We can sell a lot of things about Utah (put players in the NFL, coeds are the fairest, etc), but in the end, we are still competing with UCLA, USC, Stanford, etc. Getting out-recruited is expected, really.Originally Posted by SoCalPat
We can sell a lot of things about Utah (put players in the NFL, coeds are the fairest, etc), but in the end, we are still competing with UCLA, USC, Stanford, etc. Getting out-recruited is expected, really.
The shining examples of friends and family.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I totally disagree. Losing guys late, in most situations, means that we did a great job recruiting, but in the end could not compete in a couple of areas whether it be guys staying closer to home or guys going to a place that has a better academic or athletic pedigree. Seriously, we are Utes here, but if my kid had an offer to Stanford or an offer to play for a team that annually is in the National Championship talk (Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio State) I would be doing my kid a disservice if I did not allow them to pursue that opportunity.
As for Scalley, he and his wife are not interested in leaving Utah. He could have gone with Urban to Florida and Ohio St. and with Gary to Wisconsin, but he is just not interested.
ARod has had numerous opportunities to leave and has even taken two, only to return to the staff. His decision to remain is due to some unique personal circumstances.
Kalani has had opportunities to leave as well.
I think it is a bit illogical to suggest that the coaches should be able to recruit the top guys to Utah and then to suggest that the evidence that they are not good recruiters is their not being "poached" by the higher profile programs you think they should out-recruit. If the coaches should jump to higher profile programs, why is losing a recruit to a higher profile program evidence that the coaches are being out-recruited?
No school gets everyone of the guys they recruit. We lose recruits to higher profile programs and as well as to programs equal to Utah. We also win a lot of those recruiting battles. Another thing to remember, is not every kid that reports an offer from a school or even every kid that the mods say that a school is interested in, is No. 1 with that school. We lose guys who are high on our list. We also lose guys who are not high on our list or who we have backed away from.
Did we steal Cox from UA or did they back off? How about Hippolito Corporan? Did Virginia lose him to us or did they back off? We don't know the answers to these questions.
It does seem pretty obvious that we are in the hunt for much better athletes, and sometimes getting them, than we were before.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I have to agree with UTEopia here.
Also, with kids that go out of state, how big is the pull to go explore your young adulthood out of state vs wanting to play in front of the family? It seems to me that's a very large part of a lot of kids' calculus in that decision. Like Sofele of Cal, responding to questions about if Utah had been in the PAC, would he have stayed and played for the Utes: "No. Actually, I wanted to go to school out of state". Exuberant Ute fans were projecting his thinking, but his rational was a lot more straightforward and personal.
I think for a number of Poly kids, the strength of family ties can be a bit overbearing, and some of those kids want to escape the microscope. Not a Utah case, but the Haloti Ngata recruiting between BYU & Oregon was a classic case of parents vs kid, all the way to the point of (then) LDS Apostle Thomas Monson getting involved and telling Haloti to pray about it himself and to heed the response he got. (I think I'm in the ballpark on the details - I remember it was remarkably pressure-packed, with family & religious overtones, and community & fan pressure on top of that.) That level of pressure is just plain nuts for just about anyone, let alone an 18 year old kid.
Who knows exactly what the details in the Kylie Fitts situation are, but Utah was in it to the end with him out of HS... only for him to want to stay in Cali to be closer to home. That lasted one & a half years. Now he's at Utah. If we win more games and become contenders in the PAC South, we'll be able to keep a few more kids locally, but there will always been the Sofeles out there.
I think most of us agree Utah is on the verge of being a solid contender. That will help recruiting, but probably not as much as would be expected. I think our best building of the program has happened in the past three years, a steady increase in the quality and quantity of the foundation.
We put so many guys in the NFL who had been overlooked, guys with a chip on their shoulders. The competition for recruits has gone way up, and we're getting guys we would not have snagged earlier, but I think we need that same chip-on-the-shoulder in our recruiting identity, at least until we can make regular appearances in the top half of the P-South. If / when we get to that next step on the ladder, then the identity changes a little, and we'll be more competitive with 4 star recruits (in general).
Last edited by Ma'ake; 08-24-2014 at 12:01 PM.
I agree. You can't deny that recruiting has improved since joining the Pac, despite our middling record. In the MWC, we would have been doing backflips over a guy like Raelon Singleton (offers from TCU, Houston, Iowa St, SDSU); as is, we all kind of said, "meh," because he's typical of the recruits we get now.
But the staff has not cleaned up in Utah like I'd have thought they would. I think that is due to increased recruiting from Pac schools/Wisconsin and not selling local kids/coaches enough. If the staff could significantly improve in-state recruiting, I think we'd be fine.
I agree with almost all of this. But I do think winning is the key to keeping the local kids local. Sure some kids will always want to go away for college. But if you look around the country, the home team has a huge advantage in recruiting. If we were playing in bowl games the last 2 years I'll bet we'd have commitments from a couple of the top local kids already.
The latest two-deep (from the Trib):
Nothing earth shattering here, but I had never heard of Nick Nowakowski before (who Utahutes.com helpfully informs me is of Polish descent!). Apparently he is a sophomore walk-on who played 7 downs against WSU (as a center, not a guard) in 2012 and then redshirted last year. What's the story here? Is Pouvave really not able to beat out our walk-on center (who, by the way, is an electrical engineering major)?Quarterback
7 — Travis Wilson, 6-7, 233, Jr.
1 — Kendal Thompson, 6-2, 192, Jr.
Running back
34 — Bubba Poole, 6-1, 197, Jr.
23 — Devontae Booker, 5-11, 203, Jr.
Wide receiver X
6 — Dres Anderson, 6-2, 190, Sr.
49 — Andre Lewis, 6-3, 208, Sr.
Wide receiver H
2 — Kenneth Scott, 6-3, 208, Jr.
10 — Delshawn McClellon, 5-9, 169, Soph. OR
11 — Kaelin Clay, 5-10, 193, Sr.
Wide receiver Z
81 — Tim Patrick, 6-5, 190, Jr.
15 — Dominique Hatfield, 5-10, 170, Soph.
Left tackle
73 — Jeremiah Poutasi, 6-6, 330, Jr.
72 — Andrew Albers, 6-7, 301, Jr.
Left guard
59 — Junior Salt, 6-2, 315, Sr.
77 — Marc Pouvave, 6-4, 302, Sr. OR
75 — Nick Nowakowski, 6-1, 295, Soph.
Center
60 — Siaosi Aiono, 6-2, 305, Jr.
55 — Hiva Lutui, 6-1, 294, Soph.
Right guard
54 — Issac Asiata, 6-4, 316, Soph.
74 — Salesi Uhatafe, 6-4, 311, Fr.
Right tackle
68 — J.J. Dielman, 6-5, 290, Soph.
52 — Sam Tevi, 6-5, 295, Soph.
Tight end
80 — Westlee Tonga, 6-4, 244, Sr.
87 — Siala Fakailoatonga, 6-4, 251, Soph.
DEFENSE
Left end
49 — Hunter Dimick, 6-3, 266, Soph.
51 — Jason Fanaika, 6-3, 270, Jr.
Tackle
98 — Viliseni Fauonuku, 5-11, 285, Jr.
45 — Flilipo Mokofisi, 6-3, 275, Fr. OR
90 — Stevie Tu’ikolovatu, 6-1, 320, Soph.
Nose tackle
46 — Clint Shepard, 6-2, 276, Jr. OR
57 — Sese Ianu, 6-2, 290, Sr. OR
93 — Lowell Lotulelei, 6-1, 310, Fr.
Right end
8 — Nate Orchard, 6-4, 255, Sr.
85 — Greg Reese, 6-5, 253, Sr. OR
86 — Wallace Gonzales, 6-5, 269, Fr.
Stud linebacker
43 — Uaea Masina, 6-3, 223, Soph. OR
50 — Pita Taumoepenu, 6-1, 230, Soph.
Mac linebacker
53 — Jason Whittingham, 6-2, 247, Jr.
22 — Marcus Sanders-Williams, 5-11, 222, Soph.
Rover linebacker
41 — Jared Norris, 6-2, 237, Jr.
43 — Uaea Masina (6-3, 223, Soph OR
50 — Pita Taumoepenu (6-1, 230, Soph.
Cornerback
18 — Eric Rowe, 6-1, 201, Sr.
15 — Dominique Hatfield, 5-10, 170, Soph.
Cornerback
11 — Davion Orphrey, 6-0, 185, Sr.
1 — Boobie Hobbs, 6-0, 175, Fr. OR
20 — Mo Talley, 6-0, 184, Soph.
Nickel back
12 — Justin Thomas, 5-8, 178, Soph.
23 — Wykie Freeman, 5-11, 174, Sr.
Free safety
9 — Tevin Carter, 6-1, 210, Sr.
14 — Brian Allen, 6-3, 200, Soph. OR
20 — Marcus Williams, 6-0, 179, Fr.
Strong safety
4 — Brian Blechen, 6-2, 210, Sr.
3 — Charles Henderson, 5-8, 195, Jr. OR
7 — Andre Godfrey, 5-10, 190, Fr.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Punter
33 — Tom Hackett, 5-11, 187, Jr.
48 — Chris Van Orden, 6-1, 206, Sr.
Placekicker
39 — Andy Phillips, 5-10, 199, Soph.
96 — Jon Halliday, 6-0, 193, Jr.
Long snapper
94 — Chase Dominguez, 6-5, 225, Soph.
89 — Harrison Handley, 6-5, 244, Fr.
Holder
33 — Tom Hackett, 5-11, 187, Jr.
12 — Adam Schulz, 6-2, 210, Jr.
Kickoff returns
23 — Devontae Booker, 5-11, 203, Jr.
11 — Kaelin Clay, 5-10, 193, Sr.
Punt returns
11 — Kaelin Clay, 5-10, 193, Sr. OR
34 — Bubba Poole, 6-1, 197, Jr.
Last edited by Applejack; 08-24-2014 at 12:28 PM.
No, no, no, one hundred times no.
Okay. That made me laugh.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wasn't Zane Beadles and engineering major? Maybe it's good for offensive linemen.
A couple of changes on today's game-week depth chart:
-Delshawn McClellon is moved up to starter at H while Ken Scott slides back to Z with Tim Patrick backing him up.
-Massina has pulled away and will start at Stud
-Applejack's Polish buddy is now a co-backup at center and left guard.
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/...0140825aaa.pdf
Another interesting note from the release is that Blechen was elected a captain. I would love it if he could stay healthy and realize is potential here in his senior year. Hopefully his being elected means he is on track to do so.
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote