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I’ve been meaning to post this for a while and I thought I’d do it before the fun starts in tomorrow’s opening game.

Kona Schwenke
A little while ago there was a report about a possible BYU recruit from Hawaii named Kona Schwenke. I looked at the picture and didn’t recognize the face. Although, when I saw the name I realized I knew Kona quite well. I was his scout leader for a year.

Like most scout programs all of the boys would head to the gym for a little basketball at the end of scouts. When I looked at the teams I saw this towering boy that was at least a foot taller than many of my deacons. I asked one of the other leaders who he was and why he wasn’t at scouts. I was then told that his name was Kona and that he was only 11. Yes, this boy was blessed with big genes.

I must admit that I was a bit surprised by the article on Kona. When I knew him as an 11 and 12 year old he was very skinny and not really built for football. Shows you how much a few years in the weight room and eating spam, eggs and rice can do. I’ll be happy if Kona goes to BYU where I can watch him develop. His dad is really great too. He was the Varsity Scout leader and he basically ran a rugby camp for scouts. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

J.T. Mapu
My next Hawaiian surprise was an article about Tennessee Vol J.T. Mapu. We were in J.T. Mapu’s home ward in Hawaii while he was on his mission. We got to know his parents quite well and always enjoyed seeing his brother Daniel at church. They are some of the most caring and kind people you’ll ever meet. One time my wife and I were asked to be the witness couple for ward temple night. After the session as we were leaving, J.T. Mapu’s dad came up to me and in a very sincere manner said, “Thanks for taking care of all the up and down work.”

While I still hope that Tennessee loses tomorrow against Cal, I hope that J.T Mapu plays excellent. It’s absolutely the best game tomorrow (outside BYU) and so it would be great to see a Mapu in the spotlight.

Here’s a great video for every BYU fan that hates the Yewts(sorry didn’t want to be redundant). I think last night’s Utah game against Oregon State will be in the next version of the video.

I found this video on a BYU sports message board with the title “Greatest BYU Dunk Ever.” While this is an impressive dunk, I seem to remember it being even bigger when I watched it live. I’m not sure if it’s the low quality youtube video or what. More importantly, is this the greatest BYU dunk ever? I think that unfortunately it might be. I seem to remember one from Trent that should be up there. Honestly, I’m just happy any time someone from BYU dunks. It’s too rare of an occurrence.

Here’s what could be the best dunk on BYU by Marcus Slaughter.

I thought it was fun to see John Beck’s first play with the Miami Dolphins. The video isn’t the best and make sure you have your speakers turned down since there’s a lot of screaming from an excited fan. Also, if you’re short on time then just skip to 1:00 to see the play itself.

I’ve been in love with Youtube for a while, but I just stumbled upon all sorts of great BYU football videos on youtube. I’m sure I’ll be posting a lot more of them. Here’s a nice little video of Bronco Mendenhall talking about Fall Camp, leadership and BYU football.

The Daily Herald listed all of the BYU football players that are playing in the NFL. I knew most of them, but I’d never put it together that we had so many BYU football players in the NFL. Also, going down the list is pretty nostalgic too when I thought back to watching all of these guys play at BYU. I was sad to see that Reno Mahe was an unrestricted free agent. That’s too bad that no one has picked him up. Maybe he’ll end up in Philadelphia again. I loved watching him play.

2006 SEASON

BEN ARCHIBALD, OT, New Orleans Saints

COLBY BOCKWOLDT, LB, San Francisco 49ers

RYAN DENNEY, DE, Buffalo Bills

JOHN DENNEY, DE, Miami Dolphins

AARON FRANCISCO, S, Arizona Cardinals

CHRIS HOKE, DT, Pittsburgh Steelers

SCOTT JACKSON, OG, Houston Texans

BRETT KEISEL, DE, Pittsburgh Steelers

ROB MORRIS, LB, Indianapolis Colts

SHAUN NUA, DE, Pittsburgh Steelers

BRADY POPPINGA, LB, Green Bay Packers

NAUFAHU TAHI, RB, Minnesota Vikings

JOHN TAIT, OT, Chicago Bears

TODD WATKINS, WR, Arizona Cardinals

SCOTT YOUNG, OG, Philadelphia Eagles

2007 DRAFT

JOHN BECK, QB, Miami Dolphins

2007 FREE AGENTS

CURTIS BROWN, RB, Cincinnati Bengals

DAN COATS, TE, Cincinnati Bengals

ZAC COLLIE, WR, Philadelphia Eagles

JONNY HARLINE, TE, Indianapolis Colts

CAMERON JENSEN, LB, Seattle Seahawks

JAKE KURESA, OL, New Orleans Saints

OTHER LOCALS

BRIAN SOI, OL, Utah State (Timpview), Miami Dolphins

KIRK CHAMBERS, OL, Stanford (Provo), Buffalo Bills

* RB/PR RENO MAHE is an unrestricted free agent

* TE GABE REID is a free agent

CUT

EDDIE KEELE, OL, Oakland Raiders

IN THE CFL

BEN CAHOON, WR, Montreal

OMARR MORGAN, DB, Edmonton

AARON WAGNER, LB, Toronto
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Mendenhall Contract Extension through 2011 – This is just the right thing to do for Bronco. He’s been nothing but excellent for BYU football. Although, I should point out that just because the contract goes until 2011 doesn’t mean that Bronco will be around that long. I hope he is because that will mean BYU is winning, but a contract unfortunately doesn’t seem to mean anything when a football program goes south. Well, I guess it does define how much that coach will be paid to leave.

BYU Men’s Basketball Headed to France – Does anyone else remember BYU’s last trip overseas to Austrailia? That trip really seemed to gel the team together. I hope it does the same this year with so much talent returning from last year.

BYU Football Season Ticket Sales – “It is expected more than 55,000 season tickets will be sold by the Cougars’ season-opener on September 1 against Arizona. This year’s current total is higher than any final season-ticket sales total since 1999.” Looks like the stadium’s going to be very full this year. Unfortunately, with this type of demand combined with a good season I think we can expect ticket prices to go up next year.

BYU Women’s Volleyball Ranked Number 17 – Ok, so it’s a preseason poll and it’s women’s volleyball. I still love anytime a BYU team is ranked nationally.

I was excited that I found myself in Utah this Monday and convinced my wife that it would be a good thing for my son and I to attend BYU football’s fall camp. BYU has invited fans to attend fall camp on four different dates.

Fans will be able to attend practices on Monday, Aug. 13; Wednesday, Aug. 15; Friday, Aug. 17 and Monday; Aug. 20. All practices will begin at 10 a.m. and will be held on the practice field, located just north of the Student Athlete Building. In the event of inclement weather, the team will hold a closed practice in the Indoor Practice Facility.

I convinced my dad to skip work which turned out to be a good thing for me since he took my 3 year old son for a walk when he got restless. Pretty cool to have three generations of BYU fans watching BYU football get ready for the season. It was a hot day and I should have found a spot on the south side of north field where there was more shade. However, I honestly didn’t care since I was so interested in how Bronco ran his practices.

You could tell the practices were organized to the hilt. The scoreboard buzzer kept going off at predetermined intervals and everyone seemed to know what exercise they were doing next. Only one time did a coach have to yell for more players to come and practice the punt formation. Honestly I was impressed that there wasn’t more confusion. I think they did 15 different practice intervals.

My favorite part of the practices was watching the receivers and cornerbacks go one on one in an end zone type situation. Honestly I think the receivers seemed to generally dominate the cornerbacks, but one on one is certainly hard. The timing also didn’t seem quite on with the quarterback (Lark I believe), but it was very entertaining to watch. I also loved seeing the secondary coach barking at teaching the secondary. Even my three year old son loved watching this drill. Possibly because it was right in front of us and was full of action.

A few other personal observations, although I will admit that a lot was happening and you can only take in so much.

-My Most Impressed award goes to Dennis Pitta. He just seemed really big in the middle and I think will be a great outlet for any BYU QB this year.
-My Next Most Impressed award goes to Austin Collie. He looked fast and burned someone down the sideline and then laid out to catch the football. He did look a bit tired on the sidelines, but I guess most of them looked tired at practice. Did I mention he was catching punts?
-Wayne Latu ran through a couple of really big holes. I personally attribute those holes to our relative depth at offensive line vs. defensive line, since Wayne was running with what looked like the second string. However, he did look pretty quick. Either way, I hope those holes open up come game day.

Pretty exciting day. I’m glad that Bronco is willing to open these fall practices up. 16 days 15 hours and counting.