Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson
O'Neill Chambers doesn't know his playbook, but he knows he should be starting for BYU.
The wide-eyed freshman receiver from Harmony High School in Florida isn't used to being on the sidelines. He started all four years at Harmony and believes he'll do the same with the Cougars.
But there's a lot of competition in front of him. The Cougars return two of their top three receivers and senior Bryce Mahuika earned the third receiving spot in the spring.
"There's a difference between returning receivers that are good and returning receivers that shouldn't be on the team," Chambers said. "I'm just going to work hard and do what I've got to do and not worry about much. My time will come and time will tell."
Time will tell if Chambers can actually learn his playbook before the Aug. 30 season opener against Northern Iowa. During 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills Tuesday, Chambers was running the wrong routes and working the wrong plays. Junior receiver Austin Collie and senior receiver Michael Reed have been trying to point the freshman in the right direction.
He's also had to take a backseat to some upper classmen who feel like they should get the reps before he does. Chambers said when Collie went down with a stress fracture, he thought he'd see more reps, but that hasn't been the case.
"To be honest, I barely get my reps in because players jump in front of me that have been here," Chambers said. "They don't like to be team players, be equal for each other and the better man wins, but they don't see it like that. That's all right, time will tell."
Despite the struggles of being a typical freshman in a new offense, Chambers is highly thought of by his teammates and coaches. Coach Bronco Mendenhall said he thinks it will be hard keeping the 6-foot-3, 208-pounder of the field.
"He's probably the fourth receiver right now and he doesn't know what to do," coach Bronco Mendenhall said of Chambers still learning the plays. "He's big and he's fast and he's a great kid and he's very talented. So we'll carve a role for him that he can handle. I'd be very surprised if he's not playing for us this year."
Chambers said he's studied his playbook on his own about three hours a night since camp started last Saturday. He said he acts out the plays in his dorm to commit them to muscle memory.
"I feel like I'm doing crappy right now, honestly," Chambers said. "If (coaches and teammates) say that I'm doing good then I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just striving to do better and get faster and stronger."
Despite his brash attitude, Chambers knows his limitations and wants what's best for the team. He's been quiet during the first few days of camp at BYU, but said he'll get loud when the team puts the pads on for the first time on Thursday.
He said he wants to show coaches the speed and moves he showed in high school when he caught 39 passes for 965 yards.
"I just look at the (defensive backs) and picture me with full pads on and see that they really can't guard me," Chambers said. "I'm just waiting for full pads, that's all I'm waiting for so I can just really show these coaches what I'm about. I'm not about play-play, I'm really about business."
And maybe he's a little bit about fitting in. He said the one thing he's looking forward to the most when the team goes full pads is being hit by a teammate. Then, he said, he'll feel initiated onto the team.
"I want them to pop me, that's the point," Chambers said. "You're supposed to get initiated and get hit and get hurt. I want that to happen."
Watson joined ESPN.com in 2008 after four seasons covering the Missouri Tigers and the Big 12 Conference for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She also covered college football recruiting for the Dallas Morning News.
