Football Recruiting

[Dwight89]

Anyone else getting nervous yet about 2019 recruiting? Here is how we stack up to the Pac 12 so far in terms of numbers of commits, then overall recruiting ranking (as of 7/26):

1. Oregon – 17 commits, ranked 4th 

2. Cal – 15 commits, ranked 38th

3. Colorado – 14 commits, ranked 39th

4. Washington – 13 commits, ranked 25th

5. ASU – 11 commits, ranked 52nd

6. OSU – 10 commits, ranked 62nd

6. USC – 10 Commits, ranked 35th

8. Arizona – 8 commits, ranked 71st

8. Stanford – 8 commits, ranked 45th

10. UCLA – 6 commits, ranked 73rd

11. WSU – 4 commits, ranked 98th

12. Utah – 2 commits, ranked 110th

 

I’m guessing Utah’s continuing their strategy from last year of holding out for the higher rated kids that want to commit in December/February. But for cripe’s sake we are pretty far behind everyone else at this point. 

 

I get that the recruiting rankings are skewed early on because teams with more commits will have a higher ranking until other teams catch up. But what is up with us having such a small number of commits compared to everyone else?

[ironman1315]

Every year for the last three years is this same thing. Be patient for hell’s sake.

[Anonymous]

No. If nothing else, this staff has shown the ability to address the needs of the team in recruiting and building depth. UTAH gets more “extra-process” players than any other PAC program. Just look at our kickers and our new TE for confirmation. Add in guys like Bernard, Tafua, Lund, Henninger and you get the idea. Few if any of those guys counted towards their respective recruiting classes.

The staff has earned our trust in this regard.

[RiseasUtes]

Nervous, no.  Impatient, yes.  It’s kind of the theme we have had to get used to.  We will also be getting several players off of missions back this year.  Johnny Maea, Semisi Lauaki, Keaton Bills, Luke Leonnig, Sio Kautai(if he is still coming), and 3 guys that may be back by 2019 or 2020 Aliki Vimahi, Miki Suguturaga, and Taniela Pututau.  So with a bunch of these guys returning I’m not sure how many scholarships we have left to give out this year.  If it’s not many, the coaches will focus on the top talent at needed positions so we may not see a whole lot going on this year.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

Im curious if this is indicative of how the program is preceieved nationally by recruits or if this is a product of the recruiting strategies that this coaching staff uses?

Obviously i don’t think they are trying to have such a low number of commits early, rather they are offering higher rated recruits that are less likely to commit to a school like Utah early.

[FountainofUte]

I’ll be nervous if it still looks like this come mid February.

[Dwight89]

Alright I just went and looked up last year’s recruiting class and it looks like at this point last year we had three commits:

 

Malone Mataele

Jack Tutle

Hunter Lotelelei

 

That makes me feel better. Thanks for talking me off the ledge everyone. 

[Wilson’s Mustache]

Those three are studs though.

[RiseasUtes]

I get it, it sucks to look and to be way behind teams like Cal, Oregon St, Washington St etc.  We have improved our recruiting in just about every year since joining the PAC12.  We have gone from being one of the bottom teams in our conference to being right in the middle(where we will probably stay).  We wont be able to out recruit USC, UCLA, Washington, Oregon, or Stanford.  But we have been outrecruiting Colorado(bigger market), Arizona, Arizona St, Washington St, Oregon St, Cal(way bigger market), and BYU-p.  Out doing those schools alone is pretty impressive given that we have only been P5 for 7 years.

[FountainofUte]

And on a side note, while you’re right that I don’t think we’ll ever catch USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon on a regular basis, I think Stanford is catchable. They’re riding high right now with Shaw running their program at a very high level. But I think we’re seeing their peak. Perhaps historically so. You look back, and Stanford is usually more of a middle-of-the-PAC team. Some day, maybe long after Shaw is gone Stanford will slide back some. Not a ton, but I don’t see us having to take a back seat to them forever.

A Stanford education will always have a HUGE appeal, but on top of that, their recent success is helping them reel in players that they may not typically get.

[Stone]

I do not have a source to back this up, but my understanding was that Stanford, while still having high academic standards for athletes, used to have even higher academic standards for athletes. Again, this is just hearsay, but I believe Stanford’s historic, traditional mediocracy in football may be directly tied to previous academic standards that are no longer part of the equation. If so, Stanford may never fully revert to its former ways. If not, then yes, I fully agree that Stanford will revert to the mean.