Provo » Brigham Young University's Riley Nelson wants one thing made perfectly clear as he enters a week when there will perhaps be more focus on a backup quarterback in the Utah State-BYU football rivalry than on the starters.

"I have no regrets at all," Nelson said. "None whatsoever. This is the place where I really want to be."

Nelson's story is well-documented: After a record-setting, All-American career at Logan High, he moved on to nearby Utah State, where his family's roots run deep. His grandfather, Rod Tueller, was a former Utah State athletic director and basketball coach, while his father, Keith Nelson, played football for the Aggies and was the team physician for many years.

Riley Nelson played in eight games as a freshman in 2006, completing 55 percent of his passes for 925 yards and six touchdowns and rushing for 290 yards.

But 14 months into his LDS Church mission to Barcelona, Spain, he dropped a bombshell on Memorial Day, 2008, through his father: The most decorated quarterback in Utah prep football history had decided to transfer to BYU when he returned home in March of 2009, Keith Nelson reported to various media outlets, having received an e-mail from his son confirming the decision earlier that day.

"It's been quite a learning experience," Riley Nelson said. "I realize some people were really upset. I really loved my time up there at Utah State. I felt like it was very valuable for my development. It was a great time in my life. But now I am here and I am happy to be here, and I am looking forward to the future."

Nelson said there wasn't one particular moment when he decided to transfer. Rather, he called it "more of a process" and said he spent a lot of time thinking about it before making his decision known. Pressed several times for a definitive reason for the transfer, he declined to go into specifics.

"I can't pinpoint it," he said. "Like I said, it was for personal reasons. ... I just know that having been home [in Logan] and having been here, I feel like that feeling I had has been confirmed."

One Utah State player who was teammates with Nelson in 2006, Nnamdi Gwacham, said he was asked by USU officials to not comment on Nelson. A USU spokesperson said no official "gag order" exists. He noted that the new coaching staff has no desire to comment on a player who is no longer a part of the program.

Not surprisingly, Nelson's mid-mission announcement touched off a firestorm of controversy in Utah, something he says he was not aware of until he returned home and was told by friends and family members.

Was he recruited by BYU while on his mission, or did he or his family contact BYU first?

Again, Nelson offers few answers, saying only that he received two e-mails regarding the matter. One was from his parents after the one-year mark of his mission had passed notifying him that there was a scholarship offer from BYU, and another was from BYU after he had notified the Cougars he was accepting their offer.

"I got an e-mail from [BYU coaches] that said, 'We are glad you are a Cougar. Now there will be no more distractions. Finish [the mission] strong,'" he said.

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall has steadfastly said that he does not recruit players from other schools who are on missions. However, if missionaries contact BYU with interest, he has said he will listen.

Accounts vary on who initiated the contact. BYU quarterbacks coach Brandon Doman said last week that the Cougars wanted Nelson out of high school, but did not offer him a scholarship because they already had a commitment from James Lark and did not want to sign two QBs in one year.

Nelson's high school coach, Mike Favero, has said Nelson's situation came up when Cougar coaches were at Logan High looking at another Grizzly QB, Jeff Manning, but he cannot recall who mentioned it first.

Nelson said it really shouldn't matter now.

"Again, I was in Spain and I really don't know what happened," he said. "I had no idea that all that controversy was going on. I didn't hear about that until I came back. So I am here, and I am eligible and everything is fine as far as that goes. That's all I know."

He said things couldn't be going better for him at BYU. Midway through fall camp, senior backup QB Brenden Gaskins relinquished the No. 2 role to Nelson, and Nelson was able to drive the team for touchdowns in the Tulane and Florida State games.

Next year, Nelson knows there will be no relinquishing of spots on the quarterback depth chart. A few months after he returned from Spain, one of the top prep quarterbacks in the country, Jake Heaps of Skyline High in Sammamish, Wash., committed to BYU. Heaps will enroll in January and plans to participate in spring ball to ready himself for a run at the starting job. Also, Lark and Jason Munns return from missions to create a four-way battle.

"No one has told me that they are going to give me the job," Nelson said. "Nobody's job is really secure. You have to do whatever you can to prepare and be ready. And if that is competing, then it is competing. We are all competing every day, and trying to do our best and find out what our role is to help the team."

drew@sltrib.com