BYU junior RB Harvey Unga's decision on BYU is conflicting at this moment. There are reports by his father that Harvey is returning to BYU to finish his degree. Key word there is father with nothing coming directly from Harvey Unga himself. Here is what is father said:
"This is a decision he made on his own after gathering as much information as he could," Jackson Unga said. "He believes he should return, get his degree, put all he can into his senior season in extending his record and helping the football team achieve its goals. He loves BYU and his coaching staff and believes it is in his best interest to take this path at this time in his career."
However, The Salt Lake Tribune's Jay Drew exchanged text messages with Unga who says he is still not sure:
Me: Reports out there say you are coming back?
Harvey: I am not sure yet. I’ll most likely meet with coach when he gets back and talk to him.
Me: Supposedly, your dad has told a reporter you are coming back.
Harvey: I talked to my pops but haven’t told him for sure. Just thinking a lot about stayin and gettin school stuff done, but I gotta talk to coach mendenhall about some stuff b4 I declare for sure!!
Very interesting to see what Unga says compared to what his father says, I would be inclined to follow what the player says, well unless Unga's dad had a slip of the mouth. A father leaking info is not unfamiliar to me as something similar happened when Urban Meyer's father was asked about his son's future while still at Utah and he said he is going to Florida.
If he were to declare he would be the first BYU running back to leave early since Doak Walker Award winning running back Luke Staley did in 2002. Unga has been assured that if he does declare that he will get an invite to go to the combine along side fellow Cougars Max Hall, Dennis Pitta, and Manase Tanga.
Unga does not have much left to prove at BYU as he is the all-time rushing leader in school history, plus the 2010 BYU team looks to be not as good as his previous three years. BYU will be starting either a freshman quarterback in Jake Heaps or Riley Nelson who has not played significant football since his Utah State days back in 2007.
2009 Unga was not exactly healthy so he could be risking that he will stay healthy for the entire year to improve his draft status, or the unthinkable could happen and a Sam Bradford like injury could hurt his draft status.
Stay tuned as more updates develop in this story.