Mendenhall leads army of Easy Riders Saturday

They came from all over the state, different shapes, styles, colors. We’re talking motorcycles. OK, we’re talking the riders and drivers atop them too.

Bronco Mendenhall hosted a charity bike ride to Mirror Lake Saturday morning to raise money for abused women and children. The group took off from Timpanogos Harley Davidson on 1600 North Geneva Road in Orem this morning.

Mendenhall, who just returned from a 12-hour bike ride to Montana to see his wife, will lead his coaching staff on a bike to Jackson Hole on Monday where he’ll conduct a coaching retreat leading up to the start of fall camp football camp. Freshmen report on Friday.

Mendenhall told me this morning all three JC corners, Corby Eason, Brian Logan and Lee Aguirre are expected to be in camp, that there are no red flags with their academics, which is a risk when going the JC route. All just need to turn in their transcripts and they’ll be ready to go.

Mendenhall said he expects about three situations to crop up this week with player status, either academics or decisions to quit football. “This is nothing new, it is common with the opening of camp,” he said.

Mendenhall said he needs to discuss and process some information and talk to people before releasing the status of these players to the media. When asked if these affected main players or guys just on the roster. He said it deals with some main guys.

My guess is it probably involves finality of Brandon Howard and Bernard Afutiti and the mission status of nose guard Russ Tialavea. There is an outside chance it may involve a surprise of some kind with another potential starter or backup who will not be eligible or has decided to quit or transfer similar to Matt Ah You.

I spoke to Jaime Hill briefly and he is excited to get some new bodies in camp and see what they can do. Hill won’t be riding a bike to Jackson Hole, he’s going to drive, but he did wear his biker shirt and rented a black Harley for Saturday’s charity ride. “It’s just too long on a bike to drive to Jackson,” Hill said.