BYU football: Cougars rescind scholarship offer to Hawaiian prep star

PROVO — Less than a week away from national signing day, it appears BYU has rescinded a scholarship offer to defensive lineman Kona Schwenke.

Cougar coaches, including head coach Bronco Mendenhall, said the offer would be pulled if Schwenke took a recruiting trip this weekend to Notre Dame, Schwenke's father, McKay, told totalbluesports.com.

Reports indicate that Schwenke, a Kahuku High (Hawaii) star who committed to BYU last summer, did go to South Bend, Ind.

As per NCAA rules, coaches can't talk about specific recruits until they sign. But BYU recruiting coordinator Paul Tidwell told the Deseret News on Friday that, in general, the program doesn't approve of committed players visiting other schools.

"They're not totally committed if that's what they're going to do," said Tidwell. "There's always a couple of players like that every year. History has shown that those that do that and waver at the end, a lot of times we end up not getting those young men, which makes us wonder how committed they were in the beginning.

"That's just part of the recruiting process. Some will be totally committed and stick with their word and don't waver at all, which is the majority. There might be one or two that waver at the end and feel pressure or are being recruited by other schools.

"I can't speak for coach Mendenhall," Tidwell said, "but I think his approach is, he wants kids who want to be here, who are 100 percent committed. If the kids aren't 100 percent sure about coming to BYU, then it might be best that they take a trip and go somewhere else."

e-mail: jeffc@desnews.com