BYU Football Recruiting: Coaches, Character, and Community Help Cougars Land Trent Hosick

Former Missouri quarterback Trent Hosick didn't keep Cougar fans waiting for long. After taking an official visit to BYU this past weekend, Hosick committed to transfer to BYU Monday evening.

Hosick had originally planned on giving himself a few days to make his commitment official, giving him time to make the difficult calls to the other programs recruiting him to let them know he had found what he was looking for in BYU. When he arrived home from Provo, he didn't want to keep people waiting any longer so he quickly made the calls and then announced his decision to the world on his Twitter account.

Hosick made the trip to Provo with his parents and brothers and they were all "blown away" by what BYU had to offer and that was enough to quickly lock up the exciting dual-threat quarterback for the Cougars. Hosick cited several reasons that contributed to his quick commitment, including the character of the coaching staff, the work ethic of the players, the quality of the facilities, and Bronco Mendenhall's mission for the program.

"I'd like to have an impact on people," Hosick said, "And really show people that character and winning go hand in hand and that you don't have to sacrifice one for the other and I think that's what BYU sports are all about."

Last week, Hosick told me one of the things he was looking for in a school was "a community of like-minded people". Only having had only two or three friends growing up that were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Hosick wasn't overly familiar with the LDS culture, but was excited by the community he found in Provo.

"There may be a few theological differences, but they value the same things that I value," Hosick said, "I'm excited to go out there because I've kind of thought differently from a lot of people my entire life and I think that the people in Provo and the people at BYU think a lot like I do."

Hosick will play this upcoming season at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO).  NCAA transfer rules would require to sit out a year if he transferred from an FBS school (Missouri) to another FBS school (BYU). By going the junior college route for a semester, he will be able to take actual game reps at the junior college level this fall.

"I could come into BYU now and get a fall being under Taysom and learning the offense and those would be valuable," Hosick said, "nonetheless I think that seeing actual football, being the starting quarterback for a team, getting game reps, I think you can't really put a price tag on that and I think that's going to make me a better player and in turn help BYU even more in the long run."

NEO has a very successful football history with five junior college national championships and has produced several players who went on to successful D-I and then NFL careers, including three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Pat Williams and four-time Pro Bowl tight end, Jeremy Shockey. The Norsemen are coming off a rough season, but with a new coach that has made a name for himself rebuilding junior college programs and a spread offense at least somewhat similar to the Cougars', Hosick feels NEO is the perfect fit for him at the junior college level.

"Coach Held has put together a phenomenal recruiting class, the coaching staff is a perfect fit for me and I think we are going to have a very good shot to go win a national championship in junior college this season," Hosick said.

NEO will be Hosick's first opportunity to play in a true spread offense and he is excited for the opportunity to better showcase his complete skill set as both a passer and a runner than the run-heavy offense he ran in high school. Hosick hopes this will help to silence those who doubt his complete skill set at the quarterback position and prove the BYU coaches made a good decision bringing him into their program.

Hosick has already built a fairly good rapport with some BYU fans. His willingness to interact with fans on social media and answer questions on the social platform ask.fm will likely make him a fan favorite in the future. And if that doesn't win them over, his attitude about the fan base should.

"Ultimately the BYU Football program isn't just the 123 players and the coaching staff, Hosick said, "the BYU Football program includes all of Provo and all the BYU fans across the world."