Kearns’ Jeffrey Bassa commits to Oregon

[Thlete]

Boo, even if we all expected it. Was on sidelines of a Kearns game this year and it’s obvious that he’s a man among boys. I long for the days that local kids dream of playing for the big time local school and not think they’ve “arrived” by going to another PAC-12 school. Beating those Ducks in the title game could help. You’d think they’d see the trend of big recruits fading to obscurity out of state.

[KiYi-Ute]

As you said, tough to compete with Oregon in recruiting with everything they have going for them if you can’t beat them on the turf.

The Ducks have definitely realized the potential of Utah recruits in the past several years. We can’t compete with their money, facilities or uniform swag. We need to start beating them on game day. Which just gets more difficult as their recruiting continues to trend upward.

It’s a a tough cycle. But Utah continues to grow and develop as a program. Hopefully in a few years we start winning some of these recruiting battles.

[Tony (admin)]

Sometimes it is about leaving the comforts of home and becoming independent. 

[chinngiskhaan]

Sometimes it’s about leaving home, and sometimes it’s about going to the team that beat the snot out of the other option.

Oregon players from Utah have by in large done exceptionally well.

[UteBacker]

If Oregon fails to make the playoffs in the next few years it’ll be a complete failure of that coaching staff. They are putting together one hell of a recruiting class.

[Trailgoat]

The Oregon beat down last year was a huge set back.

[Grimmetal]

If you’d given 18 year old me my choice of full ride scholarship to any PAC-12 university, I’d think long and hard about leaving the state as well. The U is a great school, but I’m also attracted to the Seattle area and the PNW.

These kids have plenty of factors to consider and not all of them revolve around uniforms or even football, believe it or not. They’ve gotta find a place to be comfortable or they’ll wash out, no matter how talented.

I hope Bassa does really well and achieves all of his dreams. I still hope we beat all of the teams on our schedule, but at the end of the day, I understand that these are kids trying to grow up with the world at their finger tips. Let them spread their wings, even if it doesn’t selfishly benefit our University.