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As the cellphone rang, the young man sat in silence. His hand moved instinctively to answer the call, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He knew exactly who was calling. RING. RING. RING.
He visualized a scene that had occurred not more than a month ago, in January 2008. He thought of himself shaking hands with coach Bronco Mendenhall and verbally committing to play football at BYU.
Maybe I should just answer the phone, the young man thought.
But he couldn’t do it. He knew the BYU recruiters were calling. But USC had been recruiting him so heavily, he couldn’t bear the thought of saying no to them.
RING. RING. RING.
With his mind made up and his heart wrenched, the young man pressed the Ignore Call button. There was nothing left to think about. He was going to play for USC.
Linebacker Uona Kaveinga particpates in the football team’s first fall practice in March. After three years at USC, Kaveinga returned to BYU and is expected to stand out at linebacker this year. Three years had passed, and now things were different.
The young man’s guilt had caught up with him. So, he transferred and headed to Provo to play football for the Cougars. Even though he sacrificed a year of playing time due to NCAA transfer ineligibility, he said he knew he’d made the right choice.
Like Kaveinga, the aforementioned young man, many football recruits and transfer players have difficult decisions to make. Recruiters sometimes perform their jobs in a relentless fashion by forcing players to rethink their commitments, question their loyalties and even succumb to the constant pressure. But the players who end up on the BYU team seem to be the ones that are prepared to give 110 percent.
Mendenhall said he is impressed with Kaveinga’s eventual commitment to BYU and thinks he is a great fit with the team. He said he understands the struggles Kaveinga went through.
“Only two young men in my history here have said they were going to play for BYU and didn’t, and Uona was one of them,” Mendenhall said. “After a couple years at USC, he came anyway. A lot of his reasoning is that he told me he would come and didn’t, and that bothered him.”
Kaveinga had initially committed to BYU in January 2008, and at the time said although the Cougars have a great football program, he chose BYU because of how he felt during his visits on campus. Two seasons with USC and one season with BYU later, Kaveinga could not be happier with the decision he made.
“I chose to come to BYU because it’s a great place with a great environment,” Kaveinga said. “The biggest (reason) was because it’s a church school.”
Players who transfer to BYU usually go for a specific reason — it wouldn’t make much sense for someone to transfer somewhere and not give it their all. This has certainly been the case with Kaveinga. The junior linebacker’s coaches and teammates had nothing but positive things to say about him. Mendenhall, who is traditionally selective about who he publicly praises, described him as a “very, very good linebacker … who came for the right reasons.” Fellow linebacker Jordan Pendleton told the Deseret News that Kaveinga is “exactly the guy (he) wants to play with at middle linebacker. He brings an intensity to the game.”
Inside linebacker coach Paul Tidwell said Kaveinga is their No. 1-ranked linebacker right now.
“He’s already been making a great impact, not only on the defense but on our team as a leader,” Tidwell said. “We anticipate Uona to make a big impact on the defense (this season).”
BYU will play two key transfers from USC this year: Kaveinga and senior defensive lineman Hebron Fangupo. But the real breeding ground of football player transfers to BYU seems to be Snow College.
Over the past three years, Snow College has transferred at least 10 football players to BYU. This season alone, they have already transferred three players. One of those players, junior defensive back Preston Hadley, is a definite candidate for starting cornerback.
The list of high-caliber transfers from Snow College includes last year’s transfer Jordan Lower, as well as Shane Hunter (who recorded 15 tackles and a forced fumble), Tevita Hola and David Tufuga. But 2008 transfer Andrew Rich may have had the biggest impact of them all.
During the 2009 and 2010 seasons, Rich recorded 198 total tackles, contributing 112 solo tackles. With 10 career interceptions, six forced fumbles and even two sacks (not bad for a free safety), he is yet another example of a successful Snow College transfer player.
Mendenhall said he believes there will be even more high-quality recruiting in the future, partially due to the successful program but also because of BYU’s independence.
“It’s been liberating,” Mendenhall said. “Having ESPN as a partner has given us instant credibility with all the nationwide recruits.”
Senior running back J.J. DiLuigi agreed with Mendenhall, talking about how the extra exposure will help the Cougars bring in even more powerful transfer players.
“I think being on ESPN is going to help our recruiting process out,” DiLuigi said. “We’re going to get the notoriety and exposure that ultimately a lot of these BCS teams get.”
So what is it that has made football transfer players at BYU so successful? Offensive coordinator Brandon Doman attributes the success to BYU’s high moral standards. He said the players who transfer to BYU are the cream of the crop, as the BYU recruiting efforts reach hundreds of highly talented young men. Only the best players with the highest morals, Doman said, ultimately end up on the team.
In other words, BYU only allows the most talented, worthy players to transfer over.
“Our (recruiting) pitch really is this: We are trying to find the finest character, highest integrity, greatest academic football players in America who are wanting to live an honorable lifestyle on a national-championship-level team,” Doman said. “There are so many young men who want a piece of that.”
Doman, a BYU quarterback from 1998-2001, went on to say how, when he was being recruited, that pitch sealed the deal for him and made him want to “jump on it.” But not everyone, Doman said, is qualified for BYU’s elevated recruiting standards.
“There are young men right now who are not qualified and want it so bad, but we can’t take them yet,” Doman said. “Some of these young men are very talented. But I don’t think we’re going to have any problems finding the right young men to come here. The standard now attracts the absolute right guys for this time to move us forward.”
That standard ultimately attracted Kaveinga, as well as other recruits. No matter where they come from or how difficult their recruiting processes were, all football transfer players have one thing in common: They are among the highest caliber of young men in the country.
“I’m where I need to be now, and that’s what’s important,” Kaveinga said. “I’m just excited.”
