Quote:
Originally Posted by Ma'ake
The genius of Whitt's recruiting vis-a-vis BYU is that he can offer:
1. A good LDS experience - largest LDS Institute & student body outside BYU among D1A football schools - sans the secret police and (perceived) intra-LDS cultural superiority / arrogance.
2. He can recruit non-LDS athletes. In fact, I would argue there is such a critical mass of AA kids that they sell the program themselves, we actually get AA walkons.
3. The mix is impressive. Every gets along pretty well. You have Polynesian RMs working side-by-side with non-LDS "hellion" Polys, lots of black kids working with RMs without a second thought. (I like the Poly "manes", personally)
4. non-LDS players don't really care that KW and other coaches are LDS. For that matter, WHO CARES if Whitt is not 100% attendance LDS. (I don't know, it doesn't atter.)
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BYU's glass ceiling is due to its parochialism, inclucing its racist past with which it refuses to come to terms, and the Honor Code to name a couple of examples. But LDS culture does have undeniable virtues and positive values. Clearly those translate into success on the football field, among other endeavors.
Whit, himself a product of LDS culture, taps into those including in his recruiting. But he is not constrained by the parochialism. So he has the best of both words. Also, he's now positioned the porgram so that he goes toe to toe with Colorado, Washington, and the likes for recruits. He's in a real sweet spot.