I will say your response was not worthy of the sort of censure & accusation I put out.

I appreciate the explanation.

Pope has had 4 recruiting classes to work with, & really only the last two in which his hands weren't heavily tied by being committed to a number of holdover players he never would've signed in the first place.

And this isn't to say that Pope in the here-&-now would even sign players like Spencer J & Gideon — that he so quickly snatched up when he first arrived. Those two players --as raw as they were on offense, & as marginal as they were as recruits-- nonetheless were crucial defensive signings given where our roster was at at the time (mostly comprised of recruits Pope had no part in their recruiting). Whatever lacks SJ & GG might have as overall players, I think all will agree that their defensive value on the team the last few years has been crucial. I think it's also fair to say that as overall D1 basketball players they both were better than the recruiting services were billing them to be.

As to just our LDS recruiting --& the notion of momentum— though? In 2019 Pope signed Saunders (state's top LDS recruit), Hall (Gatorade player, UT), & Toolson (Gatorade player, WA), in 2020 (with only 1 schollie to afford for a HS player) he signed Wahlin, the state's highest-rated LDS prospect & the #2 overall prospect, in 2021 he signed non-LDS guys in Fouss & Atiki, & in 2022 besides signing the state's top kid in Chandler (& top LDS recruit since Jabari), he also signed two intriguing non-LDS underclassmen in Braedon Moore & Jax Robinson. I say intriguing, because despite the claims Pope doesn't mind offensive skill enough in his recruiting, those last two kids were valued much more for their offense & skill than for their athletic potential (which for Jax was pretty raw, & for Moore, well — was pretty poor).

What I see here isn't so much an issue of momentum, but an issue of deferment. Which is of course an issue unique to BYU & its recruits who lag two-to-three years behind in the typical enrollment process with incoming recruits.