Some of the early chatter about Coach Young is the legitimate concern about his ability to recruit at BYU, given his limited experience recruiting (at the college level) and the BYU limitations and the current landscape (NIL, portal, etc.).

What do you think might ease any of these concerns? A couple thoughts so far:

* Assistants and recruiting - A lot of the help Young needs will depend on the assistant coaches who come into the program. Certainly, this is probably the first factor for success.

* Recruiting focus - So far, Young has said and seemingly done the right things on the topic of recruiting. He said that his first calls were to existing players on the team. He met immediately with the existing players after arriving and started to build relationships. He publicly told the players in his press conference that he wanted them all back. He emphasized his focus on wanting to emphasize player development and being a pathway to professional basketball.

* Recruiting wins so far - If we accept that "any player can go in the portal and go anywhere," or that idea, then recruiting focus has to shift somewhat toward player retention and continuity each year. You have to re-recruit and win your own guys first. I think there is a lot of time yet, but so far BYU has fewer guys in the portal than might be expected. Also, it looks clearly like Coach Young has some early recruiting wins in this context:
- Trevin Knell - publicly "all in" and coming back, committed to Coach Young and BYU; senior leadership.
- Noah Waterman - reportedly coming back, also senior leadership.
- Isaac Davis - reportedly still strongly committed, great freshman recruit.
- Small sample size so far, but encouraging. We'll see how it goes in coming days.

* Recruiting connections - This has been mentioned quite a bit but still should not be understated. With his brother Justin's recruiting connections across the landscape of prep and college basketball, Coach Young has a pretty amazing resource that can help to inform his recruiting efforts. Beyond this? Coach Young is well connected across the NBA landscape with coaches and scouts, not to mention players, who keep an eye on players from a young stage now and across the world. I think this will be helpful.

* Recruiting personality and resources - BYU has noted that it intends to invest needed resources into the program, which we assume includes NIL support and other resources (travel to recruit, etc.). I would note that BYU has done some pretty cool things with its support of players in unique ways, such as Trey Stewart and his business development efforts or Gideon George and his nonprofit charitable efforts - it's a lot more than just $$. Also, Coach Young seems a pretty down to earth, straightforward personality, humble, and with great communication skills. Those are tools that are indispensable for recruiting.

Folks are concerned. I am encouraged. Thoughts?