The last time I posted on UteHub I speculated that, in the age of NIL with a team like the Utes that has finite resources, it might make more sense to dedicate funds to the portal rather than recruiting. The Big12/ACC teams that are the most creative with NIL in the football landscape will be the most successful. With the Utes positioned above the G5 teams but below the SEC/B1G (financially), there is only a few possible results of paying an incoming true freshman a large “salary”:
1. They overperform and you must pay them more to keep them.
2. They overperform and some other school pays them more to steal them.
3. They underperform and you have wasted your money.
I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for coaches to put so much time and energy (physical and emotional) into the developing players, essentially, for other schools. I would much rather poach than be poached. Transfers are known quantities.
That being said, recruiting still seems important and it still seems bad for us to be at the bottom of the B12. Of course, the Utes usually start slow with recruiting and finish strong, but many of our better classes were attained after high-performing seasons. As such, this appears to be an incredibly important year for our program. Naturally, if we show some resiliency and perform well, it will help us with both recruiting and transfers.
