A lot of people feel USC will immediately re-emerge, but I’ll believe it when I see it…..They still have to build those lines, which takes time.
I’m sure a lot of it is due to Coach Lud, but it’s also the winning, no doubt! 3 of the last 4 South crowns and now a PAC-12 Title certainly don’t hurt in this effort! Also, I think having successful QB’s (Tyler Huntley and Cam Rising), with one seeing good success at the NFL level and one at Utah has to be helping. Utah is THE Team right now in the PAC-12!! Enjoy this ride my Ute brothers and sisters…it likely will not last forever (feels very similar to the Majerus Basketball run of the 90’s)!!
Utes have landed a strong crystal ball prediction for 4* QB Gabarri Johnson out of Tacoma, WA. He’s rated as the #14 QB prospect in his class (12th if you go by 247’s own rankings).
Additionally, 4* QB Mack Howard out of Mississippi will be visiting the Utes on March 24th. Howard is rated as the #12 QB prospect.
Really have to love the job Ludwig is doing with recruiting lately and landing either of these guys would be great. Plenty of these types of QBs don’t pan out (see Peter Costelli), but through loading up on blue chip prospects, we’re bound to have some studs.
Can’t wait for spring ball!
All good questions.
Since Utah’s inaugural NCAA season started in 2019, we didn’t have a full roster of scholarship players until now, so we were building our class from scratch — i.e. a handful of transfers and freshman scholarships, and a ton of walk-ons and former “club” players. Now we still bring in a generous amount of walk-on talent, but our scholarship players have matured, and been improved upon in subsequent recruiting classes.
Former head coach Brian Holman, and his coaching staff did an amazing job at recruiting top talent, and we’re now seeing the benefits. And since many of our top guys are still sophomores and juniors, we can expect even more improvement next season as well.
With Holman’s announced retirement, we now have an entirely new coaching staff. I don’t know how much of our improvement is due to the returning talent of Holman’s recruits, vs what new head coach McMinn is bringing to the table with his decade of head coaching experience while at RMU. All I know is that I wasn’t expecting this kind of success until 2023 or 2024.
These are exciting times for lacrosse fans at the University of Utah!
GO UTES!!!
I watched the highlights of Huntley’s last game versus BYU and then I watched the highlights of Rising’s games against Oregon and tOSU. There is no question that Rising is a better QB. As much as I love Huntley and all he did for us there isn’t any aspect of his game that is better then Rising. The surprising thing abound Rising is how he stretches the field with his running ability. He does not seem to be running that fast but no one catches him from behind.
It is hard to beoeive that, experience wise, Rising was basically a freshman last year. I can’t even imagine how much better he can be in his second year. It seems that there is very little chance of him coming back again in 2023.
Dallas Vakalahi from 2022 class is going on a mission.
Viliami Pouha from the 2021 class is on a mission.
Nate Ritchie from the 2020 class has one more year left on a mission.
Sione Fotu from the 2020 class has one more year left.
Keanu Tanuvasa from the 2020 class is back from his mission and was listed as signed for 2022.
Salatoa Moeai from the 2020 class went on a mission but was not listed as signed for 2022, so I don’t know if he will come back this summer and be a late signee for next year or came back summer/fall and be on the spring roster for 2023.
Sione Vaki from the 2019 class is back from his mission and was listed as signed for 2022.
I don’t know if that is everyone but those are the ones I know about.
2023 4* TE and #4 TE prospect in the country Walker Lyons has named Utah to his top 6. Others include OSU, Stanford, Bama, USC, and Poo Poo.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but we weren’t on his radar until the Rose Bowl, I believe. Brant and Kinciad should have massive campaigns this next season, so we should have a compelling pitch.
Utes also recently got a cyrstal ball for 2023 4* DE Hunter Clegg out of Utah.
speak for yourself. the parochial school hasn’t registered as anything more than a minor annoyance to me in a couple of decades. they are nothing more than a team that shows up on the schedule every year at the expense of higher profile opponents.
perhaps the fact that you felt the need to start a thread to point out that you feel superior to fans of that school says more about you than those who question whether Rising has shown enough (both through his play and his measurables) to be the first QB taken in the 2023 draft.
Utah @ 
UCLA 
