This is a great quote from Coach Grimes about recruiting:
How does Grimes compare recruiting at BYU to other places he’s coached?
“Easier. Your net is smaller because you’re recruiting a smaller percentage of the population. Enjoyable because of the type of kids and families that you’re dealing with. I enjoyed (recruiting at BYU) a great deal. Recruiting is an extension of coaching. You’re just beginning to build a relationship with the guys you’re going to coach a year or two or three years prior to that. The reason that I enjoyed recruiting here is the same reason I enjoyed coaching here. I’ll be honest with you recruiting for eight of the past nine years in the (Southeastern Conference) will be an asset because I’ve learned how to recruit in the most competitive of environments.”
I like the way that he uses the SEC as the benchmark–when you are recruiting kids to LSU and they have been offered by Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and Georgia, every day is a dogfight. I think he will come in with that attitude, but with his “net” being smaller, the recruits will sense a laser focus and strength that will make them confident he is the guy to coach them.
Grimes’ comment about our net being smaller is the understatement of the year. In other words, he said, “At LSU and SEC schools, you can recruit any great players in the country without regards to academics, morals, or anything else. At BYU, you are mostly recruiting slow white LDS guys from Utah, AZ, and California.”
I disagree about the slow white guy part, but get your point. We have zero chance at the type of athletes that Grimes is used to recruiting. But Sitake has made it a priority to shoot hire to get better signing classes; the ever-present challenge will be whether we can do that and still get kids who can cut the academics and the HC. This season was an epic fail not only on the field, but off it as well. They have plenty of work to do.
We got Jamaal Williams. There are many kids over looked that are out there. Grimes has already got someone coming with him to play. Maybe we even can get the elite LDS kids to play at BYU
We have some return missionaries coming back. One in particular. Jeremiah Ieremia. Does anyone know if he’s related to Mekeli Ieremia from the late 1970’s?
We have 13 early signees for football, 7 from Utah and 0 from California. Looks like BYU is losing the recruits from the state where the most and best football players come from.
Good luck improving on a 4-9 record and really one of the worst teams in the history of the program. I guess they aren’t looking for the Jamal Williams and Daniel Sorensen type players that have made a name for themselves playing at the highest level possible, but it’s a good thing they are getting the all league guys from Utah so Weber, SUU, Utah and Utah St. don’t get them.
Really? I didn’t see one player from Arizona or California on the early recruit list of 13. There are a lot of good players in California that don’t get looked at by UCLA, USC and other Pac 12 schools that BYU could get. Why aren’t they getting them now? Where are the 3 star, NFL caliber guys like Williams and Sorensen? They are here, BYU needs to get after it and quit settling for the all league guys from Utah…
Jim has a valid point about the staff not being aggressive out of the state of Utah and it does hurt the program. Even basketball, both women’s and men’s teams miss out by not expanding their work area out of Utah as much as they should. The 2 volleyball programs don’t seem to have that issue though! Hmmmmm. Look how they compete! The recruiting prep service that lists the top 200 bb players and the top 4 out of each state had 3 girls out of WA and OR who expressed interest in going to BYU and they were members of the church. BYU didn’t contact 2 of them and didn’t offer the other one. The Standish girl went on to become all American at GU and the smith and Townsend girls despite their dads being stake presidents both went to GU and were not even contacted by BYU. We will see if they can play because they will both be on the court against BYU this season. I think they are both out of WA which may be poisoned against BYU right now anyway. Chatman, Harris and Beo were all Gatorade POY in WA and all were deemed not good enough for the Y. One is starring in the ACC, one is in the NBA and Beo only scored 51 pts in his sit out season at EWU in preseason!
The main problem with those kids playing for BYU is that they were disrupting the final four run of the LP3. I want to clarify that it wasn’t just the LP3 players that ruined the last few seasons, it was the fans, the coaches, the athletic department in general and most importantly, the bubble culture that had everyone fooled into believing it was even possible.
It wasn’t going to happen and it wasn’t even debatable.
