Current recruiting situation

[Dresden_Stormblessed]

Hey Ute fans.

Two things that have been on my mind recently.

The first is: I am so stinking proud of Utah developing nfl talent. We bring in kids who are somewhat under the radar and they leave a better man, a degree in their hand, and potentially a job offer from the big league. I trust the process and I am so excited to see our guys improve year after year. So, go team.

That being said, I just can not understand why the top tier talent out of high school doesn’t want to come and play for us. It just seems that the best players in the country don’t even have Utah in their radar.

Is this because the rating system is broken? Or the reputation of Utah hasn’t reached the masses yet? We haven’t won anything substantial yet? Or we don’t have any interest in kids that have great talent but don’t have the right attitude? Combo of everything?

I say this mostly because I see Oregon recruiting taking flight and it makes me really nervous. One player, Kayvon Thibodeaux, wrecked us in the championship game. Oregon now has arguably at least 4 of those on the team with the Sewells, Flowe, and their secondary.

In order for us to launch to the final tier of college football, we need top tier talent AND players with the right work ethic/attitude. With how much talent Oregon is getting at the moment, I don’t see Utah getting by them to win the PAC-12 any time soon (3 years at least). Which sucks for me to realize.

It’s my opinion that in order for our program to get to the next level, the top tier of college football, we need to have had the season we did AND win the last two games of the season. In order to do that, I believe we need another layer of talent that we currently aren’t pulling in.

Thoughts? Comments? Derogatory remarks?

[rbmw263]

It would have taken more than just winning the last 2 games of the season. Utah has a stigma among a vast majority of high school age kids across the country. Thats problem 1. Problem 2 is a hybrid of being a non blue blood at a cold weather school. That one is simple. If these upper tier recruits dont go to a brand name school they at least want to wear shorts to class year round and dont want to play in the cold, even though they will spend much of the season playing in cold weather if they were to make it to the NFL

[dystopiamembrane]

Thank you, rbmw263. Would you please expand on your problem 1?

[dystopiamembrane]

Getting thumbs down for my request. I hope to reach Pace levels by the end of the year.

[Trailgoat]

Yes, would also like to hear more about the stigma. If you’re referring to Oregon as sunny short wearing weather, have you lived in the Willamette Valley? If weather is such a big issue for recruiting, than explain the Big 10 and Notre Dame?

The Utah football 2020 class was somewhat of a break through year for in state recruiting. The Sewell kids seemed like they wanted to get of state. The Sewell kid at Utah started at Nevada, not sure if he was recruited by Utah, then came home. I honestly thought at some point he was at BYU, but I’m sure I’m wrong on that. 

Without Nike and Uncle Phil’s pocket book, I doubt UO is any where near where they’re now in terms of football success because for the obvious reasons. Take away the 4 year Chip Kelly era and 2 years of Helfrich and UO football is very average and arguably worse than Utah in terms of overall win-loss success.

IMO, recruiting top players in some key position groups has been one of KW’s weaknesses as a coach/leader. The offensive coordinator swininging door has been a big problem for offensive talent acquisition. Without Erickson recruiting outside of Utah, KW might not be coaching at Utah right now. Ludwig coming in with stability and with proven success, recruiting is moving in the right direction. Go Utes!

[Central Coast Ute]

Weather may play a part but if you pay them enough they’ll overlook it. Just look at Ohio St., Michigan and Penn St.

[GameForAnyFuss]

Live photo of Pace getting ready to respond to this thread:

[dystopiamembrane]

I love how crazy you look in your profile pic. 🙂

[Central Coast Ute]

The biggest reason in my mind is money. Oregon’s success on the national level can be traced back directly to when Phil Knight became CEO of Nike. If you don’t believe players get paid to go to certain schools, I have beach front property to sell you in Kearns, I’ll give you an good deal. How much do the Garffs, Eccles and Huntsmans pay players? I don’t know. But I’d guess not as much as Nike does. USC consistently under achieves or at least has for 10 years and still pulls in top recruiting classes. I also don’t think that’s coincidental considering how many billionaire alumni boosters they have.

We all love Salt Lake and think it’s a great city. But let’s face it, it’s not on the top of every recruits list of cool places to play. The Utes don’t have a long history of success to make up for a lack of funding from boosters.