The Oregon win was just what recruiting needed.

[High Uintas]

Probably the biggest hurdle that Utah coaches face when recruiting kids with other offers from big programs is the perception issue. USC, Oregon, UCLA and even sometimes the Arizona schools are seen as “cool” or “sexy” by recruits and their peers. It’s hard for a kid to brag about his Utah commitment when others are bragging about their commitment to a cooler program. I really think that the Oregon win was a game changer. Sure, we’ve had wins against Stanford and USC and UCLA but none of those carried the impact that the nationally televised Oregon blowout did.

I was a bit naive when Utah entered the PAC-12 thinking we’d see an immediate jump in commitments from highly recruited athletes. I failed to grasp how difficult it would be to convince kids to come to a program that they knew little about and didn’t have much of a reputation. Now Utah has made a statement and I think they have an opportunity to change how the up and coming athlete perceives the program. This is still going to be a slow process but that was a big step the program made on Saturday.

[ttexastim]

Agree! And that win was sexy and fun! RB throwing a touchdown? punt return fake for a TD? Hacket Punt 1st down run? All awesome plays! I can’t recall a game where I had trouble deciding on one great play! The entire game was a blast to watch! It’s exactly the kind of game that makes a youngster think “I wanna be part of THAT!”

[EutawStreet]

on twitter after the win –

One of our Florida recruits: “More Florida Players Is Going To Commit To Utah Soon…Just Wait On It”

recruit Micah Croom from California: “College football in the state of Arizona is really taking an “L” tonight.” “Go Utes”

from San Clemente football: “Great offensive game plan by @CoachRoderick and the Utes. Sincere thanks to Coach Roderick for always believing in Travis and his abilities”

recruit Jay Griffin from Texas: “Started a group chat with the other Utah commits… We the future!!!”

Ex-UTE Tevita Finau on twitter: “I’m going to say it now, and I’ll say it till I’m dead,to all u recruits. Wanna play real defense, how it should be played. Come to the “U”.

[LiquidUte]

We got a lot of love from our florids recruits and scheduled official visits from two more florida athletes right after the win. Davir Hamilton (Long Beach Poly) was posting pics in his Ute gear and gathering up all the twitter handles of the other Utah commits. There is a lot of hype for Utah right now and it will turn some recruits heads, especially when we keep winning.

[Damage U]

Hamilton has been tweeting out major props for Utah for quite some time. Starting to think he was heading of marketing. Lots of love from some of the Florida guys as well.

[EutawStreet]

This is the first line from a Rivals article about recruits visiting Oregon for the Utah game:

“In what could end up being the Ducks’ biggest recruiting weekend of the year, eight official visitors are scheduled to be in the stands, with an average star rating of a whopping 4.0.”

At least one is also being recruited by Utah.

[Anonymous]

They didn’t even have the snazzy Duck outfits on. Utah got the lame treatment from Nike.

[Homer Crimson]

The win was perfect for the BYE- coaches are going to be hitting the recruiting trail hard this week.