Walk-on test to begin at Y.

PROVO — BYU football has its own game of "Survivor," sans TV network or cable rights.

In about a dozen days, more than 50 young men with football dreams will flood into BYU's football complex and try and walk on to Bronco Mendenhall's football team.

They'll be vying for about five to 10 slots in spring practice, positions that will be held open for preferred walk-ons who'll be tested and tried and maybe invited back for two-a-day drills in August. At that time, any survivors from spring will be compared with newcomers during the summer with the same designs. By the end of August, a few may survive and become part of the team.

"The way Bronco used walk-ons this past year, and how it got covered by the media, apparently opened the floodgates," said recruiting coordinator Paul Tidwell.

"Every one of these kids have a chance," Mendenhall said Wednesday on signing day. "I'm not a discriminator against freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, scholarship, walk-on. I'm going to play the best guys who work the hardest."

Last season, after injuries sidelined linebackers Paul Walkenhorst, Bryant Atkinson and defensive backs K.C. Bills and corner Brandon Heaney, Mendenhall elevated Markell Staffieri, Hala Paongo, Kayle Buchanan and Spencer White. In all, 13 of 22 defenders on BYU's defensive two-deep were walk-on types.

"That's encouraging," according to John Sheffield, father of one 2005 senior, an all-state running back at Colorado's Columbine High. His son Scott, a 5-foot-9, 180-pound scatback, rushed for 1,400 yards this past season for an 11-3 team considered the top football program in the state the past six years.

Scott Sheffield is LDS, student body president at Columbine, averaged 11 yards a carry the past two years, and returned punts and kicks. His coach, Andy Lowry, believes Sheffield is the best cover corner in Colorado.

Still, when MWC coaches came calling, he said he'd hold out for BYU and met them wearing a BYU sweatshirt. He has already been accepted at BYU, has BYU in his e-mail address and is determined somehow, some way to play as a Cougar.

Sheffield won't arrive in Provo until this summer. He will go on a mission after his freshman year. But at present, BYU doesn't need a running back, but they've invited Sheffield to walk on this fall. Mendenhall's "fair chance" pitch to walk-ons rings true to some athletes. Feb. 14 is roll call day for the first wave, a literal horde of walk-on candidates.