needs to open their recruiting eyes...
I'm not from Utah and I didn't go to high school there. I AM however sensing some intense Timpview jealousy. The "Fab 4" were thus named by the state media for a reason. Bronco doesn't play favorites, and recruiting has never been better than it is now under him. There's no room for anyone to complain.
As far as the "Local Talent and Timpview" issue as well as some of the comments that out of state talent might be better, consider this:
The Bills Family is originally from California and moved to Utah from Colorado only 2 years ago.
KC, the older brother was an All American, number #2 ranked fullback in the nation in 2001, out of Colorado, while Kelly, who is currently the 2nd team MLB behind Kelly Poppinga was an All Colorado QB.
A lot of these Timpview kids, it seems like, are coming from the same couple of families. I see no problem with this. These families have given a lot to BYU, and if the kids have the talent--give them the chance. It would be crummy for the youngest brother not to have a chance just because we've capped out our Timpview roster spots. And maybe that youngest brother is the most talented in the family. . .
Again, just keep winning. . .and I think we will. . .and so I won't complain about recruiting.
Reports are that the Sophomore, Craig Bills, is the best of the bunch. It is hard to argue that the Reynolds family hasn't produced the best bunch of linemen of any family in BYU history.
If I get some time, I'll run through the current Timpview grads and see who is panning out.
FWIW, I think the number of Timpview alumni playing for BYU is a bigger perception issue than a substantive one. Not counting Ashworth and Covey who are on missions right now, there are 5 (not 10) former Timpview players currently on the roster.
Of those, three were/are walkons and only two, Dallas Reynolds and Harvey Unga, were initially offered scholarships.
Reynolds is certainly not a minimally talented local player. He was a freshman All-American and will likely be a 4 yr starter.
About Unga, Coach Mendenhall has said he expects him to be an impact player for BYU, one who will provide a significant boost for the program.
I really doubt that BYU starts off it's recruiting saying, "OK, lets offer all the Timpview athletes first and then see how many scholarships we have for the rest of the country".
Timpview has consistently been the top 4A team in the state - that means they have talented players. The fact that those players tend to want to play at BYU more than other schools is a bonus, not a problem.
In the class of 2007, there were
Famika Anae, Eathyn Manumaleuna, and Houston Reynolds.
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