I applaud Merrill for giving a candid interview.

What’s lost in this situation is the fact that despite him being a celebrity in the football media world. He’s also the Dad of a kid that is good enough to be on the roster as a QB at BYU. Let’s start there… Even if Merrill wasn’t an expert commentator for the NFL, and he was say a lawyer, or a business owner, or a teacher, or a HS football coach… He’s also the Dad of a kid who’s good enough to be listed on BYU’s roster as a QB. This gets overlooked because once they’re here, or on the team… If they’re 4th string… We sort of think “Well, they’re just not that good.”

Anyone who knows a kid that’s good enough to be on BYU’s roster as a QB knows that they’ve likely spent the majority of their life as being amazing, special, extremely talented, successful, driven, and hard working. And they also likely share those attributes with their parents. Not always, but usually. So before you throw out the word “entitled” please remember that this is the kids Dad, and he and his son have worked very hard to be in this position in the first place.

The difference here is that A) Merrill Hoge is a well know person in the greater football universe. B) BYU’s own media is shameless at leveraging any tie they can to the program and the greater football world even if that means interviewing Merrill Hoge in the middle of fall camp when his son isn’t doing great and has been asked to change positions. Shame on them for going to that “well” at that time. What did they expect? I would bet if the Dad of every 4th string QB on a D1 roster was interviewed on air at this stage of fall camp after his son was just asked to change positions they’d likely sound similar to how Merrill sounded today. But they weren’t given that platform to voice their opinion because they aren’t Merrill Hoge. If BYU’s media wants to interview Merrill Hoge, do it when his son initially joins the program, or when things are going very well for his son in the program.