First, my prayers go out to the family of Kona as they deal with this difficult time.

This post is solely on the comment that this was one of Bronco's biggest mistakes. It's not like Kona had a great relationship with Bronco or BYU.

When Bronco offers a kid, it goes down like this:

"Mendenhall said he has a longstanding policy that when players commit to BYU, they should not visit other schools, adding that he takes verbal commitments seriously."

"I've only had three young men that told me they were coming to BYU and change their minds (over the last five years)," said Mendenhall. "One of those changed his mind and is at BYU (linebacker Uona Kaveinga, who recently transferred from USC). I make it very clear, please do not accept this offer unless you don't want to be recruited anymore."

Kona had made a "final commitment" to Bronco and then at the very last minute decided he was still going to go to an official at ND right before the signing deadline.

And he didn't bother to tell Bronco about the trip. Bronco found out about it second-hand.

Bronco had to decide if Kona was still committed or if he was wavering on his commitment. It wasn't as if Kona had told Bronco he was undecided.

Bronco made it known to Kona that he would lose his scholarship if he went to ND because to him that was not what someone who was committed would do at the last minute of the recruiting cycle and because he could use that scholly one someone that wanted to be at BYU.

Kona wanted a safety net in BYU if ND did not offer.

Bronco had to use that scholly on someone and not be left holding the bag if ND did offer (remember that OL recruit that signed with UCLA?)

So Bronco made Kona decide.

Either keep the commitment and skip ND OR visit ND and that shows you were going to decommit.

If the kid was undecided you potentially risk it and keep the scholly open in the hopes that he signs, and if not, ive it to a PFO if Kona goes to ND.

If the kid was committed he would not attend ND and he would get the BYU scholly.

If the kid was not committed he would attend ND and Bronco could use the scholly to offer another kid either further down his list, to an undecided, or to a PWO.

What I find funny is that people judge Bronco for pulling a scholly under these circumstances but don't consider it ironic when we did the same thing as ND when we got Uriah Leiataua to come to a last minute trip and he flipped from Stanford to BYU *on signing day*.

At the end of the day, kids will choose what is in their best interest.

So I disagree this was a Bronco recruiting mistake.