Santa's Mailbag

I read a great Mayan Apocalypse Mailbag the other day by the Sports Guy. He graciously answered "even more e-mails than usual (over 50 in all), just so you'll always remember plowing through your final Sports Guy column during those final seconds as Earth is collapsing on itself." What a thoughtful guy!

As I read that I thought to myself, "Wow! Over 50! This is going to take me forever to read!" (Seeing lots of words on the page of a sports article? Great! Seeing lots of words in my business finance text book? Yeah, it doesn't get read. Ever.)

Then my thoughts turned to my upcoming mailbag. I didn't have 50. Or even 20. Or 10. Heck, I didn't even reach five! But ya know what, I appreciate these four submissions. From three different people. And one didn't even know it was going to get used. Ah, well. I'll catch up to you one day, Bill Simmons!

It's Christmas Eve, so this mailbag will be filled with gifts (and some coal) from Santa. My wife might even read this one if I tell her it's about Christmas.

You know what you should be doing is making some huge movement to get Jabari Parker to go to BYU. -Keith S.

Clearly this is all my fault, and I'm sorry.

This was sent to me 20 December at 2:17 p.m. Many of you will recognize this as mere moments before Jabari announced his decision to go to Duke. I'm not sure what I was supposed to do at that point.

I mean, I met Jabari a couple weeks back. Great kid, went out of his way to say hello to me and ask how I was doing (as did his mother, so great family), but I didn't think to say, "Hey, man. Can I get your number so that when your on national television in a couple weeks, about to declare your decision to attend Duke, I can call you and change your mind and get you to come to BYU?"

I'm sorry Cougar Nation; this one falls completely on me. But gift number one from Santa's bag goes to Duke, getting a terrific young man and an excellent ball player. You're welcome.

Have you talked about Jabari Parker to Duke? You should. -Clayton J.

The next gift is for Jabari Parker: He's getting himself the second winningest college basketball coach of all time to help him prepare for the NBA. He's getting an education from a top 10 university, and even if he only stays there for a year that's pretty good. And he's going to get a shot at a national title. That's not a bad deal.

I've always said that if I had the luxury of a scholarship offer from any school in the country, I would go and play for Coach K. I wouldn't do it for Duke. I couldn't care less about Duke. I would want to play for the greatest coach of all time. But since John Wooden isn't around anymore, I would play for Coach K in a heart-beat. Unfortunately I wasn't good enough to have that option, but Jabari is. And as much as it pain my BYU loyalty to say it, I think he made the right decision.

Look, I would have been ecstatic if Jabari had come to Provo. I really and truly would. I was really hoping for it! But I just didn't see it happening. I saw a possibility of it happening, but we were just up against some heavy hitters. I don't know if we ever had a chance, I don't know if we ever were in the lead, and I don't think Jabari will ever reveal that to us. What I do know, is that he made a choice that will be very beneficial to his future, in all aspects of life, not just basketball. That's not something exclusive to BYU, and Coach K is someone I have the utmost respect for, and it seems that he does great things for his kids out there at Duke.

Perhaps the "safe" choice would have been BYU. Surrounded by people of his same faith in a culture he could thrive. There would be nice Mormon girls for him everywhere. He would instantly receive the Jimmer treatment. In fact he already had when he came for his official visit as BYU fans pulled out all the stops. He would have been the best player on the team, and probably the best player in the conference. Between BYU's ESPN deal and BYUtv national attention would not have been a problem. Coach Rose is a very respectable coach, BYU is a respectable program, and he would have been an instant legend.But the kid chose Duke, and I respect that. He did what he feels is best for him, and that's really what the choice is all about. I wish him nothing but the best at Duke and in the league.

Will you then please do an article on the BYU field goal kicker. Seriously - there's no way a collegiate kicker can be that bad all season. I mean, this is BYU. Sure, we're no SEC team, but we're still a football school. Shouldn't we be able to recruit a decent kicker? I vote we recruit from our own BYU women's soccer team. What's your take? -Ben H.

I'll admit, the kicking game has been awful this year. And last year. But it wasn't due to lack of recruiting efforts. BYU recruited Justin Sorensen to be the go to kicker. In high school he kicked field goals of 59, 61, and 62 yards. That's incredible. But in college he's just never materialized as a consistent and accurate kicker.

He spent his freshman year backing up Mitch Payne and went 1-3, with his two misses coming from beyond 50 yards. He was 2-2 on extra point attempts. Following his mission he had an inconsistent sophomore year, making just 60 percent of his field goal tries. He did however set a BYU record for most extra points in a season without a miss as he went 48-48 on PATs. It was later revealed that he struggled throughout the season with back injuries and he underwent off-season back surgery.

The backup kicker was senior punter, Riley Stephenson, who hadn't so much as attempted a PAT since high school. All things considered, he did a respectable job holding Sorensen's spot making 4 of 6 field goals and 16 of 19 extra points. Obviously this was not an answer, and it was certainly a sub par performance for a kicker, but considering he was actually the punter, I say he did alright. (And a great gift to him for receiving numerous second team All-American honors for his punting season!)

However, Sorensen came back from his injury and still struggled. He was clearly not fully recovered and quite rusty as he made just 50 percent of his field goals and missed the first three extra points of his career, going 27-30. Is he the answer? I'm not sure. I'm not sure he's been given enough of a chance yet. It's a shame there isn't a quality backup for him, but most football teams don't give out a ton of scholarships to kickers. It's also a shame that BYU doesn't have a coach dedicated to the kicking game, and that may be adding to Sorensen's struggles. So a lump of coal to the Cougar coaching staff for that deficiency.

Overall though, I think they played their cards appropriately, just just got hit by the injury bug. And they got hit hard. Hopefully Sorensen will recover and maybe next year he'll develop into the kicker we expected. I feel like BYU fans have been saying that a lot the last couple years. "Maybe next year..."

As for recruiting from the women's soccer team, if she can kick a football as deep and accurately as she kicked this soccer ball, I vote the football team gets Lindsi Lisonbee Cutshall to take over kicking duties until we have proof that Sorensen is fully recovered. (She earned a nice gift of being number three on Sportcenter's Top 10 plays that night).

Also, an article on what the heck happened to the BYU quarterback position this year would be interesting. I'd like to know what really happened (in other words, a few decent theories). Obviously Taysom Hill go hurt on a play called by the communist North Korean coaches that infiltrated our coaching staff. But maybe aliens abducted Brandon Doman and replaced him with one of their own. And I thought Riley Nelson was supposed to be the Moses that would lead us to the promised land? And how the heck did James Lark end up as Joshua? -Ben H.

Ignoring the fact that you called for a few decent theories and then blamed communists and aliens for the quarterback troubles at BYU, I do have a few thoughts surrounding the turbulence these last three seasons. Each of the past three seasons has really been defined by quarterback controversy. You'd think that somehow that would have ended by now, that the coaching staff would have learned their lesson, but for whatever reason, it keeps happening over and over again.

If BYU never got Jake Heaps, we never would have seen one
of the greatest individual defensive performances ever in this
year's Poinsettia Bowl.

First, I hope that three years ago Brandon Doman received an excellent gift from Santa. He recruited the highly touted Jake Heaps to come to Provo. It was quite commendable to get the top quarterback recruit in the country, but that would quickly fall apart (and I'll get to that in a minute). The reason Doman gets a gift for that? Heaps brought Ross Apo with him, who admittedly hasn't quite lived up to his potential yet, but more important than that, Heaps brought KYLE VAN NOY! And BYU got one of the best defensive players in school history out of that.

Bronco Mendenhall and Brandon Doman receive a lump of coal for their handling of Jake Heaps and Riley Nelson in Heaps' freshman season. It was awful, and I believe it severely stunted Heaps' growth as a player. I believe he should have been named the starter throughout his freshman year. He finished strong and went into his sophomore year as the unquestioned starter, and I think he earned that.

Forgive me for being repetitive, and perhaps a bit lazy, but I already voiced my thoughts on Heaps' sophomore year, and I don't really want to get all worked up about it again, so I'm going to repeat what I already wrote about it a couple weeks back.

Jake Heaps, after a promising freshman season, was in a sophomore slump. Was it frustrating? Absolutely. He looked too tightly wound and seemed to be buckling under the hype we had placed on him. He beat the teams he was supposed to though, and that's all that BYU does now anyway, so I don't think it was fair to place all the blame on a young quarterback, as highly touted as he was. He struggled mightily in the game against Utah State, and Riley Nelson came in an led a miracle drive down the field for the victory.

Riley Nelson was a gritty dude but
probably not the answer for BYU.

But hold on a second. The two big plays of that drive were as follows: 1) a fluttering 40 yard pass that was not even sort of on target, and McKay Jacobson made the play of his career by running across the field, getting under the ball, and then holding on for dear life. 2) an inaccurate pass intended for JJ DiLuigi that he reached back for, drew a pass interference call, and then somehow the deflection found Marcus Mathews in the back of the end zone. Nothing about that drive said "Riley Nelson is more talented than Jake Heaps and the quarterback of the future for BYU." Nothing! But for some reason we turned on Heaps and ran him out of town. I still believe he had the ability to be that QB of the future for BYU, so I think we wasted that and threw it away. It's a shame really.

Look at what Notre Dame did this year. Starting QB Everett Golson struggled to close out a couple of games early. In comes Tommy Rees to save the day. Notre Dame wins, the media tries to ignite a quarterback controversy, but they stick with their guy, and now they're set to play for the national championship. BYU should have done exactly that. Riley saved the day against USU, but let Heaps get back to work on Monday.

The reality of it is that we were stuck with Riley Nelson, who last season beat the teams he was supposed to and lost to the rest, and this season didn't even quite look fully capable of that. In his defense he struggled with injuries, but with the QBs on the bench right behind him it's a shame we didn't put in a healthy guy in his stead, because down to our third string we had starting talent.

After a couple weeks of playing through a broken back and giving the opposing defenses points that would in turn win games, he was finally benched to heal and Taysom Hill came in and showed Cougar Nation why they should be excited about the next few years. He would have been a great quarterback to stay in for a few more games, too, if it weren't for a miscommunication that led to Hill running a play rather than lining up in victory formation and taking a knee. On that play Hill blew out his knee and finished his year with season ending knee surgery.

Instead of turning to our third string senior quarterback, who during spring and fall camps was actually pushing Nelson for the starting job, only to be demoted because Hill's style was more similar to Nelson's and to give him more experience for the future, Nelson somehow recovered from a broken back to be ready to play again. I don't disagree with the decision to move Hill up the depth charts. I think it was a smart move to get him ready to take full control (hopefully) of the starting job next year. I do, however, disagree that Nelson should have rushed back into the lineup rather than playing Lark for a week or two to allow Nelson a full recovery. I mean, we're talking about a kid who was in a battle for the starting position in the preseason. 

Was James Lark the solution all along?

And then in the last week of the regular season we really were down to our third string, Lark, and he showed us he really does have talent. Holy cow did he show us he has talent. He looked brilliant. No other BYU QB has enjoyed that kind of success in his first career start. Six touchdowns. 68 percent completion percentage. No interceptions. I don't care who you're playing, those numbers are dang good. I admit he struggled some in the bowl game when he got a second start, but the fact of the matter is, he ended his career 2-0 as a starting quarterback. An undefeated college career, and he went out on top.

So now, gifts and coal for the handling of the situation the past few years.

Brandon Doman: Gift for giving us Kyle Van Noy.
Bronco Mendenhall: Coal for using a dual quarterback system in Heaps' first year, or at least for allowing it to happen.

BYU fans: A fantastic amount of coal. We hated Nelson and wanted only Heaps when there was a dual quarterback system. Then at the first sign of struggle from Heaps and some late game heroics (as much of a fluke as it was, they were still heroics) from Nelson, we wanted Nelson back. That ended up chasing Heaps out of town to Kansas, the poor kid. Then Nelson starts to struggle and suddenly we want someone, anyone to take over for him. We got Hill. Then he got injured and we wanted Lark. It's just ridiculous. I just hope Taysom Hill can get through next year with a 100 percent completion percentage or BYU fans might just run him out of town too.

Jake Heaps: Coal for transferring instead of working hard and waiting it out. But I wish him all the best and I really do hope he succeeds.

Brandon Doman: He can keep his first gift, but he also gets some coal for his role in all the quarterback controversies, the injury to Taysom Hill, and a completely inept offense.

Riley Nelson: Gift, simply for being a gritty dude and a class act in spite of everything that happened.

BYU coaching staff in general: Coal for everything that happened. But a small gift for finally recognizing that Riley wasn't healthy enough to play in the bowl game and letting Lark take the reigns. I feel for Riley and the way his career ended, but it was the right choice.

James Lark: The biggest gift of this group. He fought through adversity. He stuck it out in the cellar of the depth chart, and he did so with class and grace. And when he got his chance he rose up and took it. Good for him.

I think Doman is the biggest problem and probably needs to go. Bronco is fine, for now, but he needs to step in and make sure some of these things don't keep happening. We'll see how the future goes, but the Cougar faithful need to stay patient and support Hill next season or we could go through this whole thing all over again.