BYU's most-experienced QB now a DB

Riley Nelson is the only BYU quarterback with starting experience at the collegiate level, but there is actually a current BYU player with more collegiate quarterback starts on his resume.

His name is Dalin Tollestrup, who in 2006 was Canada's Freshman of the Year while taking snaps and making eight starts for the University of Calgary. Yet even as a promising Canadian collegiate career began, Tollestrup harbored a dream to play at BYU — something he was hoping to do coming out of Raymond (Alberta) High School. Securing a recruiting visit to Provo was a step in that direction.

"The recruiting trip was everything a kid dreams of," Tollestrup said. "Not many players from Southern Alberta get that opportunity."

Tollestrup's visit was less memorable, however, for BYU's new head coach.

"I don't remember him whatsoever," says Bronco Mendenhall, who also acknowledges he was unaware of the Tollestrup family name's connection to BYU.

Dalin's uncle Phil is reputed to have scored the first points in the Marriott Center as a Cougar hoopster in the early '70s, while Phil's brother Tim was a rival player at Utah State.

"Growing up, it was always basketball, basketball, basketball," says the younger Tollestrup, who lost his high school hoops senior season to a shoulder injury suffered during his final prep football campaign.

That injury and BYU's crowded quarterback situation were factors that delayed Tollestrup's plans to play in Provo. He instead won the starting signal-caller's job at Calgary, where he set a school freshman record for passing yards and won the Peter Gorman Trophy as the country's top rookie.

His position coach and Calgary's offensive coordinator, Greg Vavra, says Tollestrup "would have had an excellent career as a college quarterback in Canada. He was one of those rare players that I thought had the ability to be a Canadian-trained QB for a CFL team. You just don't find guys with his foot speed and skill-set very often."

Tollestrup followed his freshman season with an LDS mission to El Salvador, but upon his return, he opted to leave Canada and the comforts of the quarterback position to walk on at BYU.

"My whole life is about reaching for the highest you can get," Tollestrup said. "I always had that in the back of my heart: 'What could have been if I had gone down to BYU?' I don't know if I could live with not at least trying to make something happen and giving it a shot."