Recent Team Success Leads Future Utes to Salt Lake City
by Brock Jensen
A 10-win season in the Pac-12, head coach Kyle Whittingham receiving an extension, state-of-the-art football facilities, the gorgeous Rocky Mountain backdrop. These are all potential reasons new Utah football recruits recently put pen to paper to don the Utes’ uniform next fall.
While all of these undoubtedly played a big role in prospects’ decisions to come play at Utah, I believe the biggest reason of all was the program’s recent success. Recruiting has brought with it increased glamour throughout the years, but the bottom line is that everybody likes to win and nobody likes to lose.
Just ask Cam Newton about that one. Too soon?
Winning is something our culture values, and the term “winning” has nearly become synonymous for “success.” Whether or not that is actually correct is another discussion entirely, but the fact is that people are drawn toward the desire to be successful, and for athletes, that means just one thing — winning.
This is something Utah has definitely improved over the last few years since joining the Pac-12. With just five wins three years ago, nine wins in 2014, and then, of course, this season’s 10-win performance, it’s clear Utah has improved with each passing campaign.
Most of these future commits are probably coming from teams that were pretty successful, whether that was in high school or at a junior college. They are going to want to win soon, and the most recent Utah success may be a telling sign that the Utes are here to stay.
The Utes finished tied for first place in the Pac-12 South last season, only to forfeit their chance to go to the Pac-12 Championship game based on a head-to-head tiebreaker with USC. But they were close, and prospects are seeing that.
In the short term, Utah will probably always be behind big-name schools like USC, Stanford and UCLA in the minds of recruits because of the lack of history in the program. But if Utah is able to continue having the type of success it had last season, there will be more of a “history” for athletes to draw upon and be a part of.
Think back to the two undefeated Utah teams in 2004 and 2008. Those seasons are memorable moments in the minds of Ute fans. When Utah has history like that to point to, it only increases the attractiveness of becoming Utes for recruiting prospects.
My final point is that winning — plain and simple — solves all problems. It’s a sports cliché, but it’s true, and you see it happen in so many different scenarios. If teams get into a rut and can’t get out, everything seems to be in question, from the coaches to the schemes to the players. Anything and everything is critically scrutinized.
This inherently diminishes the attractiveness of the destination. When a team is winning like Utah has been, success breeds success and people are more likely to be drawn to play for that type of team: a winning team.
Utah is well on its way to becoming a consistent threat in national recruiting, and a few more years of consistent winning will do the trick. We’ve already seen the increase in high-value prospects with Utah’s recent success, and if the Utes play up to their potential, they will continue to be a threat for the Pac-12 crown each season.
@brock_jensen02
Family Atmosphere and Player-oriented Staff Biggest Strengths of Utah Recruiting
by Tyler Crum
This offseason, current players across the country, including several members of the Utah football team, flocked to social media to take recruiting matters into their own hands. They posted pictures, tweeted out videos and penned statuses aimed at turning current prospects into future teammates.
In one highly-publicized instance, Utah placekicker Andy Phillips created a list of reasons he enjoys playing for the Utes and why a recruit should consider coming to Salt Lake City. As his primary reason, Phillips praised the family-like atmosphere surrounding the team. He added that a coaching staff that places player success first was the second-most compelling reason to join up with the Utes.
Phillips also mentioned the setting, the fans and the team’s multi-million dollar facilities, but it is clear that for him and many other Utes, the personal relationships and coaches’ focus on player development are far more important factors in their devotion to the team. More than one current player has spoken out about the family atmosphere of the team, and one of the Utes’ best incoming players, Snow College transfer OL Garret Bolles, talked about his excitement to be joining the Utah family when he announced his commitment.
Whether or not Phillips had an impact on bringing in any of the other over-two-dozen high school and junior college players who comprise the Utes’ best incoming class in program history, you can’t deny the team’s family-oriented identity is an immense draw to any prospective player.
It doesn’t take much to recognize the tight-knit nature of the program: Several family members dot the roster in the football staff directory, the players refer to each other as brothers, and when new recruits were announced, the official press releases welcomed them not to the team but to the Utah Football family.
An integral part of this family is its coaching staff. The position coaches have been praised by the players as mentors and spiritual advisors, and many have even taken it upon themselves to ensure that out-of-state student athletes have places to eat during the holidays. This highly personal coaching style and family spirit has been established and grown under the direction of head coach Kyle Whittingham.
Now in his 11th season as head coach for the Utes, Whittingham saw the team through its challenging transition into the Pac-12, dealt with a revolving door of coordinators and assistant coaches and occasionally butted heads with athletics director Chris Hill, all while turning down prospective coaching jobs elsewhere.
With Whittingham’s recently-announced $11 million contract extension through 2018, the majority of the coaching staff is essentially locked in for the next three seasons. This continuity bolsters the program’s ability to build personal relationships between the players and coaches, and recruits are likely to appreciate the opportunity to have a stable program throughout their time at the U.
The world-class facilities and relative success the team has enjoyed the past few seasons in the Pac-12 have undoubtedly played their part on attracting top-tier talent from around the nation, but what makes the team stand above any other program, and what has made its recruiting class the best it has ever been, has to be Whittingham’s fostering of a family-oriented, player-focused organizational style.
@tylerfcrum