Early last June, Mendenhall received a commitment from Timpview linebacker Michael Alisa, a linebacker and running back who had started his football career on the North Shore of Oahu. He'd been a life-long BYU fan at Kahuku High School, where the Cougars hoped to get another recruit, safety Shiloah Te'o.

"Bronco Mendenhall looked at Michael during Junior Day, watched him run some drills, saw how he dropped back into coverage. After 30 seconds, he made the decision to offer Michael," said Timpview coach Louis Wong.

That's pretty fast.

"Bronco saw him moving in open space chasing a receiver and he was on him like glue," said Wong.

Of course, recruiters know all about recruits. They have reputations and reports from summer camps and combines that filter down throughout players' high school careers.

Alisa is just one example of how BYU has geared its system to work in an early target.

But doesn't that get a kid short-circuited on recruiting attention, taking other trips and perhaps having some added recognition thrown his way?

"Absolutely," said Wong, noting Alisa had received recruiting attention from Washington State, UNLV, Utah, Hawaii, Cal, Oklahoma and Boise State. "A lot of people backed off once he committed to BYU, but it was his life-long dream to play for the Cougars and he decided to get it done early."

Alisa is expected to get a look at weakside linebacker, a position Timpview coaches moved him to after he played strong safety as a junior. Part of their thinking was if it was his position at the next level, why not get him some experience there.

Alisa also played running back.

"He might be a running back at the next level. He is one player that we did play both ways. We don't do that, but he was capable and he has the numbers," said Wong. "He is very quick, he is long and has length, but it is his quickness, getting to spots, that makes him good."

Doing it early isn't for everyone. Many MWC schools depend on recruits who are borderline for a Pac-10 team academically. Oftentimes, they have to wait out the qualification process and sometimes sign players contingent on them passing the NCAA Clearinghouse with grades and test scores.

BYU certainly plays that academic game, — every school in the country does — but the Cougars are not doing so to the extent as their MWC brothers, and that opens the door for more commits during the summer.

The class of 2008 by all MWC schools will more properly be evaluated by 2010, when the smoke clears on who is hype and who is real.

It'll be interesting to see how Alisa's 30-second evaluation holds up.

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E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com