The news that a BYU legend, Ty Detmer, is expected to sign on as an assistant to Kalani Sitake's coaching staff elicited plenty of responses from Cougar fans on Twitter Wednesday.
The result was a mostly positive reception for Detmer, the 1990 Heisman Trophy winner who became the head football coach of St. Andrew's Episcopal School, a small private institution in southwest Austin, Texas, in December 2009. This year, he led the team to an 8-1 mark.
Detmer is expected to be the Cougars' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, according to the Deseret News' Dick Harmon.
Some fans wondered if the arrival of Detmer would mean the return of Garett Tujague, the former BYU offensive line coach who joined former Cougar coach Bronco Mendenhall's staff at Virginia. Tujague blocked on the offensive line for Detmer during their college years at BYU.
Detmer's brother, Koy, played collegiately at Colorado and spent 10 years in the NFL, including one year in Philadelphia with his brother. Koy Jr., Ty's nephew and a fellow quarterback, recently finished up his first year at BYU. Could there be a brotherly coaching connection headed to the Y.? Koy currently serves as an assistant coach under father Sonny at Somerset High in Texas.
One BYU fan imagined the possibility of Guy Holliday, who's served as the team's wide receivers coach the past two years and is a fan favorite, and Detmer recruiting the state of Texas.
Former BYU quarterback Ryan Hancock gave the potential hire his ringing endorsement.
There may be skepticism about Detmer joining the Cougar staff, considering he doesn't have any previous coaching experience at the collegiate level.
Still, during his 14-year NFL career, Detmer served mainly as a backup, mixed in with 25 career starts and spent plenty of time tutoring younger quarterbacks, as well as working with one of the game's greatest quarterbacks, Brett Favre.
Detmer is also intimately familiar with success at the collegiate level, setting a then-NCAA record with 15,031 career passing yards and 121 touchdown passes at BYU while winning the Heisman his junior season.
One Utah fan expressed that the Detmer signing is scarier than the Sitake hire, with the potential expertise he could bring to the Cougar staff.
BYU play-by-play announcer Greg Wrubell said the move would be exciting for him on a personal level, after not joining the BYU broadcast team until after Detmer's final year as a Cougar.
Email: bjudd@deseretdigital.com; Twitter: @brandonljudd