Bingham's Mike Edmunds to accept BYU preferred walkon status

Bingham WR Mike Edmunds will walk on at BYU instead of accept scholarship offers at Weber State and SUU.

Bronco Mendenhall told Edmunds, an all-state receiver, that he’d given out 20 scholarships the past four years to walkons in his program. He liked those odds. Edmunds, who also plays baseball and is an honor student, said he could take an LDS mission this fall.

BYU coaches were at Bingham High yesterday talking to LB LT Filiaga, Edmunds’ teammate and Edmunds visited with Mendenhall on Monday to discuss his situation. He had a similar preferred walkon invitation from Utah.

Edmunds, who is 6-5, 200 pounds, had 51 catches this past year for nearly 1,000 yards and 14 touchdowns on a team that ran a lot with Harvey Langi.

In my estimation, his teammate, Filiaga is bound for Utah and will announce that soon. His older brother, a former Utah recruit, Isley, will re-enroll at Utah and he has another brother on a mission who plans to return and be at Utah.

I’m not putting a percent on it of happening:)

The other hot recruit instate who has not announced his intentions is Tiimpview’s Xavier Su’a-Filo. I think if his coach, Louis Wong is offered a job at Utah (either O-line or RB coach) and Wong asks X to come to Utah, he will do so. If not, it’s likely UCLA and BYU is the odd guy out.

I’m not putting a percent on this one either.

In other recruiting news, I just got off the phone with the mother of JRay Galea’I, the safety/corner/QB out of Kahuku High school in Hawaii. She said BYU coaches Paul Tidwell and Brandon Doman were expected in their home within the next hour. My information on Galea’I, who committed in June 2007, is that he will keep his pledge and sign with the Cougars and that the visit is a routine “firm” up on both sides after JRay took a trip to Hawaii recently.

Interesting to note, JRay is the nephew of Mark Atuaia, who is going to law school at BYU and hangs around every practice as sort of a volunteer coach and aide to Robert Anae.

While in Hawaii, Doman and Tidwell will make a home visit to Manti Teo on Sunday when he returns from his official visit to USC. Bronco Mendenhall has already made a home visit to the Teos and is allowed just one. The word I now hear about Teo’s choice is conflicting. Some of his friends who attended BYU’s summer camp with him believe he is headed for USC. Some of his family members say it will be Notre Dame.

So, what is the percentage here? Try a guess.

One funny anecdote on Edmunds. In an interview with our reporter Amy Donaldson, his father Mike shared the following:

Edmunds’ father, Gary said his son was “born to go to BYU.”

That doesn’t mean the two-sport athlete didn’t explore other options.
“Everyone told us we needed to visit Utah so we did,” said Gary Edmunds of a trip the two made last June to the Ute’s campus. After being shown around the football facilities, Gary and Mike Edmunds climbed into an SUV with a member of the Utah coaching staff for a tour of the entire campus. Mike’s older brother, who graduated from BYU a few years ago, was nervously awaiting word on the visit and apparently
couldn’t wait any longer.
“I have a ring tone for all of my kids,” Gary said. “Mike’s is the Monday Night Football theme.”
His other’s son’s ring tone is the Cougar Fight Song.
“It went off and everyone just went completely quiet,” Gary said. “I tried to silence it right away, but enough of it played that everyone
recognized it.”
Gary said his host, “looked straight into the (rearview) mirror and right into my eyes and said, “What are you guys doing here anyway?’”
Gary said that when he’s old and smiling for no apparent reason, his grandchildren can rest assured, it is that incident that is making him grin.