Anyone Notice the Quality of 2014 Recruits?

I have to believe that Ziggy's #5 draft selection, BYU's high ranking defense, and the Independence exposure on ESPN is starting to pay dividends with the recruits. The quality of players seems to be very good for a still young recruiting season, and it appears that they are focusing in on the areas that they wish to establish a presence and dominate: OL, DL, LB.



DE 24 Sione Takitaki (Heritage HS) Menifee, CA 6-3/240

DE 59 Zac Dawe (Pleasant Grove HS) Pleasant Grove, UT 6-4/275/4.80

DE 65 Isaiah Nacua (Bishop Gorman HS) Las Vegas, NV 6-2/255

DT 42 Teancum (Tico) Fuga ((Edison HS), Huntington Beach, CA 6-1/278

OLB 74 Fred Warner (Mission Hills HS) San Marcos, CA 6-3/205



OT NR Chandon Herring (Perry HS) Gilbert, AZ 6-7/260

OT NR Austin Chambers (Shawnee Mission West HS) Shawnee Mission, KS 6-5/285



WR NR Trey Dye (Cooper HS) Cooper, TX 5-11/175/4.50



QB NR Neil Pauu (Servite HS) Anaheim, CA 6-3/190

It is exciting, let's hope it carries over into substantial results on the field.

I'm very excited about the 2014 recruits.



People can talk about how star ratings don't matter. They're wrong of course and now that they won't have to apologize for the lack of 3* recruits things will improve. I just wish there were more spots available.

Sorry to be Ignorant, but how are you measuring this class compared to other classes? Is it substantive and measurable or is there just hype that is being attached rightly or wrongly to Ziggy Indy, and Espie? Is it causation or correlation? I really don't know.

Cougs_Rule wrote:
Sorry to be Ignorant, but how are you measuring this class compared to other classes? Is it substantive and measurable or is there just hype that is being attached rightly or wrongly to Ziggy Indy, and Espie? Is it causation or correlation? I really don't know.

Already better than 2011 and 2013 classes in terms of ratio of 2:3* recruits per rivals and yahoo. I'm also excited to see the 2012 recruits on the field. I think the 2013 class is undervalued because there are a lot of JC transfers. (So even if they aren't as good they don't hurt as much as a 2* recruit who burns a schollie for 5-6 years without contributing).

Hard to tell what we are getting. I think we are getting studs. With so few schollies available I would hope we are holding out for the best available.

scott715 wrote:
Hard to tell what we are getting. I think we are getting studs. With so few schollies available I would hope we are holding out for the best available.

Most of the recruits so far are going on missions so don't count against the 4-5 scholarships left for 2014.

Interesting trend so far...out of the 9 committed recruits, only one (Zac Dawe) is from within state. IMO we appear to be attracting more out-of-state (i.e. UT) top LDS talent from a variety of very competitive programs. I am not too worried about the star ratings at this point as Bronco and staff have proven that they can identify talent way before the scouting magazines/writers hop on the bandwagon. Case in point, Fred Warner, Sione Takitaki and Tico Fuga are continuing to attract the attention of more schools even after being offered and then committing to BYU (excluding the typical Yewt practice of offering our recruits afterwards)...kind of like Burger King following the initial site building locations of new McDonalds eateries.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/252/brigham-young" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



At this stage of the recruiting process, ESPN is ranking our 2014 class stronger than Scout. The first 8 BYU commits are ranked in the Top 100 of their position (they are also listed as 3 or 4 stars), and most of them are within the Top 50. Seems to be a very solid class, however, current group is primarily on defense while offense lingers behind.

byucougar1 wrote:

Fred Warner, Sione Takitaki and Tico Fuga

I am very excited about these recruits. I think Fred Warner has lots of upside - will be an impact type guy. Also, I really like "Talkie-talkie". I think (wherever they play him) that he's gonna hurt some folks. Going to be fun to watch. And Teancum "Tico" Fuga? He's bigger and faster than his brother was in high school. And ..... Boise St., Utah, and Utah St. wanted him. He's solid - going to be impressive and have an impact. We got luck with "Tico." He was ready to go to Yewtah when Bronco offered him a schollie. It was a "near miss."

According to Gurney, the D recruiting will be completed if they land:

OLB Isaiah Kafusi

OLB/DE Tyler Nolan Cook

DB Kavika Fonua



Should this happen, this group would be a great foundation for a top 10 defense.



[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

Yes. And Gurney said it would be the Best D recruiting class ever at BYU that he's covered.

That would be awesome!

Now, not to be negative, but will this create a hole in the Offense?

But come to think about it, this 2014 class will be filling a hole/dearth in the 2014 defense. I wonder if BYU defensive cupboards might be a little bare next year.

Not sure how this plays out, but with Chasen Andersen being released from his signed LOI to play for his dad at WI, makes me wonder if they fill his position in 2013 or with a 2014 available schollie.

byucougar1 wrote:
Chasen Andersen being released from his signed LOI to play for his dad at WI.

http://wisconsin.scout.com/2/1303012.html



Well crap. That puts a downer on a good day for Cougar Football.

Is the kid crazy? He was worried about getting a scholarship and they were short on them with unfilled needs. It said he was a 2 star recruit and had offers from Montana. Did not put him in a good light to their fans.

Below is an updated list of BYU football recruits from the class of 2014 by state:



Cedric Dale, 5-8, 170 RB from Lewisville, Texas (Hebron High School)

Trey Dye, 5-11, 175 WR from Cooper Texas (Cooper H.S.)



Zac Dawe, 6-4, 260 DE from Pleasant Grove, Utah (Pleasant Grove H.S.)

Kavika Fonua, 6-0, 200 DB from Syracuse, Utah (Syracuse High School)



Neil Pauu, 6-3, 190 QB from Anaheim, Calif. (Servite H.S.)

Fred Warner, 6-3, 205 LB from San Marcos, Calif. (Mission Hills H.S.

Sione Takitaki, 6-3, 240 DE from Menifee, Calif. (Heritage High School)

Teancum Fuga, 6-2, 320 DT from Huntington Beach, Calif. (Edison High School)

Tyler Cook, 6-3, 220 LB from Murrieta, Calif. (Vista Murrieta High School)

Nick Kurtz, 6-6, 205 WR from El Cajon, Calif. (Grossmont Community College)



Austin Chambers, 6-5, 285 OL from Shawnee Mission, Kan. (Shawnee Mission West H.S.)

Earl Mariner, 6-4, 300 DT from Topeka, Kansas (Washburn Rural High School)



Chandon Herring, 6-7, 260 OL from Gilbert, Ariz. (Perry High School)

Matt Bushman, 6-5, 205 tight end from Tucson, Ariz. (Sabino High School)



Michael Shelton, 5-8, 170 CB from Raleigh, N.C. (Wakefield High School)

This looks very solid, but i'm a little nervous about the pipeline of LineBackers.



I know its too early to look ahead to next year, but this is a recruitng thread so, can anyone tell me who will battle for the 3 open linebacking spots next year? Fua will be a beast, but not if the other side isn't applying some legit pressure.



The D line looks solid with LeBronson, Marquis Johnson, Remington Peck, Troy Hines, etc.



The secondary should be amazing with Bills, Badger, Rob Daniel and if Trammel and Johnson's ACLs heal up fine.



But the Linebackers could be quite green and lacking star power.



Hope i'm missing something...

Returning LBs:



Starters/Receiving Playing Time:



Alani Fua OLB 6-5 215 JR*

Jherremya Leuta-Douyere OLB 6-0 236 SO

Manoa Pikula ILB 6-1 235 SO*

Toloa'i Ho Ching ILB 6-0 225 FR

Sae Tautu ILB 6-3 245 FR* (also playing DE)



Backups/Scout Team:



Trajan Pili LB 6-2 225 FR

Rylee Gautavai LB 6-0 219 FR

Kai Nacua LB 6-1 205 FR

Joey Owens LB 6-3 215 FR

byucougar1 wrote:
According to Gurney, the D recruiting will be completed if they land:

OLB Isaiah Kafusi

OLB/DE Tyler Nolan Cook

DB Kavika Fonua



Should this happen, this group would be a great foundation for a top 10 defense.



[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

Well all that's left is OLB Isaiah Kaufusi and I believe he's leaning BYU. Too bad that we lost Isaiah Nacua as this puts a damper on this recruiting class. The good thing about Nacua is that he's headed out on a mission and hopefully he gets his act together and chooses BYU upon returning

Hinds will not play dline btw.. he's a bigger faster version of KVN... just without the experience and of course there are intangibles that can't be replaced.



Peoples will play Dline and has the potential to be very good if he gets in shape.



If Alani Fua can put in 20 lbs over the offseason.. he's going to play in the NFL.. if this happens I don't think there will be a huge dropoff. If he doesn't, we might have a little more trouble stopping the run without Hadley, KVN, Unga, and of course EM in the trenches. Fua needs to get big...



Very excited about

Fred Warner and Tyler Cook



and with Troy Hinds coming back our linebacker situation is just fine, particularly the future. Hinds is more physically talented than even KVN... heard he's a really smart player too, but it's hard to believe any of them will be better than Kyle, but as a group, I think they will be in a couple seasons.



Ho Ching is going to be a solid ILB, SaeTautu has a lot of potential



Next year we will have an amazing secondary, barring injury. I think we'll see a lot of 2nd and 3rd and long nickel packages with Craig Bills playing at an olb position too.

Rob Daniel would move to fs, Trammel and Johnson can play corner... Wadsworth and Reilly can play SS, Chris Badger too and Dallin Leavitt likely factors in somewhere; word on the street is that he has NFL aspirations and doesn't plan on a mission. He could be our Eric Weddle and I have no doubt that he's going to push everyone in the secondary for pt somewhere.

Michael Davis could be a solid cover corner too, if they don't move him back to receiver.

Then there's also Sam Lee and Trevor Bateman and 3 star CB Cedric Dale (if they don't move him to RB)





The last time we had this much depth and talent in the secondary, we won the Cotton Bowl...