BYU junior day kicks off summer grid extravaganza

Summer camps are becoming a utility club in Bronco Mendenhall’s bag.

He’s got the official summer camps yet to come, the junior day just finished on Friday, and an official Nike Camp Saturday on campus. Later this month BYU will host one of the most popular passing league competitions in the region, one that will attract an estimated 80 high schools. Add up the body count and these events will bring an estimated 4,000 youth to the Cougar football facilities and campus in coming weeks.

No secret that this is a huge tool in recruiting, the engine that runs college sports.

On Friday, BYU finished its third junior day of the year and it attracted 140 of the top athletes from Texas to Washington and other regional states. Some of the prospects in attendance, like Timpview’s Craig Bills and Tui Crichton, have already committed to the Cougars. But also in attendance were some key athletes who are considering offers, including T-Bird lineman Xavier Su’afilo, quarterbacks Jake Heaps (Washington) and Tysom Hill (Idaho) and other blue chippers like Highland High’s Latu Heimuli , Bingham’s L.T. Filiaga and Spanish Fork tight end Richard Wilson.

BYU coaches cannot comment on prospects, even those who are considered in the fold, but publicly, they can discuss the agenda and give a status report of how they think the camp went and the schedule involved.

“We had one high school coach, unsolicited, tell us that of all the junior days he’s attended, this one had by far the best talent pool he has seen. It’s getting better and better,” said BYU assistant coach Paul Tidwell, who is BYU’s recruiting coordinator.

On Saturday, many of these same athletes will stick around for a Nike camp at BYU, something that could be considered a coup for the Cougars. To my knowledge, BYU will be the first MWC or WAC school to host a Nike Camp.

Unlike Saturday’s Nike camp, where BYU’s role is only as host and coaches cannot get involved, Friday (junior day) proved the perfect incubator setting to orient, show off, indoctrinate and sell Bronco Mendenhall’s program to recruits and their parents. In the past three years, Mendenhall’s staff has honed this to an exact science and it has proved very effective in getting early commits.

While there were no oral commitments given to BYU on Friday, there could be some drop through in the next few days as the Cougars complete this big weekend and many Polynesians attend a Poly Football Camp here in Utah.

The junior day agenda was as follows:

Around 9 a.m. there was a pre-meeting and registration period with an official welcome on the third floor of the Student Athlete Building where the juniors heard remarks from Indianapolis Colts linebacker Rob Morris. Mendenhall also gave some remarks, explaining his philosophy, the BYU football program and operations and then he introduced his staff.

The next 30 minutes were spent in a breakout session where campers met separately with position coaches according to what spots they are determined to play. During that time everyone introduced themselves, BYU’s specific schemes were explained, the staff introduced their technology and computers used for teaching players, and then went over what they’d be doing on the field.

Mendenhall met separately with campers who have committed and those he had offered scholarships to. Their parents, if present, were invited to be present for this individualized presentation – a more detailed pitch on BYU football specifically tailored for each recruit.

The on field session, held in the indoor practice facility, included break outs with position coaches, QBs with Brandon Doman, WRs with Patrick Higgins and so forth. After half an hour, there was a crossover session with some fieldwork of DBs going against WRs, etc.

It ended with a lunch and some players headed out for an off campus testing session that cannot be part of Saturday’s Nike camp on BYU’s campus as per new NCAA rules.

“What we do now, since we can’t test them and work them out, is just get them running around doing football movement so we can see how they react, how they move, what they’re like in space and motion,” said Tidwell.

“They come on campus, they can see what we have. We can see them run around and see their athleticism. It is more of a kind of athleticism deal nowadays and that has been a real advantage for us, even with this half a day deal like we had Friday. Some of them will be in our camps this summer and we can continue to do this.”

BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said on Friday his athletic department is now tweaking a key component (marketing and injection of philosophy) into on-campus summer sports camps like the ones that will bring 4,000 youth on campus for football in coming weeks.

Basketball coach Dave Rose just finished his first of three summer camp sessions for 10 to 16 year olds and that session had 450 campers. In past years he’s usually had 300, 350 to 450 kids attend those sessions. “Right now, I expect all our sessions will be 450, which is quite a bit more than we’ve had. It’s due to our population base here growing, but it’s also due to the success we’ve had recently,” said Rose.

Holmoe explains a game plan he believes will market BYU to potential students and specifically those deemed worthy of recruiting.

“Our camps are conducted by Special Courses and Conferences, the same folks who do EFY and they do a great job. What we will be doing is interject our own brand of what Mendenhall is doing, his philosophy, in our marketing and presentation to campers. It’s a great opportunity to expose a lot of people to what we do, what we believe and why we are doing it our way,” said Holmoe.