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PROVO — It’s not always easy for BYU to recruit non-LDS football players. While most LDS athletes grow up with a good knowledge of what BYU is all about, many non-LDS players don’t.
The lack of national TV exposure certainly hasn’t helped in that regard, and as a result BYU’s signing classes of late have been predominantly LDS. Last year, 18 of the 19 players signed were LDS.
While there are a good number of scholarship-worthy LDS athletes out there, BYU coaches are ever mindful of broadening their recruiting pool.
“We don’t just want the best LDS athletes, we want the best athletes that have the same standards that we have here at BYU. Period,” said BYU coach Joe DuPaix. “Our job is to bring in the best possible talent out there.”
The BYU lifestyle obviously isn’t for everyone. The coaches know it, the student-athletes know it, and with BYU’s take-it-or-leave-it approach to recruiting, every football prospect knows it.
“Young men that come here represent their families, themselves, but they also represent what the university stands for and that’s not taken lightly,” said BYU coach Paul Tidwell. “When we recruit, that is explained very thoroughly, several times to our recruits, so they’re very aware of what they’ve gotten themselves into before they sign with BYU. Our goal is to make sure they cannot just survive BYU. We don’t want that. We want kids that can thrive here in every aspect of their lives, not just in football.”
"BYU is the perfect place for me, no question about it," said the 6-foot-3, 230-pound linebacker. "I really liked what I was hearing from BYU coaches before my trip, but after seeing everything up close, I knew that it was the only place I wanted to be at to play football and to attend school."
While a good many non-LDS recruits may shy away from BYU and its strict standards, others are accepting of it.
Take Bobby Wolford, for example. He is a devout Catholic who committed to BYU coaches last week after just one day in seeing the school and the football program up close.
“BYU is the perfect place for me, no question about it,” said the 6-foot-3, 230-pound linebacker. “I really liked what I was hearing from BYU coaches before my trip, but after seeing everything up close, I knew that it was the only place I wanted to be at to play football and to attend school. There was no doubt.”
Because he is a devout Catholic, Wolford feels that he will not have to adjust his lifestyle at all to attend BYU. What’s more, he’s anxious to attend school and play football with young men that abide by the same standards that he does.
“I’m just so grateful to have learned about BYU,” he said. “Living clear out in Jacksonville, Fla., you really don’t get to know that there’s a school like BYU out there. It’s a huge blessing for me to have come to learn about them, and I’m grateful to the coaching staff there for finding me, and taking an interest in me.”
Coaches intend to find more athletes like Wolford, and may have done just that with Jamaal Williams.
Williams hails from Fontana, Calif., and came to BYU on junior day with little knowledge of what BYU was.
“One of my coaches in high school is Tony Crutchfield, who played for BYU,” said the 6-1, 185-pound running back. “He let me know of how much he enjoyed it there, and encouraged me to send my film to their coaches, and I’m really glad that he did.”
BYU coaches responded immediately upon receiving and viewing it.
“They were seriously at my school the next day or so after I sent them the film,” he said. “They immediately started telling me how impressed they were with me, and encouraged me to visit the campus.”
Williams and his mother Nicole left for BYU without knowing much about the program.
“I ran track for UCLA, and I remember going to BYU to compete in a meet once, and I remembered liking the feel of the place,” Nicole said. “That was about it though. We like and trust Coach Crutchfield, but really, we had no idea of what BYU was going to be like.”
Like Wolford, both Jamaal and Nicole found a place that they took an immediate liking to.
“Everyone was just so incredibly nice,” Jamaal said. “That was the first thing that struck me about the place. Everyone is smiling, wanting to get to know you. It was a great feeling, it was just a real positive feeling from the moment we got there.”
When they got to know the players and coaches even better, that feeling just grew as the visit went on.
“A big thing for me was being able to meet with and talk to other non-LDS athletes that were already at BYU,” said Jamaal. “I watched a video that featured Joshua Quezada, and I loved it. I met with ‘Juice’ (Quezada), and he let me know of how much he loved being at BYU and how it was a great fit for him, even though he’s not LDS.”
Williams likes the prospect of playing alongside Quezada starting with the 2012 season. While he holds offers from San Diego State and Boise State and he is receiving lots of interest from other schools, BYU now stands as his favorite.
“BYU is a lot different than other schools, but I like that a lot about them,” he said. “The honor code is a great thing, and is something that will help me focus on the things that are most important. I don’t know if I’ll get the same feeling or a better feeling at the other schools I visit. BYU just feels real safe to me. It’s a clean place, that doesn’t have a lot of trouble and temptations, and that’s what I want.”
The Williams are set to visit Boise State this coming weekend, and will make other visits before making his final decision: “All the other schools will have to measure up to BYU now,” he said.
