BYU is about done with National Signing Day less than a week away. The Cougars snagged most of their recruits during the early signing period, and another group has verbally committed as Wednesday approaches.

By next week, we’ll know for sure who’s making their way to Provo for sure (maybe not right away, seeing as some athletes are choosing to go on their church mission before starting school).

So, let’s recap real quick who has already signed:

Kody Epps, 3-star WR from Mater Dei High School

Sol-Jay Maiava, 3-star QB from St. John’s College High School

Isaiah Tupou, 3-star OL from Grant Union High School

Bruce Garrett, 3-star RB from Pleasant Grove High School

Josh Wilson, 3-star LB from Corner Canyon High School

Tuipulotu Lai, 3-star DL from Lahainaluna High School

Christopher Jackson, 3-star WR from Mt. San Antonio College

Micah Harper, 3-star CB from Basha High School

Terence Fall, 3-star WR from Aquinas High School

Alex Muti, 3-star OL from Konawaena High School

Nukuluve Helu, 3-star RB from Tooele High School

Josh Larsen, 3-star DL from Woods Cross High School

Jacques Wilson, 3-star DB from West Los Angeles College

Then there was also the nine mid-year additions that came in January — Tyler Batty, Caleb Christensen, Mason Fakahua, Bentley Hanshaw, Fisher Jackson, Preston Lewis, Ryan Rehkow, Andrew Slack and Seth Willis.

This class is currently ranked 80th nationally by 24/7 Sports, which isn’t going to knock anybody’s socks off. That is in line with recent years under Kalani Sitake, though generally below the level Bronco Mendenhall recruited at before departing for Virginia.

Now, I get it. Recruiting players to come to BYU has an added layer of difficulty. Coaches need to find players that are not only talented, but fit into the BYU mold. Mostly, that means someone that is part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints. At least, players have to be willing to abide by the Honor Code, which can be difficult for some. (Even I struggle keeping my potty mouth in check sometimes when I’m on campus, and that’s just part of it). All that said, the Cougars may yet get a bump come the end of the signing period. We shall see.

With the majority of the 2020 class locked down, who does BYU have left to go after?

Well, there’s Tate Romney. The younger brother of Baylor and Gunner, and 3-star OL from Chandler (Ariz.) High School hasn’t officially made his decision yet. It would be cool to see him join his older brothers, but even if he does commit to BYU, he may not get the chance to play with both of his older brothers if he chooses to go on his church mission first.

A couple of players that recently made their decision known are Jake Griffin and Kyle Vassau.

Relatively unknown prior to his senior season at Red Mountain High School in Arizona, Griffin only had offers from a couple of FCS schools. But that quickly changed and Griffin had offers come in from BYU, Arizona, Oregon State, Washington State and Indiana.

Last Sunday, Griffin announced he’d chosen BYU to continue his football career.

Vassau also made his commitment to the. Cougars known last Sunday through Twitter, almost immediately after returning from his official visit over the weekend. However, Vassau will join BYU as a preferred walk-on.

Both players will first leave on their respective church missions before enrolling at BYU.

Here's a look at BYU's recruiting class rankings and average rating of each recruit over the last 10 years:

2020: 80th, .82*

2019: 81st, .8225*

2018: 78th, .8135*

2017: 66th, .8192*

2016: 49th, .8307

2015: 65th, .8211

2014: 64th, .82

2013: 66th, .7972

2012: 71st, .8207

2011: 69th, .8112

*Classes brought in during the Sitake era

Mark Pope wasn’t having it at Wednesday’s practice

Pope was mad on Wednesday, and I mean MAD.

I was busy working on my TJ Haws feature while sitting in the Marriott Center, so I wasn’t doing the best job of keeping track of what was going on in practice. But then I heard Pope angrily scream (that in and of itself is rare for the coach out of a game setting) a, let’s say, a non-BYU word. I won’t say what it may or may not have been because snitches get stitches, but it was definitely a word you usually don’t hear around campus.

Once practice wrapped up and Pope joined me and the other members of the media for our weekly availability, I asked him about the seemingly tough practice and if he was OK.

“We've got to get better,” Pope said. “The thing is, as you go through the season, it gets harder to get better. I think we've talked about this together before, this idea of diminishing returns, which is really true, right? It's the law of diminishing return, the farther along the path you get, the more you improve, you actually have to go way harder to improve a little bit. That's what we're doing right now.”

I mean, I get it, it was frustrating to see BYU surrender a 14-point second-half lead. It was even more frustrating to see the Cougars scoreless for seven minutes while San Francisco put together a 21-0 run.

So, I guess the San Francisco loss was still weighing heavily on the Cougars. But Pope said he’d wait until Thursday’s game against Pepperdine to see how his team would respond. And that they did.

TJ Haws: BYU’s iron-man (with a new title coming soon)

The senior guard is expecting his first child any day now. His wife Lauren is scheduled to be induced Sunday, but their baby boy could decide to come earlier.

When I spoke to TJ Wednesday about his new iron-man status, we also talked about what it was like to come to BYU with the Haws name. Obviously, with his father Marty and older brother Tyler, the Haws name was well-known around Cougar Nation by the time TJ came to campus in 2016.

During his time at BYU, Tyler became the Cougars' all-time leading scorer. With such a successful older brother, it would have made sense if TJ felt like he had big shoes to fill.

“Obviously I have the Haws name, but I never really compared myself to my brother in any way,” Haws said. “He and I are two completely different players, two completely different people and he accomplished a lot here and he did a lot here, was super successful. I’m super proud of him for all those things, but I never came into BYU thinking ‘OK, I need to beat him at this’ or ‘I need to live up to this.’ I’m my own player and I’ve always viewed myself as that.”

So what do y'all think TJ's legacy will be once he finishes his BYU career?

More thoughts

• For the second-straight season, the national champion BYU men’s cross country team was named the NCAA Division I Scholar Team of the Year by the USTFCCCA. The last team to earn the award in consecutive seasons was Iona, when they went back-to-back-to-back from 2006 to 2008. The men’s team finished the season as national champions and had a cumulative GPA of 3.42. The women’s cross country team was honored as a 2019 NCAA Division I Cross Country All-Academic team after finishing national runners-up and had an average GPA of 3.46.

• BYU and ESPN reached a new deal on Thursday. The sports broadcasting company will continue to televise the Cougars home games for the next seven years and ESPN Events will provide a bowl tie-in for BYU in 2020, 2022 and 2024. BYU made a separate agreement with the Independence Bowl and are slated to appear in Shreveport, La. in 2021, 2023 and 2025.

• If you don’t have any Friday night plans – you do now. I highly recommend going to the Smith Fieldhouse for a battle of the undefeated. No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball (8-0) is hosting No. 3 UC Santa Barbara (6-0) Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 6 p.m. It’s bound to be a great time.

• BYU football announced a four-game series extension with Stanford on Tuesday. The Cougars will play close out the 2020 season at Stanford in the first of four previously arranged games (2022, 2025 and 2029) and added dates in 2026, 2028, 2031 and 2035.

• BYU’s television deal with ESPN also was finalized this week. We knew that deal was done in early December. The new part was that the Cougars’ future bowl tie-ins were also unveiled.

Other voices

Brandon Judd of the Deseret News is in Miami for the Super Bowl and caught up with former Cougar turned Kansan City Chiefs coach Andy Reid.

The Daily Herald’s Phillip Morgan taught us four things about BYU’s men’s volleyball team.

Everybody has a Kobe Bryant story, including 1996 NBA draft classmate Mark Pope wrote Sean Walker of KSL Sports.

Drew Brees will eventually retire, and former Cougar Taysom Hill could be his successor wrote Gary Davenport for Bleacher Report.