It's time to get a few things off my chest
Over the last 10 days or so, I spent a reasonable amount of time on my personal Twitter soapbox, begging for schools to offer a few of the best high school players in the state. In the end, Micah Beckstead received a PWO offer from BYU (I have my thoughts that I'll keep to myself about that offer) and Kadiyon Sweat pulled in offers from Weber State, Colorado State and Utah State.
Did those offers come as a result of my Twitter campaign? Of course they didn't. But the coincidental timing was curious to say the least.
So, last night, I climbed back on the soapbox and began pining for BYU and Utah to offer Lehi's Isaac "Bobby" Terrell. I expected feedback from fans and a few family members of Terrell and the Lehi football family.
I didn't expect the onslaught of feedback from, well, everyone. Fellow-recruits like Smith Snowden and Spencer Fano pledged their support for Terrell. Current BYU players like Logan Fano went to bat for Terrell. Trainers, media personalities, countless fans and high school football coaches, and just about anyone else who has ever seen Terrell play voiced their opinion in support of Terrell getting an offer.
The dude is great. He deserves to play in the state's biggest schools. He is very, very good.
I'll continue to lead the Bobby Terrell campaign, but that's not what we're here to talk about today.
No, instead we're here to talk about me and the things that I need to get off my chest. In my pseudo-media life I tend to keep my personal opinion of things out of the public eye. I report things that I hear from sources that I trust and I go to bat for those reports, but generally speaking, I'm going to bat for my sources and the news, not for what I actually believe.
I go to bat for recruits because I want them to succeed, but when it comes to how things relate to BYU, I generally keep that portion out of it.
But when I went to bat for Terrell (and Sweat and Beckstead), it felt good. Those were my opinions. And it felt good to talk about those kids, and in addition, to call out what I perceive as failures by BYU and Utah for overlooking those kids.
It felt good to get my own opinion off my chest. And dammit if I don't have additional things that I need to get off my chest. So, here we go. Let's do it.
Thing 1: Stop peddling every piece of negative anything you hear about BYU like you're some kind of insider making a difference by spreading the word of awareness. Because none of us really are.
I go out of my way to tell people that I'm not an insider. Because I'm not. I know a few people who are and those are the people I trust when information is shared. They're insiders. I'm not.
For every piece of information that I share from those people that I trust and who actually are insiders, I get told about 1000 pieces of information from someone who heard something or other from someone or other.
Seriously, I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "If what I'm hearing is true then, X, Y and Z."
First, if your phrase is 'if what I'm hearing is true' then you're just like me - a guy on the outside without any real information.
Second, if you're sharing as if it's some kind of nuclear bomb secret in a 'I know something that you don't know' kind of thing, then you're trying to convince people that you are an insider when you're really not.
I fully understand that there is a level of hypocrisy in what I'm saying here as I share information in sometimes vague ways. It's not the information that is the issue, it's that these kinds of comments and stories come out in droves when things are going poorly.
People love negative stories. People love sharing negative stories. And people love the idea of an impending doom.
Nobody likes to BE negative. Nobody likes to HAVE negative stories about them. And, obviously, nobody WANTS impending doom.
But damn we sure love talking about it.
Thing 2: I'm so tired of whining.
I have three kids ages 8, 6 and 4. Whining is just something that I get to live with.
Similarly, I am age 33 and consistently the whiniest person that I know. I whine about the cold. I whine about the heat. I whine about being hungry. I whine about being tired. I have been known to whine.
But when I whine about being cold, I try to figure out a way to get warm.
When I whine about being hot, I try to cool down.
I eat when I'm whining about being hungry.
I sleep when I'm whining about being tired.
I take Advil when I'm whining about a headache.
I whine, and that's annoying to my wife, but I go out of my way to ensure that my whining is accompanied by some kind of action.
I'm tired of hearing whining that is just whining.
Going back to our negative news spreading from earlier, I have heard many, many complaints of late about how Player X is feeling a certain way and, therefore, Person Y is concerned about Coach Z.
I'm so tired of hearing about players whining. I love our BYU players. I love the amount of work that they put in. But I don't love hearing about whining as if work doesn't matter.
This coaching staff has hordes of problems that have to be addressed in the coming weeks, everyone knows that. There will be jobs lost and there will be shuffling and mixing of duties. It's inevitable. (People need to stop acting like it's not going to happen. If it doesn't happen, then feel free to incite a riot in Provo. But read between the lines, folks, it's going to happen after the season - potentially as early as next week.)
But the coaches can't do everything in a program. At some point, players have to be the ones making plays. Instead, we hear about players who are upset with playing time, or upset with the scheme, or upset with the parking situation, or upset with who their locker room is next to, or upset with who was recruited, or upset with any other number of things. To those players, I have a very simply request. I simply request that you do one of the following two things:
A) Leave.
It has never been easier to transfer from a school. Players have more control over their college career than they have ever had. If you want to leave and go to another environment, then you should. There is literally nothing anyone can do to stop you.
B) Don't leave and put your head down and work.
I can promise you that coaches and fans want you at BYU. If you choose to stay at BYU, then do everything you can to make BYU great. That comes from your own effort and your own progress, but also from the tone that you set for those around you. If you choose to stay, find your inner-Mamba and work harder than you are right now. If you think you're working hard already, work harder. Help a teammate find an extra gear. Take on a leadership role.
You, player, create the culture. Coaches can only help point people in the right direction. But you create the culture. So please, if you choose to stay, work your ass off.
It's like Remember the Titans, right? Coach Boone could only do so much on his own. It wasn't until his players had a lightbulb moment in Gettysburg and agreed to come together that the culture of TC Williams changed. Coach Boone couldn't make that happen. He tried his best to get the players on board, but ultimately, it was the players who had to get on board.
If you're staying at BYU, get on board and stop whining.
Effort over everything.
Thing 3: I want you to care about BYU recruiting, but that may not mean what you think it means.
Recruiting is the most misunderstood process in all of college football. People equate it to sales and because people understand sales, they feel that they understand recruiting.
There are certainly sales elements to recruiting, but it's so much more than sales. Think of it like someone who thinks marketing is all about advertising but doesn't understand anything about market research, big data, product design or pricing.
Advertising isn't marketing and sales isn't recruiting.
When it comes to recruiting, here are my high level sections that are part of the process.
A) Talent Evaluation
B) Roster Management
C) NCAA Rules and Regulation
D) NIL, For Better or Worse
E) Relationships
F) Fan Involvement
G) The Sales Part Finally
Recruiting is massive. There are so many layers to it. If you would like to know more about each of those layers, I would love to tell you about each of them. There are too many words to go into that level of detail today, but that's how complex recruiting really is.
Some coaches are good at areas A, C, E, and G but struggle mightily in E. Sometimes D is is what prevents BYU from being an option (pun intended). Sometimes, believe it or not, F is what turns players off more than anything else and all of A-E + G actually worked out really well.
Recruiting is complex. BYU fans need to understand those complexities. Too many BYU fans care about star ratings and Signing Day and have zero context from anything else related to recruiting. Please, let's learn these things together, my lovely friends.
Those are the three things I needed to get off my chest. There are more, to be sure, because I've got a lot of problems with you people!
But these three will suffice for today.