Highland High's Bryan Mone taken UDFA out of Michigan. Utah kids should stay.

[Duhwayne]

He had injuries that held him back. Anyone know why he didn’t stay home?

I think Ika’s going to regret going to LSU. Still bugs me that Orgeron went to East High while Utah was at the Holiday Bowl.  

[Utesby1]

Orgeron is a putz as a coach who happens to say exactly what high school seniors want to hear. He will continue to have the 3rd best talent in the country and yet underperform as a team.

Now that we have a transfer portal I think some of these big local stars who become disillusioned will be able to come back home. Not that they would necessarily come to Utah but I have been surprised that Kaho and Latu have not said enough to sitting on the bench at Alabama.

[Utesby1]

Both Mone and Porter Gustin would have been drafted if they had come to Utah. When they were freshmen, who in their right mind would have guessed that Cody Barton would have been drafted and Gustin would go undrafted. Only one difference between the two…..player development. Both Bartons and 25 other players should be infinately grateful for Coach Whitt and the role he has played in getting them to the league. Even UDFAs’ like Chase have a good chance to make it (barring health issues) because of the way they have been prepared by the U of U staff.

[Stone]

Completely agree. Utah coaches (and boosters/fans) need to highlight this as much as possible. I think it is Utah’s biggest selling point (there are many, but this is the most compelling). 

Lots of kids want to go to the out of state school… I totally get that. Buuuut, if you look at player development and who Utah gets to play on Sunday, it is not even close. If you are a star player in high school and go to Bama or USC, you will probably continue to be good based strictly on your talent/drive that made you good in high school. But if you want to improve beyond that, you should go to Utah, where the coaches will push you and develop you into NFL material. 

The Gustin versus Barton example is spot-on. Latu may end up following Bateman’s footsteps at Bama. It is tough when the out-of-state sirens call (I mean, seriously, if Saban was in your front room pleading with you to sign with Bama, it would be hard to resist). But a level-headed kid with good advisors will know that the grass is not always greener, and that if he wants to play on Sunday, he has a much better chance to play, develop, and be a star at Utah.

[PlainsUte]

Say what you want about Alabama and it may be harder to see the field there coming from Utah, but they still had 10 picks in 2019, 3 in the first round.  2018: 12, 4 in the first round.

[UteThunder]

Those are probably guys who would have been drafted regardless of where they chose to go to college. Utah will take that 4 star recruit who has fringe NFL talent and develop him into legit NFL material while a school like Alabama will just use them up and move on to the next top recruit.

[Stone]

Bama certainly represents well in the draft. The question comes down to how well those players developed versus just being incredible (and driven) athletes already. I admit that it is a difficult question to prove out because we do not know whether any given player would have done just as well, better, or worse somewhere else. But one can make a reasonable assumption that Utah’s coaches outperform at player development by comparing recruiting rankings to NFL players. Presumably (again, hard to prove), if Utah’s recruiting classes matched Bama’s recruiting classes, Utah would produce more NFL players than Bama.

[PlainsUte]

If Alabama didn’t develop players they would lose to the other high profile schools that attract the 4-5 star guys (ahem, USC).    So I’d advise high schoolers if you’re a 3-to-4 star kid who gets stars in your eyes about Saban visiting, be aware you’re going to be competing with 4-5 star guys for playing time which may hurt your ability to get to the NFL.   That said the chance of getting to the NFL is still small so you better find a school that fits for academics.