In February 1999, Clearfield High all-star kicker Justin Hamblin signed an NCAA letter-of-intent to play football at the University of Utah.
He planned to go on an LDS Church mission before playing, but he was so young he wouldn't leave for a year, so he paid his way part-time as a "grayshirt" at the U., attending classes without his NCAA clock starting. He even participated in spring ball before serving his mission in Venezuela.
Hamblin returned from Venezuela in October and contacted coach Ron McBride and assistant head coach Gary Andersen, who took over Utah special teams from Sean McNabb, who had recruited Hamblin. They told Hamblin his scholarship was there for him to enroll for Spring 2003, even though Utah already had junior placekicker Ford Hall, who redshirted 2002 due to a pre-season injury that didn't heal, and his emergency replacement, Bryan Borreson, now in line for a scholarship.
Then, McBride was fired, Andersen became head coach at Southern Utah, and Hamblin became an uncommon student victim of a coaching switch - he thought his scholarship was set, and the new coach knew nothing of it until too late.
Because of the messup, Hamblin is now a scholarshipped member of Utah State University's kicking staff. His father, Clair Hamblin, said Justin wanted his former Ute teammates to know he didn't skip out on them, that he went to USU out of necessity and is grateful the Aggies were there for him.
"Justin just wanted to go kick for somebody," Clair Hamblin said.
Within days after he was hired as Ute coach, Urban Meyer was told by remaining McBride staffers that he immediately needed a punter, so he locked up junior-college transfer Matt Kovacevich during the early JC signing period beginning Dec. 15.
"I don't think he knew Justin punted," said Clair Hamblin, adding that Justin averaged 44.2 yards a punt in his grayshirt foray in 2000 spring ball. He also made 86 percent of his field goals that spring. As a high school senior, he punted 42.5 ypp and was 12-for-15 on field goals.
Hamblin and his father were unable to reach Meyer until Dec. 20 to try and confirm Justin's expected scholarship, of which Meyer was unaware.
Meyer said the same day Borreson came to him asking about his expected scholarship. Meyer didn't have one for an additional kicker, much less two of them. He asked Borreson and Hamblin to walk on for next season. Borreson agreed, but the Hamblins felt they needed a scholarship so Justin wouldn't have to split football with a part-time job.
"That's not much of a choice," said Clair Hamblin.
"It seemed to be an honest mistake, but (Justin) is the odd man out. We thought it was a done deal," Hamblin said, having heard that Andersen submitted a list of returning missionaries who were due scholarships to Utah athletic director Chris Hill before Andersen went to SUU.
Hill said Andersen gave him a lot of paperwork and couldn't confirm seeing a list of potential scholarships, which would not have been binding anyway. He acknowledged speaking with Clair Hamblin about the mixup.
Just as a returning missionary is considered by the NCAA as a recruitable athlete not necessarily beholden to the team that originally signed him, the school is not legally obligated to honor an RM's letter-of-intent two years later. Of course, any school that wants to keep recruiting LDS players, who are often among the best in the state in Utah and Hawaii, will do all it can to keep their scholarships open for them.
"There was a lot of miscommunication," said Meyer. "I was told a lot of things on this end," he added, including that Hamblin's situation was that he would have to "earn" a scholarship.
"That's a tough situation," said Hill, noting that commitments made by one coaching staff can't always be honored by a new one. "Things don't always work as smoothly as possible. You minimize those things as much as you can. Those things are rare, rare, rare, rare."
The family's reaction at times is, "How many other returned missionaries are treated like this?" Clair Hamblin said. But he also sees it as "an innocent mistake."
In some ways, Justin may have a better chance to play right away at USU. The Aggies have one inexperienced kicker/punter, and they'd like to split the duties between two players, so Hamblin will likely either punt or kick as a true freshman with a four-year career awaiting him in Logan.