if only we had made it to the Redbox bowl ahead of Oregon … curses

Utah has around 11 scholarships only (due to small Sr. class) and 9 guys already committed, and since recruiting rankings are obsessed with quantity vs. quality this class isn’t going to finish top 50

You don’t know football

How many departing scholarship seniors depart this year? Eleven I thought. Should that not limit the number of new recruits Utah can bring in on scholarship? The Ute 247 (76) Rivals (74) is not great, however the Rivals quality number of 3.11 ranks 29th, and the 247 Avg” of 85.88 puts Utah in the low 40s I believe.

** After I hit ‘Submit’, I note Sweetgrass made the same point.

And if we look at our “rival” Colorado, certainly as their new coach Mel Tucker comes on board.

Colorado recruiting classes – ranking within Pac12:
– 2013 – #12 in Pac12
– 2014 – #12 in Pac12
– 2015 – #12 in Pac12
– 2016 – #12 In Pac12
– 2017 – #8 in Pac12
– 2018 – #10 in Pac12
– 2019 – #7 in Pac12

Mel Tucker is considered one of Georgia’s ace recruiters.
Just for the 2019 Georgia class, Tucker was the lead recruiter for (7) 4/5* commits.

Generally speaking, year in and year out, the composition of Colorado’s classes are:
– About 10 from CA.
– About 5 from TX.
– About 3 from CO.
– Then a smattering of 1’s from across the southeast.

The first thing I expect Tucker to do is lock down the state of Colorado.
Colorado produces about 15 kids every year that are P5 caliber players.
Instead of the normal 3-4 Colorado kids, I expect Tucker’s Colorado numbers will be more around 8 …. which will hurt Nebraska and Stanford mainly.

Where is Utah with respect to locking down Utah? (a rhetorical – not great)

** credit due to my work-mate – a Texas A&M fan for the stats

Well, it does, mostly. You can only have 85 kids on scholarship, so if you have 85 one year, and only 12 kids leave your program after that year, than you can only bring in 12 more the next year. In reality Whit has stated that they normally only have 82-84 guys on scholarship because of the nebulous nature of recruiting, transferring, injuries, etc, so it’s good to keep some flexibility in case you can pick up someone who can help you at an odd time, or in a non-traditional way. So yeah, it’s likely to be a small class this year given the low number of guys expected to leave the program this year. Transfers out and medical retirements will likely increase the class size though.

It sounds like three RMs for sure, Johnny Maea, Semisi Lauaki, and Keaton Bills, with a possible fourth, but it’s uncertain.
Another thing coaches can do to dance around scholarship limitations is to ask a guy to greyshirt, or to give a guy preferred walkon status with the promise that they’ll get a scholarship as soon as one becomes available, which one usually does at some point in their first season. It seems like if coaches get a very talented late addition they don’t have room for they’ll ask one of the less talented recruits to greyshirt. I think that’s what happened to Jake Grant in the 2015 class. Understandable if that angers a kid, but he stuck with the Utes, greyshirted a year and is still on the team; hopefully he’ll be a contributor next season.

Part of the equation on recruting classes is the size of the class.  Because Utah has returning missionaries they will almost always have less recruits in a class than others.  Secondly Utah does not, in general, play bait and switch.  A number of schools overrecruit and don’t bother to tell the player their scholarship is on shaky ground  If Utah gets to the point where they are running out of spaces they tell the kid before the end of the cycle so they can find a spot.  This isn’t true of other programs.

a small class this year, only 12 kids likely to be signed, and they sent out 222 offers and the only 4* commit is a kid who may not pass entry exams… Wow

A couple of JC 4 stars we have a good shot at are Quandre Mosely (Safety) and Bamidele Osmele (OL). Mosely LOVED his visit and it doesn’t look like he has a ton of schools looking at him. Hopefully ASU doesn’t swoop in at the last minute and take them from us like it looks like they will with Jayden Daniels…