The 2012 BYU Cougars football team represented Brigham Young University in the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Cougars, led by head coach Bronco Mendenhall, played their home games at LaVell Edwards Stadium. This was the second year BYU competed as an independent. They finished the season 8–5. They were invited to the Poinsettia Bowl where they defeated San Diego State.
Before the season
2012 Recruits As the home of the Cougars, BYUtv would sponsor their own National Letter of Intent Day signing day special. The special aired on Wednesday, February 1 at 7 p.m. MT and was rebroadcast that night at 10 p.m. MT and Thursday morning at 1 a.m. MT. Additionally a signing day press conference was broadcast on BYUtvsports.com live at 1:30 p.m. MT. The following athletes signed letters of intent to play for BYU in the coming seasons.
6 of the Cougar commitments (Amone, Hannemann, Hinds, Mangum, Richards, and Weeks) plan to serve full-time church missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before joining the BYU team. 3 Cougars commitments (Hill, Johnson, and Olsen) were mid-year enrollees. Powell graduated High School in winter 2011 and was already taking classes at BYU, so there was no letter of intent for him to sign. He plans to grey-shirt before going on a church mission. With 6 other QB's on the roster, Mangum also chose to grey-shirt the 2012 season.
2012 Return Missionary Commitments BYU also announced a large list of return missionaries that would help bolster their roster this season. Commit dates in this section are dates in which it was announced these players would return to BYU, not when they actually first signed with BYU.
2012 Departures The following Cougars graduated, transferred, or chose to serve two-year Church Missions after the 2011 season and didn't return to the team in 2012. Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Notes JJ Di Luigi 10 RB 185 Santa Clarita, CA Graduated Bryan Kariya 33 RB 217 Kaysville, UT Graduated Terence Brown 60 C 318 Summerville, SC Graduated; NFL Free agent signee with the Miami Dolphins Marco Thorson 62 OG 210 Ramona, CA Graduated Matt Reynolds 70 OT 305 Provo, UT Graduated; NFL Free agent signee with the Carolina Panthers McKay Jacobson 06 WR 199 Southlake, TX Graduated; NFL Free agent signee with the Philadelphia Eagles Matt Marshall 19 WR 171 Salt Lake City, UT Graduated Spencer Hafoka 83 WR 201 Kahuku, HI Graduated Matthew Edwards 89 TE 214 Salt Lake City, UT Graduated Matt Putnam 41 DE 271 Brigham City, UT Graduated; Invited to NFL's Green Bay Packers minicamp Ian Dulan 65 DT 270 Hilo, HI Graduated Hebron Fangupo 91 DT 331 Santa Ana, CA Graduated; NFL Free agent signee with the Houston Texans Simote Vea 93 DE 270 Hau'ula, HI Graduated Jordan Pendleton 01 LB 238 South Jordan, UT Graduated Aveni Leung-Wai 31 LB 227 Aiea, HI Graduated Jameson Frazier 48 LB 230 Draper, UT Graduated; Invited to NFL's Philadelphia Eagles minicamp Jadon Wagner 49 LB 245 Lethbridge, Alberta Graduated Travis Uale 23 DB 199 Hawaii Kai, HI Graduated Corby Eason 25 DB 173 Columbus, GA Graduated Jake Heaps 09 QB 200 Issaquah, WA Transferred- University of Kansas Ryan Folsom 30 RB 195 Medford, OR Austin Heder 41 RB 241 Pleasant Grove, UT LDS mission (returning in 2014) Grant James 92 TE 190 Concord, CA Stehly Reden 90 TE 254 Valley Center, CA LDS mission (returning in 2014) Manu Mulitalo 66 OL 340 West Valley City, UT LDS mission (returning in 2014) Austin Nielsen 68 OL 277 Glendale, CA Devon Smith OL 275 Beaverton, OR LDS mission (returning in 2014) Carter Mees 15 DB 190 St. George, UT Gavin Fowler 16 DB 190 Kaysville, UT LDS mission (returning in 2014) Logan Obering 17 DB N/A Cedar City, UT Kori Gaines 19 DB 162 Loganville, GA Transferred- College of the Canyons Baker Pritchard 43 DL 277 South Jordan, UT LDS mission (returning in 2014) Graham Rowley 92 DL 280 Waialua, HI LDS mission (returning in 2014) Travis Tuiloma 97 DL 320 Topeka, KS LDS mission (returning in 2014) Zach Newman 42 LB 215 Alpine, UT LDS mission (returning in 2014) Cody Monsen 52 LB 215 Brownwood, TX Va'a Niumatalolo 59 LB 227 Annapolis, MD LDS mission (returning in 2014) Josh Quezada 20 RB 225 La Habra, CA Transferred – Fresno State Jordan Richardson 94 DL 270 La Habra, CA Injured- Will miss senior season with injury; Moved to a Student Assistant Rhen Brown 87 WR 178 Summerville, South Carolina Will miss senior season with injury Jray Galea'i 16 DB 196 Laie, HI Will miss senior season with injury; Moved to a Student Assistant O'Neill Chambers 15 DB 225 Harmony, FL In bad standing with program and not allowed to practice; Transferred to University of Nebraska at Kearney
Spring Game The BYU 2012 Spring game was held on March 24, 2012. Due to a high number of injuries in spring football, it was downgraded to a scrimmage. All the starters were benched. Each of the remaining 4 quarterbacks got 2 series to play against selected defensive players. The scrimmage would end in a scoreless fashion at 0–0. However Coach Bronco Mendenhall said the game accomplished what he wanted it to. He was able to find a set of players that would be beneficial to the team this fall as starters or backups.
Transfers Controversy arose with the BYU football team in April 2012 when it was revealed that Michael Wadsworth, a defensive back, had requested a transfer from Hawaiʻi while on his church mission. The reason he gave stated he wanted to play closer to his home in Orem, Utah. Hawaiʻi denied his request and asked him to complete one more season. Despite appeals to the coach, Greg McMackin, and others higher up at the university, Wadsworth was denied his attempt to transfer. When Norm Chow became the new coach of the Warriors, he was contacted by the Wadsworth's about the possible transfer. Chow said Wadsworth could transfer to any school except BYU. Despite being a former offensive coordinator at BYU, Chow claimed it was his belief that BYU had an unfair recruiting advantage with missionaries. Bronco Mendenhall and the staff have made it clear that they don't contact any missionaries in the field for recruiting purposes, and they have not made any contact with the Wadsworth family. At this time Wadsworth plans on go to BYU in the fall, but he won't be able to play football with BYU or even talk to the coaches about possibly playing football with them until June 2013.
On May 2, BYU learned that Colorado State transfer Drew Reilly would come to BYU. Reilly was a starting safety for the Rams 2011 season. Reilly's reasons for transferring were solely to seek a better atmosphere for his LDS beliefs. As is required, Reilly will sit out the 2012 season, but he will become a full scholarship student at BYU in January 2013 and be able to participate in spring ball in April 2013.
Pre-season honors 1 BYU Cougar was selected as a 2012 All-American participant, and 16 BYU Cougars were selected to the Phil-Steele All-Independent team to begin 2012 (Cody Hoffman was selected for two different positions). Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Notes Braden Hansen 76 OG 303 Sandy, UT Phil-Steele 3rd Team All American Riley Nelson 13 QB 196 Logan, UT Phil-Steele 1st Team All-Independent; 2012 Maxwell Award Pre-season watch list Cody Hoffman 2 WR 208 Crescent City, CA Phil-Steele 1st Team All-Independent Braden Hansen 76 OG 303 Sandy, UT Phil-Steele 1st Team All Independent; 2012 Outland Trophy Pre-season watch list Braden Brown 75 OT 301 Salt Lake City, UT Phil-Steele 1st Team All Independent Brandon Ogletree 44 LB 228 McKinney, TX Phil-Steele 1st Team All Independent Kyle Van Noy 3 LB 235 Reno, NV Phil-Steele 1st Team All Independent; 2012 Bronko Nagurski Trophy Pre-season watch list Preston Hadley 7 CB 200 Pleasant Grove, UT Phil-Steele 1st Team All Independent Daniel Sorensen 9 S 206 Colton, CA Phil-Steele 1st Team All Independent Justin Sorensen 37 PK 232 South Jordan, UT Phil-Steele 1st Team All Independent Riley Stephenson 99 P 196 St. George, UT Phil-Steele 1st Team All Independent and Ray Guy Award Pre-season Watchlist JD Falslev 12 PR 184 Smithfield, UT Phil-Steele 1st Team All Independent Ross Apo 1 WR 206 Arlington, TX Phil-Steele 2nd Team All Independent Marcus Mathews 80 TE 208 Beaverton, OR Phil-Steele 2nd Team All Independent Houston Reynolds 1 C 296 Provo, UT Phil-Steele 2nd Team All Independent Eathyn Manumaleuna 55 DL 294 Anchorage, AK Phil-Steele 2nd Team All Independent Romney Fuga 98 DL 321 Huntington Beach, CA Phil-Steele 2nd Team All Independent Uona Kaveinga 4 LB 236 Hawthorne, CA Phil-Steele 2nd Team All Independent Cody Hoffman 2 KR 208 Crescent City, CA Phil-Steele 2nd Team All-Independent
Media
2012 Media Day On the BYU Spring Football Special aired April 2, 2012, it was announced that BYUtv would provide coverage of the national media day, probably sometime in July. On May 7 it was announced that BYU Football National Media Day would take place on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 from the BYU Broadcasting Center.
For football Media Day Dave McCann, Bronco Mendenhall, Tom Holmoe, and Trevor Matich discussed what the Cougars goals were for the 2012 season during the State of the Program discussion. They also discussed the new playoff format that will begin in 2014.
One of the hot topics was the BYU-Utah rivalry and if 2012 would be the last year for this traditional rivalry. Both Holmoe and Mendenhall said they want the rivalry to continue and that it is up in the hands of Utah's board. However, they hoped that with Strength of Schedule being one of the factors in the new playoff system, it should provide extra incentive for Utah to want to continue the rivalry.
Another topic discussed was moving the Utah State- BYU game from conference weekend back to November. Mendenhall said he liked the idea of having a traditional rival as the final game, and with the improvements Gary Andersen continued to make at Utah State, it would be a desirable outcome if both schools could make it happen.
Finally the discussion of realignment and the BYU–Notre Dame alliance was discussed. Holmoe made it clear that Independence is the course that BYU will continue to take at this time, and they thanked Notre Dame football for providing a voice for BYU and Notre Dame in scheduling this new playoff format. He admitted BYU would keep an eye on the continuing changes of the college football landscape, but BYU and Notre Dame will continue to be partners in Independence for the foreseeable future.
The second program on Media Day was a True Blue 2012 Football Season Preview. Brandon Doman, Riley Nelson, Kyle Van Noy, and others were brought in to discuss what the coaches, offensive players, and defensive players are doing to get ready for the 2012 season. They also stated their goals. Bruce Binkowski, the Poinsettia Bowl and Holiday Bowl GM Association Executive Director, attended the show and discussed why the Poinsettia Bowl had signed BYU up for the 2012 season. He also revealed the ideal match for the 2012 Poinsettia Bowl would be BYU vs. San Diego State, a match-up which eventually came to fruition.
The third program held was a round table discussion. It focused on how Bronco Mendenhall has focused on changing the offense and defense at BYU since he became the head coach. John Beck, Curtis Brown, Vic So'oto, Max Hall, Austin Collie, and Dennis Pitta came back to discuss how playing at BYU has prepared them for the NFL, what their favorite moments were at BYU, and how Mendenhall changed the program into the 6th most winning program in NCAA Football during his 7 years at BYU.
Throughout the day Robbie Bullough also had live chats online with current BYU players and coaches.
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