HB Arnett’s

COUGAR SPORTSLINE

801 372 0819

hbarnett@fiber.net

1391 West 800 South – Orem, Utah 84058

Vol. 31, Issue 14 – October 25, 2010

NEXT BYU NFL QUARTERBACK?

In a couple of more seasons, we expect to see another NFL quarterback drafted with a BYU resume.

We aren't talking about Jake Heaps or Riley Nelson.

Brad Sorensen at least has the arm and physical stature to be selected by the NFL in their annual draft in a couple of years.

Sorensen is the older brother of Daniel Sorensen, who is a Cougar linebacker currently serving an LDS mission.

Last season, Brad Sorensen was BYU's scout team quarterback. He walked on at BYU after playing one season at San Bernardino Valley College in California. He redshirted last year and is now at Southern Utah University.

He is 6-5, 230 pounds. His coaches at SUU insist he is the best quarterback in the state of Utah. They say he can make all the throws.

Only a sophomore, Sorensen will be somebody to keep an eye on. You can rest assured that NFL scouts will be watching. There is a reason that Arizona drafted John Skelton, a 6-5, 245 pound qb from Fordham in the fifth round. Max Hall went undrafted and signed as a free agent.

The NFL wants size and arm strength, both of which Sorensen has.

In eight games, Sorensen has a passing efficiency rating of 137.3. He has completed 178 of 278 passes for 2087 yards. Completing 64% of his passes, he has thrown for 11 touchdowns and 4 interceptions.

While the competition he is facing is FCS caliber, his performance has been outstanding. If he keeps it up, you can go to the bank on him getting an NFL shot.

BYU looked at Sorensen out of high school but passed, according to what we have heard. After an LDS mission and a year at the juco level, he walked at BYU last year.

His situation illuminates recruiting and playing time. Sorensen basically wasn't given any serious look as a future qb possibility for the Cougars during his one-year stint in Provo.

That is because BYU had Max Hall as a senior starter and Riley Nelson as his backup and Jake Heaps in the high school wings waiting to show up on campus.

BYU also knew it had two other scholarship players returning from LDS missions.

Coaches have a vested interest in players they recruit and sign. They want to prove that they were astute in their evaluation of talent.

With the exception of maybe Bronco Mendenhall defensively, most coaches don't give walkon players the time of day.

They have to protect the players they signed and with only 20 hours a week to practice and prepare, a walkon quarterback at BYU would have to look like a combination of John Elway, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, to get a coach's attention.

In hindsight, BYU may have let a viable solution for the current Cougar quarterback mess slip away.

In foresight, it will be interesting to see if the NFL scouts think Sorensen looks like an NFL quarterback.

While he didn't get a shot at BYU, we expect him to get a great shot at the NFL.