PROVO — It was the recruiting class that was supposed to give BYU continuity. Instead, it will be known for exactly the opposite, although when it comes to impact players, there were plenty of them in the recruit signee list of 2004, and that group may have changed the face of Cougar football from now on.
Then head coach Gary Crowton was in search of four-year players and junior college transfers who could meld with the coming and goings of missionary athletes and provide some stability in skill development and team chemistry.
The attempt exploded on Aug. 9, 2004, when, the night before fall camp opened, an off-campus party involving incoming freshmen, sent the program reeling. When the smoke cleared months later, the head coach, recruiting coordinator, assistant coach tied to many of the newcomers and athletic director were gone. Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson, acting on an allegation of gang rape from the August party, impaneled the first-ever grand jury in Utah County history.
While a jury dismissed felony charges against four BYU football players, the case led to an exodus of what was the most racially diverse recruiting class in Cougar history. At last count, of the 28 players in the class of 2004, nine withdrew from school or were dismissed, one never showed up, six are serving LDS missions and one, Terrance Brown, in the process of applying, and 11 of the remaining 12 contributed so far including Brown and Washington State transfer linebacker Aaron Wagner.
"You don't lose that many players and not have it impact your program," head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. Combined with early departures of recruits from an earlier recruiting class, Shannon Benton and James Allen, the loss of six secondary players in 2004 to honor code issues, threw BYU football into a tizzy.
It also led to Mendenhall's current mantra that he would never sacrifice the mission of the university for the athletic prowess of a football player.
The class of 2004 wasn't without its impact players, however. Grossmont Community College transfer Todd Watkins gave the Cougars a look at receiver the program hadn't had before. Freshman Austin Collie, a high school receiver from northern California gave Crowton a formidable weapon opposite Watkins and before departing for an LDS mission to Argentina, Collie earned freshman All-America honors.
There were other key contributors such as JC defensive lineman Vince Feula, a one-time Pac-10 player at Arizona and linebacker Justin Luettgerodt who both finished their careers in 2005 as significant cogs in a struggling Cougar defense.
Hunter High School offensive lineman Ray Feiinga also stepped forward, his major contribution came this past season in rotation as a tackle.
College of the Canyons quarterback Jason Beck came in as a stop-gap performer just in case, and he earned his stripes in 2004 when he saw playing time in place of injured Matt Berry and John Beck.
"It will take two years to fill in our program and replace those players who left the team," according to recruiting coordinator Paul Tidwell. "It will take at least a couple of recruiting classes to balance it out."
Recruits in 2004 who departed include receivers Antwaun Harris, William Turner, Karland Bennett, Greg Lovfely, Ibrahim Rashada, Billy Skinner and B.J. Mathis. Later, in 2005, receiver Joe Griffith announced he would transfer and Drew Mugleson left school and is preparing to serve a mission.
The class also had one of those Internet wonder no shows, a case similar to Walt Williams earlier in the decade. Eddie Scipio, a defensive back and return specialist from Allan Hancock College, never made it to Provo.
"I don't know what ever happened to him," Tidwell said.
In what may be a move to distance the program from others who left in wake of the August 2004 incident, Tidwell said he did not know what has become of most all of the Cougar recruits who left campus to transfer elsewhere. "I think Antwaun Harris ended up at Oklahoma State, but that's about all I know about where those players are today."
So, what impact did the class of 2004 have on the Cougars? Remember Watkins and Collie, a tandem that produced. Look at the hole in the roster where players departed. But for the future, the class of 2004 forced a complete overhaul of how BYU football coaches recruit and evaluate players.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com