The big one? Recruiting hype is unfinished business

I don't generally look further into the future than my next meal. Today, for instance, I'm planning on having peanut butter and jam for lunch. Beyond that, the answer is blowin' in the wind.

Tomorrow it could be an egg salad sandwich, pizza or a spinach salad.

I'm versatile that way.

I go with my gut, so to speak.

In that light, I also don't pay much attention to football recruiting day, which is coming up Wednesday. It burns too many brain cells for me to imagine what a player will mean five or seven years down the road.

Nevertheless, there will be a lot of stuff in the paper about whom the Utes, Cougars and Aggies signed. Sometimes they turn out to be stars, but often you never hear from them again. Projecting ahead on recruits is like projecting ahead on retirement.

Pretty iffy business.

All I need to know about recruiting can be summed up in a Feb. 5, 2003, recruiting day headline that said, "BYU lands 'big one."'

The "big one" was 6-foot-3, 320-pound offensive lineman Ofa Mohetau, who faxed his national letter of intent at 7:21 in the morning on signing day. According to the accompanying story, "there was much rejoicing within the BYU football office, where most of the coaches had convened before sunrise."

Whatever happened to Mohetau? He played one year at BYU and was gone. Ended up at the College of the Sequoias, then Texas Tech. Last I heard, he was launching a career in mixed martial arts.

For the BYU coaches, it probably wasn't worth getting up that early.

Remember when Ben Olson was supposed to be the Cougars' next Hall of Fame quarterback?

The other thing I know about recruiting is that even when they sign a highly touted receiver/quarterback/linebacker, that doesn't mean he's going to play that position. Brent Casteel, the successful Ute wideout, was recruited as a running back. Teammate Paul Kruger, the all-Mountain West Conference defensive end, was a high school quarterback.

It's sort of like buying a blender and using it to wash your socks.

This type of bait-and-switch doesn't diminish the annual countdown to signing day. In 2003, Utah coach Urban Meyer called offensive lineman Paul Soliai the "Cadillac" of the team's recruiting class, and in a sense he was. He went on to win all-conference honors and play for the Miami Dolphins. Likewise, Meyer touted JC transfer tailback Quinton Ganther and a Texas high school quarterback named Brian Johnson. BYU was thrilled to get receiver Austin Collie when it signed him.

Sometimes it works out nicely.