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Christian Thatcher 4* LB Announces Today!

Welcome Cyclones Fans! › Forums › Utah Utes Sports › Football › Christian Thatcher 4* LB Announces Today!

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    • 06/16/2024 at 5:28 AM #217149
      7
      ThurstonW
      Participant

      Thatcher, 4-Star LB out of LV NV, will announce this evening (6pm MST). He was originally predicted as a USC commit, then UW. Now, after visiting UTAH on June 07, he has moved his announcement date up and is predicted to commit to the UTES! He’d be a fantastic get…

    • 06/16/2024 at 8:49 AM #217157
      1
      krindor
      Participant

      Would be a huge get. We’ve been so stacked at linebacker that we’ve had a lot of great recruits jump ship (Medlock, Chambliss, Tafuga, Tabaracci).

      It’s been a position we’ve really recruited well, but a lot of those recruits haven’t ended up long term answers. And I’m not sure it’s a development issue since lots of them have been blocked by lesser-heralded recruits who we did develop well. But with so many transfers and Damuni, Reid, Barton all likely gone after this year, the path to playing time there is wide open

      • 06/16/2024 at 9:04 AM #217160
        1
        Yergensen
        Participant

        Yeah, we brought in transfers each of the past 2 seasons and played them ahead of recruited talent.

        It was apparent we lost Medlock over this (transferred to a good program btw) and could have lost Fotu.

    • 06/16/2024 at 9:22 AM #217161
      4
      The Miami Ute
      Participant

      Am I the only one that’s lost all interest in HS recruiting? Most of those guys never really pan out. Seems to me that, given the current landscape in college football, the transfer portal is where all the action is. This kid that’s on the subject line might never play a down for the Utes even if he does commit to the program.

      • 06/16/2024 at 9:45 AM #217164
        3
        MDUte
        Participant

        The Transfer Portal has definitely gotten critically important to a program’s success or lack thereof. However, it’s become apparent that you still need to strike the right type of balance between high school and transfer portal recruiting. Going too far in either direction is proving to lead to sub-optimal results. I think Whitt has been going about things the best way where he’s maintaining his strong core culture throughout the program with high school kids that begin their development at Utah. But then he’s increased the amount of open spots on the roster to bring in a large amount of portal transfers every cycle, focusing on high impact kids who are mostly developed and ready to contribute on day 1. Lacking the foundation of a strong culture would make it so difficult to bring in the portal kids to Utah and succeed…it would be chaotic. But the way Whitt is doing it, when he lands good portal kids and brings them in, “they become us and we don’t become them.”

      • 06/16/2024 at 5:17 PM #217227
        1
        UteNamedOg
        Participant

        My own interest is diminished, but not gone. I think Utahs culture of predictability and consistency works well with retaining talent – if you sign up because of a specific reason as an 18 year old, it’s probably not changing in the time you’re there. Compare this to Texas A&M’s class a few years ago that was riddled with five stars which have now since left. (This is not a dig at that class or their recruiters, at least until Utah signs a five star or two… or two dozen)

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