Coach declares in-state victory

PROVO — When the BYU football program stockpiled 21 verbal commitments before the 2006 season began, some observers questioned the wisdom of that unconventional approach.

But after all but one of those players signed national letters of intent with the Cougars on Wednesday, coach Bronco Mendenhall said it's a strategy he plans to keep employing. In fact, he and his staff have spent the past three weeks working on the class of 2008.

"I expect possibly the first commitment as early as tomorrow for next year," he told assembled media and several hundred boosters who turned out for a news conference at the Cougar Room at LaVell Edwards Stadium. "We're going to continue on with this exact same pattern. Only you'll know and I'll know, over time, if it's working. That's what we're going to do."

Another key component of BYU's recruiting strategy is to sign local players. While BYU boasts the ability to recruit nationally, the process of adding new talent begins at home, Mendenhall said.

Of the 24 players who signed with the Cougars, nine of them hail from the state of Utah, including Deseret Morning News 5A Most Valuable Player Jordan Pendleton.

BYU signed seven players from California and three from Hawaii, as well as players from Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Washington

and Texas. Yet the recruiting search begins in the state of Utah. Why?

"The state is predominantly LDS, the state is predominantly family oriented, the state is predominantly — I don't know what the numbers would be — passionate about BYU football," Mendenhall explained. "Those are all things I want in our players. We went after nine in-state players and we got them all."

Mendenhall also declared the Cougars winners of the in-state recruiting battle and added that BYU should win that battle every year. "We didn't lose to anybody and won't lose to anybody, I think, from this point on in in-state recruiting," he said.

One in-state product, former North Sanpete High linebacker Austen Jorgensen, is already enrolled at BYU, having graduated from high school in December.

"We're excited about this class," said recruiting coordinator Paul Tidwell. "The majority of them are kids that have really grown up being Cougar fans and have set high goals and high standards to be a part of our football program. We're thrilled about them. We went after kids we felt were Division I players in-state and we got them on our campus and saw them in our camps. We identified them early. We hope we never lose an in-state kid that we feel is a Division I player."