Nelson Gone and So is BYU's Passing Attack

Riley Nelson, the left-handed junior quarterback for BYU who has started the first three games of this year, will miss the rest of the season because of a injury to his non-throwing shoulder. The injury will require surgery and will take 4-5 months to rehab and heal properly.

BYU hopes to get a medical redshirt year for Nelson. If that happens he would again be a junior next season.

With Nelson no longer in the quarterback rotation, the starting job now goes to true freshman Jake Heaps. James Lark is now the backup and only one hit away from becoming the starter.

Oh How The Mighty Have Fallen

Thanks to an observant subscriber who emailed us with the following information. BYU is currently dead last out of 109 FBS football teams in passing.

Okay, in the most recent NCAA statistics as of the end of September 18, BYU is 101 out of 109 teams in passing offense. They are, however, absolutely dead last in passing yards per attempt. BYU is averaging just 4.65 yards per passing attempt. Somewhere, Doug Scovil is rolling over in his grave.

BYU Has Its First Basketball Commit

Isaac Neilson with Dave Rose and his two assistants, during Neilson's in home visit

 We talked about Isaac Neilson, BYU's first basketball commit for this recruiting year in our latest newsletter. For those who don't subscribe to our newsletter, here are the basics.

Isaac Neilson, a 6-10, 205 pound center from Mission Viejo High School in California has told Rose that he will be a Cougar.

Neilson will sign, but not enroll in school until after serving an LDS mission. He turns 19 in December of 2011.

BYU began monitoring Neilson last year as a junior, but held off on offering a scholarship until after Neilson's summer play with his AAU team, One Tough Team.

Rose and his coaching cohorts weren't the only ones that were impressed with how Neilson showed this summer. He made a few waves during his team's stint in Las Vegas.

Here is what Dave Telep, the lead recruiting talent evaluator for Scout.com had to say about Neilson after watching him play in Vegas.

"One Tough School sports a center with potential. Isaac Neilson will take two years on a Mormon mission, but don't be surprised to hear from the 6-10 big man down the road."
Telep also said the following as of July 25: "Isaac Neilson has zero scholarship offers to date. That's just wrong. Utah State, BYU, SUU and Santa Barbara are all looking."

Neilson will be a senior this coming season, but was a first-team all South Coast League selection last year as a junior. He was also selected to the second-team All SCL volleyball team.

As a junior, he averaged 9.5 points, 9 rebounds and 4.5 blocks per game the MV Diablos.

This past summer in AAU action, he averaged close to 16 points per outing. According to Neilson, Dave Rose told him that he runs the floor like a 6-5 player. In addition to BYU, he was recruited by Army, Utah State, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine.

He has a Cougar background. Both of his parents are BYU graduates.

The only video that we have is the same one we posted earlier this year on our blog. You can see it again below.





We are ferreting footage from summer play and if we come up with any on Neilson, we will post it on our blog.