it seems pretty apparent that Pope made a hand-shake agreement to keep all the active players on the roster when he arrived — to keep them on scholarship for the first two seasons he was here.

Before Pope, BYU very much prided itself in honoring scholarships for a full collegiate career. And I think now that Pope has his own recruits we'll see few players cut in the future.

I agree in principle on what you said of a can't-miss, "Michael Jordan" recruit — but I also agree that Ashworth was not (& is still not) that sorta player. And yet since Pope gave Hansen a year try-out as a Rose recruit (NOT something he honored in most of Rose's RMs), I have a hard time believing Ashworth wouldn't have gotten the same treatment from Pope IF indeed Rose had signed him outa HS (like he probably should've).