...it was a great place for me after serving my mission (going to BYU meant giving up my BBall schollie at my hometown University and forgetting about playing college Bball) but I didn't regret it for a second. Still I respect guys who have other things in mind that they're looking for and the church organization is strong enough in a lot of college campuses (Institute, YSA wards, etc) that I believe they can find a great school to go to and stay on track spiritually too.
When kids pick a school like Stanford over BYU I totally get why they made the choice and don't blame them, it would be hard for me to say no given the opportunity to choose. If he chooses Utah over BYU I can't say that I blame him there either, Bronco is great preparing LB's for the NFL and KW is the same with DL's. If I was a LB prospect I'd likely choose BYU over Utah but if I was a DL prospect I might be tempted the other way if I thought the NFL might be in my future.
Hopefully he comes around full circle again and ends up at BYU.