Hunter Lotuleilei

[UteFanatic]

I noticed Star and Lowell’s cousin, Hunter, has commited to Utah (class of 2018).  I don’t know much about this guy.  Is he as formidable of a player as Star and Lowell?

[Utah]

Yes. Top 3 player in State in 2018. Everyone freaking out about our in State haul needs to relax and quit listening to FBYU-P fans. Utah is doing just fine with in State recruiting. 

Not perfect, mind you, but we are doing alright. 

[UteFanatic]

I’m not freaking out, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed with how Utah did in-state this year.  That said, I am very pleased with our class overall.

There is little doubt, however, that Kalani is a better recruiter than that weird-ass Bronco guy.

[Anonymous]

Who did we want from instate that they got and we didn’t? 

[UteFanatic]

Well, we only landed one top 10 recruit in the state of Utah per 247 Sports (#10 Michael Richardson).  Utah extended an offer to all ten of them, so it’s logical that we wanted them. BYU picked up #2, #5, and #9.

1. Jay Tufele

2. Chaz Ah You

3. Sione Heimuli-Lund

4. Ty Jones

5. Langi Tuifua

6. Noah Ellis

7. Lavani Damuni

8. Tayler Katoa

9. Alden Tofa

10. Michael Richardson

http://247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/CompositeRecruitRankings?InstitutionGroup=highschool&State=UT

[pedro]

So what?  Please explain to me why this matters.  Again, I would rather take a player ranked higher than one that’s home grown.  WTF cares where there kid grew up?  Give me a Texas, Florida or Cal kid any day.

 

 

[UteFanatic]

Kyle Whittingham and his staff have stated on multiple occasions that it matters. Why else would the coaching staff launch a “Be A Hometown Hero” social media campaign?

[Anonymous]

The university launched that program to recognize local players and try to entice local talent to stay in the state.  

Not signing more in state his year seems to have some in a panic mode. some are acting as though not signing many of the top ten in the state of Utahis going to be devestating to the program.  

I disagree on this year. Of the three they signed how many of them are ranked above the out of state kids we signed for the same position? 

Our recruiting class is the best we’ve ever had and people are quibbling over three guys that are ranked lower nationally than the guys we signed?

[Anonymous]

So they got three from Instate that we offered as well?  So out of the four that both schools offered they got three. The only potential big loss I see thst both schools offered that went to tds is Ah You.  I’ve seen little to no chatter about the other three being big losses for us but I could be wrong about that 

[Utah]

1- I believe we stopped recruiting Tofa and Tuifua awhile ago. We signed better players than Tofa and apparently Tuifua didn’t want to play with Tufele and we chose Tufele and got burned. 

2- as for Chaz Ah You, didn’t Kalani hire his dad? So…yeah. 

[Anonymous]

Ah You announcing his signing by landing in a helicopter at RES-S tells me he is pretty impressed with himself.  The helicopter trip was a scream for attention.  Not sure he would have fit in well 

Only ONE of the top 10 recruits in Florida stayed in state this year.

 

 

[Red Don]

“as for Chaz Ah You, didn’t Kalani hire his dad? So…yeah.”

Reminds me of when Larry Brown hired Danny Manning’s truck-driver dad as an Asst. Coach before signing him at Kansas.

[UteFanatic]

My concern isn’t with how many TDS got relative to us, my concern is that we sucked getting recruits to stay home in general.  A lot of people on here saying that it doesn’t matter, but that is contrary to what the coaches are espousing.  There is a reason they started a “Be A Hometown Hero” social media campaign last year.  

Look, I know we ended up with a great class, but I would have liked to see a few more kids stay home.

 

[Anonymous]

We all would have liked to see a few more stay home.   If you have offers from Utah USC and tds which would you choose? 

I can’t blame these kids for wanting to get out of Utah and have some different life experiences  saying we sucked at getting these kids to stay home when we are competing against USC to recruit them isn’t exactly a fair comparison   Compared to USC we are a tough sell. Prior to joining the PAC 12 we wouldn’t have gotten a return call from these kids.  

It’s a process.  It isn’t going to happen overnight.  I suspect five years from now we start to win more of these battles 

[3UteDad]

I don’t fret when an in-state kid chooses BYU. A lot of LDS kids and their families seem to view playing down there as a calling or even destiny. We aren’t going to change that anytime soon. We should be happy when one of these kids  doesn’t  feel the need to immerse and cloak themselves in those insular surroundings.

If an in-state non LDS kid went there it would be a different story…when was the last time an instate nonLDS impact player went there?  No more Jim McMahons for them. Unfortunately for us the impact non LDS kid has a good likelihood to go out of state.

[GameForAnyFuss]

I truly have trouble understanding the freakout about in-state recruiting. Let me illustrate my confusion with a hypothetical:
Let’s say we have 1 scholarship to give to a WR. There’s one recruit in Utah and there’s a better one in Florida. We sign the one from Florida. Then I’m *glad* we didn’t get the Utah kid. For me, it’s a good sign that we don’t get more Utah kids. Look at BYU-P: They get all the Utah kids. Would you want to trade recruiting classes with them?

I know this is not always the case. I would’ve loved to get Tufele. But I’m not getting all the angst about landing Utah kids.

[Tacoma Ute]

We had our best recruiting class ever. It doesn’t bother me that we didn’t get many in state kids.

[Utahute72]

The biggest losses in State were to USC.  Both Tufele and Katoa would probably have committed to Utah had USC not swooped in and offered them.

We did bring in Tofa for a visit, he was thinking hard about Utah but eventually went with BYU (where he was leaning before the visit).

Lolohea was the other guy we brought in that was a BYU lean, but he committed to Washington.

Chaz Ah Yu and Tuifua were not brought in for visits because they were never considering Utah.

Ty Jones committed to Utah, but flipped to Washington we he got a better offer.  

 

All in all disappointing in State, but as was pointed out we filled the class with really good talent.  Look for Utah to do better in state next year.