Hunter Clegg flips to BYU

[cj13]

Big 4 star recruit a couple years back (in our best recruiting class ever). Just got back from his mission and flipped to BYU. Posted on BYU Football’s Twitter account. Defensive End

[Rick Walker]

Could be a big loss could be a depth loss, curious to see how he turns out as a player. It’s always disappointing to see someone leave which feels like every other hour these days

[Tednab]

Keep hearing about the Utes money disparity compared to TDS .. where do we actually sit vs others, Cause it seems like Colorado and TDS are turning into the Oregon powerhouses all of the sudden.

[Rick Walker]

Idk about Colorado but byu has plenty of rich mLm donors. I’ve heard (second hand) that there’s a group of donors piling money together in an attempt to get Ryder Lyons and Brock Harris in the 2026 class.

[Utesbyfive]

This is so f**ked.

[ALUF]

I hate them so much, especially now that they’re in the big xii with us

[BD]

Agreed. I used to have fun with Byu fans that I worked with back in the MWC days. Not now.

I was somewhat excited to be back in the same conference when it was announced we were joining the XII. But that was just delusional me trying to be positive about things.

I can’t stand being in the same conference as them now. For too many reasons to list. I’m sure they feel the same about us.

As far as Clegg goes, my guess is that is what got the Washington DE Holtzclaw to commit. While Holtzclaw doesn’t have the same high school rating as high as Clegg, he does have playing experience. Clegg has yet to sack a QB in college ball. And he has mission rust to work off. Not saying he won’t be good for Byu, but we got a good deal out of it with Holtzclaw. And I’ll take it. Besides put Clegg up against Fano or Lomu and I’ll take that match up any day.

[ALUF]

It didn’t matter that we lost him per se, it’s just losing anyone to them sucks.

[highlandute7]

Seems odd given how we are in such need of DEs.

[Tednab]

How is this odd .. seems pretty obvious we can’t compete with the deeper pockets period

[D T]

I’m not certain the zoob football program has an extensive amount of NIL funds.

Clegg essentially stated he wants the zoob experience now that he’s served a mission, so again, I’m uncertain this had anything to do with NIL.

[Anfernee]

Yeah this isn’t an NIL thing. It’s the typical RM having a spiritual awakening and wanting the USSR experience of Provo.

[Rick Walker]

I do think for a lot of missionaries it’s appealing to have a school that is quite literally a community of people with similar experiences as you. I could easily see a kid from Utah county (like Clegg) realizing he wants to live in a Mormon heavy community after being on a two year mission, it probably just feels more like home to him.

[Utah#1]

Seriously doubt that is the issue! I just think because he’s Mormon and just came off an LDS mission he probably had a lot of little birdies, especially from BYU, strongly persuading him to go to BYU before he even sets foot back home. Doggy dogg world out there, whether its a religious school or not, practicing ethics is a foregone conclusion.

[cj13]

I’m not so confident this was a 100% money decision. Since he committed, we got worse (remember that class we got literally every recruit we competed with BYU for and had our highest rated class ever), and BYU has pulled over Jay Hill. Still could’ve been a money thing but this isn’t the most surprising thing to happen after this past season.

[HATUman]

This isn’t sustainable though. How deep do pockets go? How greedy do these kids get? How long can fans put up with this s**t? I’m on my last leg

[AZUTE]

In Utah’s system Clegg is two years away at least. He needs the mission rust gone and need to add bulk.

Guarantee he gets reps in Provo next season. He will never be all Big12 in Provo. They don’t develop players

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Hard to tell what impact Clegg will have on both schools. I’ll take Fano and Dailey (BYU flips) over Clegg. Sounds like he wants the BYU experience. Some want to stay living in the bubble and some want to get out of the bubble. I don’t think money has anything to do with it.

[JGore]

Normally I don’t get too up in arms over these things, but there’s some issues that make this Clegg flip-flop pretty infuriating.

When Provo loses prominent LDS recruits to Utah, their fans have the flippant attitude of “Oh well, we’ll just continue to recruit him while he’s on his mission”, and while they can’t come out and say it, Provo’s coaches feel the same damn way. Recruiting wise, these kids are legally off limits when they’re away on their missions but BYU takes full advantage of the church sending these kids away- most often to a far away country where they’re isolated from anything and everything outside of the LDS church.

Clegg literally returned home from his mission a few days ago. There is a ZERO% chance that this kid was completely left alone for 24 months, only to see YBU make contact with him, resume the recruitment process, and manage to flip him all within the 72 or so hours he’d been home from his mission. The fact of the matter is, for the last 2 years there was a concerted effort by members of the Provo football program as well as LDS church officials with marching orders to sway Clegg towards YBU.

This exact scenario will continue to play out anytime Provo loses out on a big time mormon recruit, Provo officials will continue to lie about it, and they’ll continue to get away with it because they control the entire narrative while these kids are away from home and 100% under their control.

This just serves as yet more evidence that ethics and legality mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to TDS when they know there’s no chance at all of being caught. They just make it so damn easy to hate them.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I agree JGore but he is from their backyard (within the bubble). Pressure from the LDS fans. We lost the other American Fork kid also. They have to get those recruits to be successful. We have a much bigger recruiting footprint.

[radioUte]

Even before NLI policies were dismantled, they only lasted 18 months and it was never against the rules to stay in touch with missionaries. Our staff does the same thing for the players/recruits we are interested in.

[Stone]

“legally off limits” – there is no such thing anymore (if there ever really was). Every team that wants a recruit continues to recruit him on a mission. Hell, teams recruit players that are actively playing for another team. It doesn’t matter. It is pointless to complain about such stuff – if a player wants to go somewhere else, they will go there. These arbitrary boundaries of when a player can be in contact with another school versus not are silly at this point. I have a job and current employer, but other employers reach out to me all the time. That is real life.

[Rick Walker]

Yeah byu is definitely not the only school that continues to recruit on missions. I’m sure coach Whitt and Scalley and whoever else emailed all of our lds recruits. Heck Oregon and Michigan both offered to pay for an lds players mission if he committed to them last year

[Author]

Posts