Who is your biggest recruiting miss

[RustyShackleford]

While we are waiting to find out if Cam is playing or not.

In the past 10 years for Utah who is your biggest recruiting miss? A player you thought for sure was going to be a star and wasn’t. Hell, even a player you thought was going to be a bust but ended up being a stud.

[RustyShackleford]

Donavan Thompson was one of mine. He had insane play reading ability coming out of high school. I thought for sure he was going to be the next great LB at Utah. Brandon Cox was another

[Ute Dub]

Brekkott Chapman at 6’8” and #68 ranked national recruit. My understanding is the coaches laid out a plan for him to be a major contributor at Utah and he wouldn’t do one damn thing.

[RustyShackleford]

I thought Donnie Tillman was going to be an NBA prospect. Couldn’t keep it together off court. Chapman is a good one. Highest ranked basketball recruit we’ve ever gotten.

[UtesRule]

Was Brekkot ranked higher than Silas Mills? Mills was the first McDonald’s AA Utah ever signed.

[RustyShackleford]

According to 247 he’s the highest rated recruit we’ve gotten. Maybe that’s just with their rankings?

[chinngiskhaan]

Brekkot was a super frustrating situation. All he had to do was work on his shot and put on weight, and it was obvious that he wasn’t trying at all. So bizarre.

[Utah]

I don’t know if this technically counts, but the greatest player Utah has ever had was Josh Gordon. He was unreal. He was just better than everyone else. I don’t know if there has ever been another player that was just so much more talented than everyone else.

If he could have played for Utah…He redshirted 2011 and would have been eligible for 2012. We went 5-7. We would have beaten Utah State, Oregon State and UCLA. That’s 8-4. We probably beat Arizona. That’s 9-3. We were tied with USC at halftime. Who knows. Josh Gordon might have been the difference between 5-7 and 9-10 wins.

And if going from 8 wins to 9-10 got us a couple better recruits…we had 3-4 games the next year that were easily winnable. We could have gotten to where we are now 3-4 years quicker had Josh Gordon been able to stay off the bud.

He was a program changer. Then, if you add in Sitake getting the HC job at Hawaii instead of Norm Chow, we’d have Chow in 12 and 13…I honestly think Chow would have gotten Wilson drafted, especially if we had Josh Gordon.

[RustyShackleford]

Crazy how talented he was. I’ve heard people talk about watching him at practice absolutely light everyone up

[The Miami Ute]

For me it’s Jack Tuttle. Monstrous amount of hype coming in and the guy didn’t even last a year.

[RustyShackleford]

That’s gotta be one of the biggest we’ve had in years.

[Ute2]

Did you know he’s 4th string at Michigan right now?

Thats a wild journey.

[DataUte]

After Indiana and like 3rd string behind Penix? What a journey

[The Miami Ute]

Can’t say the kid’s not smart… he’s been an Academic All-Conference everywhere he’s gone to school… working on his Masters at Michigan now.

[ArcheryUte]

Ethan Calvert is an interesting one too. Injured quickly upon his arrival. Top 100 player nationally coming out of high-school.

[The Miami Ute]

Ethan Calvert is the third highest ranked recruit that Utah ever signed. Based on how little he did at Utah, that probably makes him the biggest bust ever. He’s now at Cal-Poly Pomona.

[UtahPilot47]

Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo (not Pomona)

[The Miami Ute]

You’re absolutely right. My mistake. I got confused between Broncos and Mustangs.

[UteBacker]

I was chomping at the bit to see Thretton Palamo take charge. Never happened.

[DataUte]

‘My’ biggest recruiting miss? A ballerina that let me take her on a few dates but turned a cheek going in for a kiss.

[chinngiskhaan]

I would say the combination of Tuttle and Darren Jones. They were both 4 star recruits. Turns out, both of them benefited massively from playing with Chris Olave.

We all know what happened with Tuttle, but Jones never even made it to the UofU because of grades, went to Snow, and never made it there either.

[2008 National Champ]

Jones played with Jayden Daniels in HS.

[chinngiskhaan]

woops, don’t know how I screwed that one up so bad. Haha. Thanks for setting me straight.

[2008 National Champ]

I only knew that because I was more excited about Jones coming than Daniels. I thought we were recruiting Daniels to make sure Jones came. Man, did I have that one wrong.

[BD]

Ethan Calvert. I was super excited when he committed. Makes me wonder if he was a covid mis-rating.

[cj13]

Jayden Daniels bugged me the most because it’s believed he flipped pretty last minute to ASU. Although I’m glad we’ve had Cam over him so I’m grateful he went elsewhere.

[ayoriver]

Didn’t CJ Stroud take an official here? Him in the other uniform in that Rose Bowl sounds magical

[2008 National Champ]

Stroud didn’t visit. He had an offer but I don’t know that he had any interest in Utah.

[Dresden_Stormblessed]

I think by the numbers, Ethan Calvert. Dude looked terrifying in high school. Can’t remember if it was injuries or talent ahead of him or both.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I would say Tuttle. Not only was he bust but possibly cost us Zach Wilson.

[The Miami Ute]

That’s known as the law of unintended consequences.

[2008 National Champ]

Tuttle giveth and Tuttle taketh away. There’s no guarantee Wilson comes to Utah, especially since Utah never offered him. Maybe that changes if they don’t go all in on Tuttle.,, no one knows. At the same time, if Tuttle doesn’t leave as soon as he did, Utah probably doesn’t get Rising to transfer (who also did not receive an offer while in HS).

[ProudUte]

The biggest recruiting miss was OJ Simpson. Forget about his life post-NFL. He was one of the greatest college running backs ever. He visited Utah after JC but USC came in last minute and swooped him away.

Maybe if he had played at Utah, his later life would have been different.

[Author]

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