Hans Olsen apparently is carrying Kalani's water and gave the dad radio time. Bad form, if you ask me. Let the schools work it out.
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Hans Olsen apparently is carrying Kalani's water and gave the dad radio time. Bad form, if you ask me. Let the schools work it out.
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Tukuafu's father was just on 1280. He wasn't very informed about what happened and what is happening. The son came home from his mission in November and decided he wanted to go to BYU. The father did not meet with the USU coaches and it does not sound like the son physically met with them to inform them of the decision. He enrolled in BYU. He may or may not be on athletic scholarship although he is receiving financial aid. There are kids who qualify for federal grants and who are on athletic scholarships. An athletic scholarship does not preclude federal money based financial aid. He is not practicing with team. I am sure that BYU does not have him on the 105 allowed in camp because they don't think he will be eligible.
Most of us who've served LDS missions know how we all needed a little time to adjust to the cold, cruel world when we returned. Wittingly or not, BYU takes advantage of that unsettled mindset when it recruits missionaries who've played or committed elsewhere. It's wrong.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Seriously? Young men go on missions and then decide to go to BYU. Whether they play football or not it is very common. Each of my boys heavily entertained the idea—it's very normal.
Sitake is on record as saying he does not recruit players on missions, because he doesn't. But if they decide they want to transfer upon returning home, he welcomes them gladly and would be a fool not to. Don't be a dip sh** LA.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
In our home growing up, dip sh** was both a sincere statement of how one feels concerning someone else's behaviour, as we'll as a term of endearment. Though, I'm regretting the latter sentiment, if you truly are serious.
The kid wants to go to BYU. There was no recruitment. The jealousy you all are exhibiting here is asinine. You don't see me getting all uppity about the five star receiver joining your team after his 4th run in with the law do you? Everyone deserves a 5th chance after all.
Call it what you want, but Sitake communicates with missionaries all the time. Bronco did, too (I know of one kid Bronco emailed all the time even after the kid had actually signed his LOI with another school, which was about as blatant of a recruiting violation as you will see). Sitake may say that it's not "recruiting," bu the fact is that he's constantly communicating with a lot of these kids for the entire time they're gone.
Here is my take on LDS missions. If you plan to go before enrolling. Don't sign an LOI. If you do sign an LOI and leave before enrolling, that should be binding on you when you return and it should be binding on the institution. As it currently stands, it does tie a kid to a school subject to normal transfer rules, but it does not tie the school to the kid. The school can say sorry we don't have room. I think that is wrong.
Recruit and write are different things? I think they are one in the same, but to each their own. I know he/his staff write to kids they have relationships with (not a technical violation of NCAA rules) who committed/signed elsewhere while they are on their missions. Kalani says he does not recruit kids on missions, fine. wink, wink
Utah never had verbally committed kids going on missions before enrolling, sign LOI's. They did this past recruiting class. It is my understanding that Utah will have kids sign LOI's while on their missions the December or February before they return. This doesn't hurt Utah because the recruiting rules are changing and you can sign 25 and initial 25 and push forwards will no longer be allowed to play in the Fall and count against the following year's numbers.
I'm not offended, tooblue. Just joshing around with you. The way the recruiting thing happens with missionaries simply bugs me. That's all. It's not the end of the world. I understand why BYU does it. They have plenty of disadvantages, being a church-owned school, and they need to press what advantages they do have because of that status. I don't think it makes a big difference.. It just bugs me. I think I have a constitutional right to be bugged. Maybe you don't have that in Canada, but I can't be responsible for your choice of residence.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I live in the "mission field." I've met a few D1 football players over the past several years. A couple prominent ones signed with BYU, one prominent player signed with Utah. I'm as big a college football fan as you can find. Taking every opportunity to talk about the sport etc. I've asked them directly, do the coaches contact you in the mission field; do other coaches from other schools contact and still recruit you? The answer: They sometimes got an email from the coach they committed to, but never got a letter from an opposing team's coach ... the Utah player said: "I wouldn't even open the email, even if Bronco did email me."
Your sentiments on what's going on are overstated.
What I have personally seen happen is that members who are BYU alums, fans, even former players, talk to the missionaries and put them in touch with the coaches. This is especially effective when the person doing the encouraging is a high-level ecclesiastical officer. The missionaries reach out to the BYU coaches, who happily take their calls and stay in touch with them. It's probably totally legal. It just bugs me, which, as I noted above, is my constitutional right.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
What I have personally seen happen is those conversations are initiated primarily by the missionary, and not the ecclesiastical leader, or a coach. It is my Charter of Rights mandate to speak my mind on this subject (unless, my speech is deemed hateful, then I could be censured, ostracized, lose my job, called before a human rights commission and fined heavily).
Based on the limited evidence we have, I assume your boys are total nut jobs. No offense.
I have always been in favor of open transfer rules. If a players wants out, he gets out. There should be no release required. The only stipulation is that no player should be allowed to transfer to an opponent on any future schedule.
BYU will always prey on the vulnerable and scared. The kids I've known in Wisconsin, Carolina, Louisiana, and Colorado who go there are afraid of state schools, non-Mormons, and of not meeting LDS girls. This is why BYU exists. So, yeah, they will always poach missionaries for their football team. It's one of the strongest cards they can play. Sitake's job depends on one thing only - winning. He will do everything he can for every edge he can get. Even Whittingham's high road is strategic. He knows that some players and parents will respect the fact that he respects their mission enough not to recruit them during their service. He will win some folks over that way.
I don't blame Sitake for recruiting missionaries. It's his only hope. If he lost that pipeline, BYU would die and die quickly.
BYU's high school recruiting sucks. Plain and simple. What boosts their classes is their missionary recruiting.
Sitake knows this. He can't get Tualatao (spelling?) out of high school. He can't get Harvey Langi out of high school. Talent like that doesn't want to play for G5 BYU.
BUT, when the spirit is strong, when a boy thinks his role in life is to be Bishop and have lots of future missionaries, that's Sitake's best shot at getting big time talent.
So, he takes it.
In the same vein, I don't blame Wells for fighting back. What Sitake and other BYU coaches do is dirty and wrong.
Sounds like Sitake reached out to Harrison Handley and tried to get him to graduate transfer to BYU. He and Detmer will do whatever it takes to win.
Also, I do believe Detmer was sanctioned as a high school coach for paying players. If you think he is suddenly following the rules....
Ha ha.
I love the fact that this hullabaloo is over a 2* kid whose last time on a field as a player was at East high school in the fall of 2013.
So do I and one day a salt lake media person will have the guts to ask Kalani directly if he/his staff has ever had any communication with kids on missions he had a prior relationship with who committed/signed with another school and Kalani will answer that he does not recruit kids on missions and the salt lake media will say, that is not what I asked, and will re-ask the question and Kalani will either be truthful (Knowing him, I think he will do this), say nothing or reiterate that he does not recruit kids on missions.
Now, he doesn't communicate every week or even every month, but I know for a fact that he has sent notes to some kids 3 or 4 times during the mission. If you have a preexisting relationship, it is not an NCAA violation to do so, even if the kid has signed an LOI with another school. I am not really bothered by it.
One way to combat what BYU coaches are doing with missionaries is for LDS coaches on other staffs around the country to reach out and similarly "encourage" LDS players on missions in their service to the church. If coaches around the country don't know where a missionary is serving, some legal action to ensure equal access to that information might help expose the practice.
BYU coaches get away with it because other schools let it happen. If there's loophole in the recruiting rules because a coach and player belong to the same church, then that loophole should be maximized... by all LDS coaches, wherever they coach across America, then maybe BYU will cut stop exploiting the grey area, or the rules will become stricter.
Please ... no one is letting anything happen, implying they are complicit in wrong doing. There is no wrong doing. It's the athlete on a mission who initiates the contact.
Isn't that what this is supposedly all about: holding a young man accountable for his decisions—per Wells and USU?
Last edited by tooblue; 08-03-2017 at 08:25 AM.