BYU football recruiting loses prospects to Ohio State, Louisville, and is not having a good week

The worst news this week for BYU football fans, albeit not totally unexpected, was the loss of top-rated commit, Garett Bolles, who is likely to sign with an elite program if he doesn't eventually return to BYU. But that wasn't the only bad news for BYU over the last few days, as a few targeted prospects signed with other schools.

First, the Cougars missed out on punter Drue Chrisman out of Cincinnati, Ohio, who signed with Ohio State over BYU and Florida State. On one hand, even being in the final three for a highly regarded Ohio kid with Ohio State is an encouraging gesture for BYU, and there is no shame in getting beaten to a kid by the defending national champs. It's also true that most fans probably won't get too beaten up over missing out on a punter.

Chrisman, however, is the top-ranked punter in the country, and is also LDS. Typically, BYU's best chance to steal really elite talent out of state comes from LDS kids. While losing this battle is understandable -- and may not even hurt BYU too badly -- if BYU wants to start beating some of these nationally regarded teams on a regular basis, they're going to eventually need to win a few more of those battles.

Another potential candidate was taken off the board as 6-0 Merced College CB Devron Davis committed to Louisville. Davis did not have a BYU offer yet (only Louisville, Colorado State and Arkansas State had), but the Cougars had been recruiting him and were interested. It's not clear at this point is BYU was likely to offer in the near future, or even if Davis' commitment is 100% finished, but if the Cougars are still interested in snagging the services of this Californian speedster, their job just got a lot harder.

Is it time to panic? Nah, it's only early May, and there's a ton of time before BYU's class fills out. The Cougars only have five commitments right now, and are hovering around the #50 ranking, which may be a little low, but there's time for that to change over the next few months. It's just part of the ups and downs of recruiting.

The good news on the Chrisman/punter front is that Jonny Rugby seems prepared to take BYU's punting mantle upon his extremely skilled leg.

BYU is pursuing other big 2016 targets for the offensive line. The Cougars recently offered Toleafoa "Sean" Auwae, a 3-star (247Sports rating of 86.67) lineman from Kapolei, Hawaii. Johnny Maea (3 stars, 84.17) from East HS in Salt Lake is another big target.

As for the corner position, BYU already has a commitment from Aleva Hifo (3 stars, 85.00) of Menifee, California. The Cougars have no other known offers to CB prospects, although there are offers to multiple-position athletes who could play corner, such as:

Drew Jensen - 3 stars, 85.17 - Brighton HS, Salt Lake City
Tre Miller - 3 stars, 87.78 - Dixie HS, St. George, Utah
Jaylen Morgan* - 2 stars - Hawthorne HS, Hawthorne, California
*-Son of BYU legend Omarr Morgan

BYU may also have its eye on several Snow College prospects for the defensive backfield, including Ivan King (a corner) and Braxton Winterton (a safety).

Make sure to visit the 2016 big board and map for a full picture of BYU's recruiting efforts.