Mendenhall said BYU tried to go after an increasing number of prospects whose body builds would fit two types of players: those who can play tight end/defensive end/outside linebacker; and those who fit the running back/safety/linebacker mold.

"That's a great fit for our program," said Mendenhall, who believes those players can be fit into key or critical need areas and play a significant role in special teams play. "It also helps to have a guy who can kick it out of the stadium," he said, referencing Bingham's Sorensen.

Mendenhall decried the system of ranking how good recruits are by "stars" a tool deployed by popular Internet recruiting sites Scout.com and Rivals.com. The stars, said Mendenhall, mean nothing and he teased those who rush to their computers to see how many stars an athlete has earned in a ranking.

Of BYU's 22 starters on the 11-2 MWC championship team, 14 did not earn any star rating in high school and of the remaining eight, the average star rating was 2.5 stars. "So, according to that, we shouldn't have recruited 14 of our players on the 2007 team that went undefeated in conference play."

Head of the class: TE Austin Holt

Immediate impact: K Justin Sorensen

Near miss: Uona Kaveinga

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E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com