The one who got away

[Dresden_Stormblessed]

Which player in your eyes was the recruiting loss that hurt the most? i.e. we were fighting for him for a long time and were in a good position until he committed somewhere else.

Mine is Jayden Daniels. I’d watch his highlights often with him teaming up with that giant of a WR for touchdown after touchdown.

On the flip side, who was our biggest recruiting win?

I personally think CP3 flipping from Ohio State was just…an absolutely MONSTER of a recruiting win.

[Tony (admin)]

NOT Daniels. 

[Utah]

I disagree. Hear me out. Let’s say Daniels comes to Utah. He has two big holes in his game: his body and throwing from the pocket. Other than that, he is elite. Maybe the smartest QB in college football right now. 

He redshirts last year, learns behind Huntley with Ludwig. Puts on 20 lbs. Gets rep after rep from the pocket. Instead of learning on the fly at ASU, he runs the scout team and has to emulate all the pocket passers in the P12. 

We have the year we have, and we return the team we return, which is our whole offense outside of Moss and Huntley. 

We would be the HANDS DOWN favorite to win the south and maybe the P12 with Daniels. We win the P12 this year with him, and WE RETURN EVERYONE for fall of 2021. He would have two seasons of a healthy Thompson, Kuithe, Covey, Enis, Dixon, etc. Daniels job would be to just not f**k it up and he’d look amazing.

Daniels would start the 2021 year as a Heisman candidate and probable top 3 draft pick. After Fields and Lawrence leave, Daniels would be the best QB in football. 

We’d be legit playoff contenders in 2021 and any worry about QB’s at Utah are gone. 

Not only did Daniels f**k Utah over by not coming, but he f**ked himself as well. Instead of all that, he’s at ASU, where he has a brand new offense around him. When did he have time to work on his pocket passing? When will he, with a new OL? What happens if he gets hurt, because he didn’t have a RS year? What if ASU goes 3-3 this year, which they easily could, and he loses a lot of the luster he has right now, not because he is bad, but because his team isn’t good enough around him? What if he gets hurt and now gets all the “he’s too skinny to be a QB in the NFL” stuff?

Instead of heading into 2021 as a Heisman candidate and the top QB in the country, he will most likely head into 2021 the QB of a disappointing ASU team and a lot of questions of “is he as good as we thought we was” and not “a consencous top 3 pick” but “he has to prove a lot to show he is a round 3 QB”. 

Hindsight is 20/20, but right now it looks like that switch hurt both Utah and JD and in a big way. 

[Tony (admin)]

That’s a lot of speculation. 

[Crazyforu]

Can’t agree more. I struggle with hypethical arguments, when only the absolute BEST CASE scenario is considered. 

What if Daniel’s couldn’t put on weight, or got hurt in practice, or just ended up not liking SLC? There are a million hypotheticals that can be thrown out there.

I do agree that him going from a silent commit, to not coming at all really hurt, Utah will be just fine though. While that scenario above sounds absolutely amazing, I am excited to see what the bunch of kids Utah has in the pipeline can do. We have been spoiled with some high level kids recently, will be really fun to see what some of these other kids turn out to be.

[UrbanLiar]

But Momma Daniels is happy, and that’s all that mattered apparently.

[chinngiskhaan]

LOL..You don’t know that any of those things would have happened, and even if they did, you still don’t know if he’d be better than the two guys we have competing for the position right now. Who knows what kind of QB he turns out to be.

[Tony (admin)]

Good topic by the way.  Thumbs up. 

[UteBacker]

I would have loved to see Porter Gustin (USC) in our program.  I think he could have exploded here.

Agree 100% on CP3… can’t wait to see him in action.

[Dallas]

I love that Cody Barton was drafted and ol’ Gusty Bottums wasn’t.

[ironman1315]

We’re we in the hunt for Sewell?

[KoolWhitt]

Not sure we “lost out” on him, as I’m not sure how much he was actually considering Utah, but I cringe whenever I think of Penei Sewell. Having him last year (and double whammy not having him on Oregon) likely would have meant a Rose Bowl berth, if not a playoff berth.

That one stings for me more than any in recent memory. But again, we may never had really had a chance at him.

Also bummed that the 6’8 WR out of CA a few years ago could never get his academics in order. Can’t remember his name; Jones? Who knows what he would have brought but his measurables were phenomenal. I think he was Daniels’ friend? Maybe?

[UtahMan17]

Darren Jones is who you’re thinking of. He was dominant in HS but ended up going JUCO and barely making an impact. He is one of those “what may have been” stories, but even if he made it to Utah I think he’s just a guy who never would be able to get it together. 

[gUrthBrooks]

Jay Tufele, football. Lauri Markenan, basketball. Also, living in the Brighton football boundaries, my heart aches for the poor choices of Osa Masina who wanted to go to USC and party. What might have been had he given Utah’s defense and K-Whitt’s structured program a shot? 

 

[Charlie]

Gustin and Sewell would have been huge difference makers. Masina would have been my favorite to watch as a ute if his decisions would have been different. In HS, he could play any position on the field. I remember when on two consecutive plays he sacked the QB from the DL then returned the following punt 50 yards well past the line of scrimmage. In middle school, as a skinny kid, he could push much, much bigger kids to the ground. I would have loved to see what Whitt would have done with that kid that started as a freshman LB at USC. Next up, we will miss Noah Sewell.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

Zach Wilson!

*DUCKS*

[UtahMan17]

Penei Sewell for sure as a loss, as other have stated flipping him very well may flip the P12 title game, but also could potentially flip Noah Sewell and Kingsley. Just a massive loss for multiple reasons. 

 

Since CP3 is already said and Van is obvious, I’ll say the biggest win is an under the radar one: Jaren Kump. He’s an early round NFL OT talent and having him here will be huge for us these next couple years…and he was a big time BYU guy, I want to keep the in-state monopoly on NFL talent we’re cultivating. 

[Utah5410]

Jay Tufele is mine. We were never getting Pemei Sewell. I’m shocked we didn’t get Tufele.

[McBride of Frankenstein]

Yep, Tufele here too.  Last year I feel like we won our “Tufele”s.  Recruiting has turned a corner.

[Yergensen]

Jim McMahon, BYU didn’t deserve or appreciate him.  

BTW – Cam Rising > Jaden Daniels…glass ball but I think Rising has the better career.

[Tednab]

Osa Masina .. wait … whew , dodged that bullet

[utefansince79]

I feel Jimbo was easily the greatest QB ever to play for BYU.

Shame that as he ages, he’s having health issues due to concussions.

Never liked him when he played in Provo, but DAMN he was good.

 

 

[PhiladelphiaUte]

Haloti Ngata had his choices narrowed down to Oregon and Utah.  That one got away.

[dystopiamembrane]

Talanoa Hufanga.
I followed him in high school and Corvallis is close to my heart.

 

[dystopiamembrane]

https://twitter.com/HufangaTalanoa/status/946580596804935681