Man, there you go again. You can't actually question why BYU fans think you are biased against BYU, can you? Both from your words and tone of voice on air, along with the last little sentence in this blog, you give the impression that this was another "dirty" deed done because we just needed another running back. To clarify things, Scout.com reported the scholarship offer to Malosi on April 24th, and in that article stated that the offer had been made about a month and a half ago. That would mean the offer was made about mid to late February. Manase lost eligibility on May 12th. Having said that, if Manase's ineligibility was the sole reason to offer Malosi Te'o, who cares. To me, that's smart recruiting. Way to go, Bronco. Keep those missionaries coming.

BTW, here is the scout.com reference: http://hshawaii.scout.com/a.z?s=370&p=2&c=749416

Mraven when you read that article does it sound to you like the family went to BYU or that BYU went to the family?

I don't think Teo will be back in time for this season, so unfortunately I don't think that helps with the running back depth with regards to Tonga (also there is a big difference between a 220 full back and a 195 scat back). Even if he is, having been on a mission, let me just say that it would take a modern miracle and some really good steroids for him to be in shape by august.

Oh and are you and mraven going to bust out the gloves and go at it MMA style? If so, I'm buying tickets :-)

The Te'o family are all extremely close, as most Polynesian families are. They are also all extremely good athletes. Shiloah Te'o is a 3-star safety from Kahuku that signed with BYU in February. As the article said, while visiting and recruiting Shiloah, the BYU coaches were told about Malosi and his desire to play for BYU. Then they were shown film on Malosi from his senior year that not many people had seen before. While the BYU coaches were on the Te'o's turf, the family initiated the interest in BYU from Malosi.

Regardless, this signing is a much bigger deal to true BYU fans for a number of reasons. First, Malosi is the real deal and will give BYU an extremely explosive RB. However, perhaps the biggest deal is that with Malosi and Shiloah at BYU, they will have the inside track now for Manti Te'o. Manti Te'o is the cousin of both Malosi and Shiloah and happens to be the best LB in the entire country for the class of 2009. He has offers from every major program in the country and was recently featured in Sports Illustrated in a story about the best HS athletics program in the country, Punahou HS.

Even before the Malosi commitment, it was widely reported that it would come down to BYU and USC. This kid is so good that USC decided to break policy and let him serve a mission if he comes. Hopefully for BYU fans, this will be one more step to landing the best recruit in the history of BYU football. The film on Manti Te'o is simply outrageous for a HS Junior. He is Troy Polamalu only bigger. That should be the real story with the Malosi commit. BYU just got closer to landing Manti.

I don't want to stear your conspiracy theory mind, Locke, but the real angle here is that, it could be argued, BYU offered Malosi simply to get his cousin. It really has nothing to do with Manase Tonga and his situation.

In response to your question, in multiple articles Ephraim Te'o, Malosi's father, is quoted as saying that the family contacted BYU coaches first, and that BYU didn't even respond to the family until after Malosi had been on his mission for more than a year. Are you questioning that?