I love his name. It is about time BYU had a wild man playing defense that I can call Ol Port. However, New Port doesn't have key church leaders promising him exaltation despite his penchant for occassionally killin' folks that didn't need killin' in addition to the killin' of folks who did need killin'. Now in Ol Port's defense the killin' business was kind of messy and likely if one wanted to stay alive in that vocation being very discriminatory about who one killed could have been a vocational hazzard - sort of like a modern academic wanker and the paper cut or tunnel carpel syndrome or something. I digress....To quote Bob Dylan "the times they are a-changin!"

Clearly there are reasons why BYU hasn't offered New Port. My opinion, slightly informed, is he has some behavorial issues. He is a 17 year old kid and will hopefully overcome them but there are reasons, good ones to BYU, as to why they are not yet offering. IMO the reasons are best defined as corporate culture. BYU is not going to offer him until it is confident he is going to live the way BYU asks and its athletes commit. This type of situation is a clear example of how/why BYU limits its own success. I also don't blame Bronco and people that do I think are dumb. It is the BYU way and pissing and moaning about it like the women of Srbrnca does no good. I wish BYU wasn't this way but I have accepted that they are and I think the time of the coaching staff wasted via whining twitter posts and the whining here and wild stories about the coaching staff not being dialed in are dumb. But enough of that as I accept most your dumbness like I do BYU's success-limiting practices.

Now while I don't think New Port's behavior issues are nearly as big a deal to Bronco Mendenhall as the theatrics his posse is going to in an effort to embarass BYU/bully them into offering him a scholarship. The line about "being prepared to committ" is such utter bovine excrement. His parents know exactly, and my guess is Mendenhall has made it explicitly clear, as to why BYU is holding back a scholarship offer and what must be done for that to change. Now I don't expect a dad to come clean about the issues and embarass his son publicly, but there are other ways to handle the situation other than sending folks to sports message boards to get the dumb people I mention in the paragraph 2 worked into a frenzy while publicly claiming you were "ready to commit until BYU did not offer." That might be Mendenhall's stubborness and one of his issues that mitigates his own success, on top of how BYU limits its success for him with its own corporate culture issues, but being wired that way is also why I think Mendenhall has been pretty successful in his own right. The dude doesn't yank others around and does not appreciate being yanked around - especially in the media/on line where he is limited by rules and decency as to what it is he can say to "defend" himself. If I can judge for a moment, which I hypocritically will (hardy har har), I will point out my opinion that such antics might indicate why New Port does have some behavioral issues. I hope they are not muddying the waters too early.

My hope is BYU and Port come to a conclusion that whatever has to change for BYU to offer him has changed and that the kid serves a mission and takes his rightful place as a great OLB or DE and is a 3 time AA before a long pro career. A defensive stud named "Porter" should be at BYU. Our demographics are small but we should get all "Destroying Angels."