Why was Ty Detmer in SLC last week?

Here are a few tidbits to cap off a very busy Monday in which changes are in the wind with BYU’s football coaching staff.

As I reported in Tuesday’s column, I met Ty Detmer in the Salt Lake City Airport last Wednesday while on my way to Albuquerque. He was running to catch a Delta flight to go home to Austin where he lives. “I’m not in the shape I used to be,” he said while laughing because he was late to board his flight and they’d been calling his name. We did not talk, only exchanged a fist bump.

I’ve known Ty Detmer since his junior year at Southwest High School in San Antonio. It is easy to throw his name as a possible coaching candidate and speculate if he’s interested and why he might have been in SLC that day.

According to an email I received at 1 a.m. Tuesday morning, Ty was in Rexburg, Idaho last week to speak to Apex alarm employees. His presence in SLC may or may not have been anything more than that.

His hopeful backers may believe it was; perhaps it was not.

Also, in a story Tuesday, I mentioned two valued sources had reported on a early Monday meeting in which BYU offensive coaches were told they would be evaluated, as always the case, but to look for jobs.

Since that time, in the late evening Monday, two more sources confirmed the discussion and said this meeting included the invitation by Bronco Mendenhall to “actively pursue” employment opportunities.

Now, some have said that means they were fired. I have not reported that. A way to interpret that is that these five coaches were released, but in a statement by BYU’s sports information department late Monday to all the media following this development, the official university word is that nobody was “released.”

That opens debate to the reader to interpret what asking employees to “actively pursue” employment. Four separate folks have said these the are words used. If it were directed towards me, I believe I would receive a message that was loud and clear that it would be in my best interests to look for another job.

I do believe that at least two of the five coaches have been informed that they have employment secured at BYU. In my opinion, from what I’ve researched, those two are Brandon Doman and Lance Reynolds.