Gene Wojciechowski is a talented and respected veteran college football writer. He's currently on assignment for ESPN the Magazine in Canada seeking the story behind Ben Olson, an LDS Church missionary, who at one time was considered the top high school recruit.
Wojciechowski is in Sparwood, British Columbia, this week. It is the assigned area of Elder Olson and his companion from Orem. Wojciechowski is there with special permission from the LDS Church Missionary Committee and the local mission president. To aid the writer, BYU sent football sports information director Jeff Reynolds.
What he will find is something Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly should have discovered several years ago — LDS missions are not football camps. There is no ready access to Gold's Gym. Early to rise and early to sleep interrupts what is generally a hard-working day filled with a lot of study, walking and preaching as muscles atrophy and skills wane. It's part of the sacrifice, along with parting with the car and girlfriend to prioritize and serve a greater cause.
Wojciechowski likely found the 10-degree temperature in Sparwood biting. And Olson wasn't lounging around in a hot tub or spa after lifting weights.
As for the rumor that Elder Olson will not return to BYU upon completion of his mission? "It's just a rumor. I've never said anything like that," Olson told the magazine writer.
The mission story is old, but it's becoming bigger around BYU these days. The ratio of athletes serving missions while mixing in football has never been higher. The Cougars have become a team in transition — and sometimes it involves as long as seven years.
No other college football team faces such transition, or would if it could. It's an anti-football situation in terms of continuity, skill development and team chemistry.
No other college team has 38 married players as BYU does. I assign no interpretation to that.
Name another Division I coach in America who accepted a job with the edict to give out scholarships to more than a dozen athletes sight unseen — like at BYU.
I cannot find any football program that's listed 16 of 85 scholarship players at the receiver position — 19 percent of the team's roster the past 24 months. This is what BYU ended up with in the baton exchange between LaVell Edwards and Gary Crowton.
Try to find a Division I program that handed out only nine of the allowed 25 scholarships in February as did the Cougars due to promises of previous coaches to returning missionaries.
Recruiting is the lifeblood of college sports. Some say 80 percent of the college game is recruiting. Heaven knows, a cadre of coaches have cheated to get it done over the years.
Recruiting at BYU is kind of unique. It's a shell game.
What's it all mean? Who knows — it's just what it is. It certainly shouldn't get Crowton off the hook for two losing seasons. But it's only fair to Crowton to see transition issues as part of the challenge.
Consider: If Luke Staley's controversial fumble in Rice-Eccles Stadium in 2000 with a few minutes to play had gone the other way and LaVell Edwards ended his career with a 5-7 losing record, could it be argued that BYU football was certainly struggling with the recruit transition factor under the previous legend?
I'd say yes.
Two weeks ago, Cougar freshman linebacker David Nixon, who took over for the injured Levi Madarieta, walked into Crowton's office and announced he would file his papers for a mission after the season. Freshman fullback Fui Vakapuna, who had 80 yards in his first start against Boise State, also filed his mission papers last month.
"I told them we support them 100 percent and wish them well," Crowton told reporters the next week.
"It's a personal decision and we support them in whatever they want to do and when they want to do it."
Back in the days of Lance Reynolds, in the mid-1970s, he was the only player on the team to have served. In the early LaVell Edwards days, quarterbacks like Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Steve Young and Robbie Bosco just played football out of high school. Today, 100 percent of BYU quarterbacks are either going or just coming back from missions.
And since mid-season 2002, 100 percent of BYU starters at quarterback have recently returned from a two-year stint in the likes of Panama or Portugal. It showed with 25 turnovers, a fourth for opponent touchdowns.
What does it mean? Tough to say. Missions tend to physically help big guys, the linemen. But skill guys tend to struggle for at least a year upon returning. There are a lot of stress fractures, ligament strains and pulled muscles. Skill guys who play right off missions, in my experience as an observer, tend to struggle and are far better as juniors and seniors.
"We try not to put players in situations they cannot succeed in until they're ready," BYU recruiting coordinator Mike Empey said. "But a lot depends on where a guy served in the world and what kind of energy and attitude he returns with. Regardless, we support those who choose to serve."
One move than tends to help the transition game at BYU is filling in with junior college players as basketball coach Steve Cleveland has successfully done in revamping Cougar hoops.
In 1996, the 14-1 Cotton Bowl year, the Cougars deployed the use of 10 junior college transfers including Steve Sarkisian, Brian McKenzie, K.O. Kealaluhi, James Dye, Larry Moore, Tim McTyre, Omarr Morgan, Ben Cahoon, Henry Bloomfield and Chris Ellison.
Some claim the elimination of Ricks College football — a recruit feeder for BYU — has hurt. But that may be an excuse. There's still Snow and Dixie, and only Cahoon (1995) on that 1996 squad came out of Ricks.
This week, BYU coaches used the bye weekend to recruit. At the top of the list has to be junior college help.
Empey went to South Carolina and Houston. Assistants Todd Bradford landed in Georgia; Paul Tidwell stopped off in Las Vegas and Arizona; Barry Lamb made his way through Southern California and Brian Mitchell flew to Mississippi as Robbie Bosco went to the place of his youth — Sacramento.
The Cougars will try and land at least four to six jucos who could enroll by mid-year and be onboard for spring practice.
Conclusion? Going the junior college route is a quick fix. And if there's ever been a program that needed an infusion, it's the Cougars. Have they got on the junior college fix early enough? We shall see come Christmas.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com