Weekend yields three recruits

BYU added three oral commitments to the 2008 recruiting class to be signed in February after 21 high school players visited campus over the weekend.

The headliner was four-star linebacker Uona Kaveinga from Leuzinger in California, a player who had committed to UCLA this past fall and reportedly had an offer from USC. Kaveinga is known for his physical play and could be used as a middle or outside linebacker in the Cougar scheme. You can thank the “highlight” films of David Nixon, Kelly Poppinga and Bryan Kehl for allowing Kaveinga to see how Mendenhall’s 3-4 scheme features the linebacking corps as the strength of the defense for this key get as recruiting winds down.

O’Neill Chambers, a 6-foot-3, 205 receiver from Florida also committed. A three-star (Scouts.com) rated high school player, Chambers had narrowed his choices to BYU and Purdue and played for former BYU receiver Tyler Anderson. A 4.6 guy, his athleticism may be a major find for the Cougars since he is the kind of player the Cougars seem to rarely land.

The surprise commit was lineman Solomone Kafu, a 6-4, 315 pound Captial Valley Conference outstanding lineman of the year out of Sacramento, Calif., who received minimal recruiting attention due to a foot injury. Kafu is a cousin to former Grant star Christian Tupou, who signed with USC last year.

Bronco Mendenhall entered the weekend with just two scholarships but came away with three commitments. BYU will know this morning before visits to the airport, if a fourth prospect, Hamani Stevens, a lineman out of Hemet, Calif., will toss his hat BYU’s way.

The over-commit list means BYU is playing its usual game of gaining more commitments than it has scholarships for. This is because there is usually at least one casualty when it comes to academics, testing or character issues — or a late change of mind on signing day. Also, it is expected some players, perhaps Kafu, would go directly on an LDS mission and not enroll or gray shirt next fall, thus not using up one of BYU’s “initials.”

Regardless, if all the commits stay true, Mendenhall is apparently headed for an outstanding class of 2008, perhaps his best. Such evaluations, however, should be made after he sophomore year for these recruiting classes.