Mendenhall makes good on promise of 2 years ago

PROVO — Two years ago, Bronco Mendenhall and BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe sat in a room and looked at a chart representing Cougar football personnel and recruiting classes coming and going.

They saw a lot of fissures and holes and vowed to fix them.

They decided upon a game plan: Search the globe for players who fit the BYU profile, offer qualified candidates early and fix shortfalls in targeted personnel groupings.

A year later, Mendenhall saw his program finish with a 10-game winning streak, win an undisputed conference title, win a bowl game and end with No. 15 ranking. Said Holmoe, before BYU defeated Oregon in Las Vegas: "I wouldn't have expected them to make the gains they did this year. I knew they'd be good but not this fast and to this point."

On Wednesday, BYU is expected to sign at least 25 recruits. Approximately 97 percent of those were offered and committed to the Cougars before BYU opened the 2006 season at Arizona.

Holmoe, who was a successful Pac-10 recruiter at Cal, said Mendenhall now looks over that chart in the room and feels much better about personnel groupings — and recruiting.

"That's where it all starts," Holmoe said. "You have to beat people in the streets in order to beat them on the field. There aren't very many times where you lose in the street recruiting and then beat them. It happens, but not very often. I think last year's recruiting class that came in — and a number of them had to play — was good, many contributed right away."

Of BYU's slug of early commitments for 2007, Holmoe said, "I think the football staff has made the right choices, as far as I know. There is a lot that can happen between now and five or six years. But the other thing that is happening is that athletes who are coming back are pretty good. There was a time BYU was sending guys on missions that weren't capable of being starters when they returned.

"Now, you are getting guys back off missions who you can almost pencil in, that's the big thing. I'd like to think what I said to Bronco the first days and weeks when he showed me that depth chart on who is coming and who is going, it was not great. He looked at me and I looked at him, and we said, 'OK, let's fix it.' He did, he has."

Problems included a lack of offensive linemen after 2000; and a glut of wide receivers, as many as 18, through 2003.