Greetings to everyone! The latest College Football Playoff rankings are out and now it’s time to play to see which contenders don’t like the other teams?
Scan the rankings. You’ll notice that there’s the usual cast of characters: Ohio State (yawn), Texas A&M, Georgia (yawn), Alabama (a total of eight SEC teams), plus Oregon and Notre Dame, and, uh, wait – what’s this? BYU and Utah ranked 11th and 13th, respectively?
How did they reach there?
It’s been largely unnoticed and perhaps under-appreciated what those two schools have accomplished this season. It’s as difficult to explain as it is objectively possible if you compare the talent of their players to other teams in the national rankings.
Each year, 247 Sports ranks the nation’s recruiting classes. Alabama, Georgia, USC, Ohio State and Texas (etc.) always top the rankings; You have to scroll down (and down and down) in the rankings to find BYU and Utah. In 25 years, Utah has ranked in the top 50 only 14 times, and in the top 25 just once (19th in 2023). BYU has appeared in the top 50 only six times, ranking 33rd in 2010.
Like hotels and restaurants, football recruiters are ranked with stars. The Five, like the Ritz-Carlton, is the elite of the elite. Five-star recruits flock to Capistrano like birds of a feather every spring at Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, etc., but five-star recruits at BYU and Utah are almost unheard of.
BYU has signed two five-star recruits so far. They were quarterback Ben Olson in 2002 (he never played a down for BYU, transferring to UCLA after a church mission) and offensive lineman Ofa Mohetau in 2003 (although lineman Matt Reynolds was a Parade All-American in 2005 and probably should have been guaranteed five stars). The Cougars have received a commitment from quarterback Ryder Lyons for the class of 2026 – he was an overall five-star-rated talent entering the season.
If offensive lineman Kelvin Obote honors his commitment to Utah in the class of 2026, he will become the first overall five-star recruit signed by the school.
According to MaxPreps, from 2011 to 2020 alone, Alabama signed 44 five-star recruits, Georgia signed 34, Ohio State signed 26, Clemson signed 20, USC, Florida State and LSU signed 19 each. Nothing has changed. Over the past 10 years, Alabama has signed at least 35 five-star athletes.
During the last 25 years, Utah has signed only four recruits from high school ranked in the top 100 in the 247 Sports rankings – offensive lineman Spencer Fano in 2023, linebacker Ethan Calvert in 2021, defensive back Clark Phillips III in 2020, and defensive tackle Leki Fotu in 2016.
For that matter, Utah has signed only 12 recruits from the top 200 of those rankings during those 25 years.
BYU has signed six top-50 recruits in that time – quarterback Tanner Mangum in 2012, quarterback Jake Heaps in 2010, Reynolds in 2005, Mohetau in 2003, Olson in 2002 and lineman Scott Young. So: it’s two over the last 20 years, and zero over the last 13.
If you dig deeper into the rankings, BYU has signed a total of 14 recruits who are ranked in the top 200.
Yet BYU and Utah, which have won 19 of 22 games so far this season, are winning and appearing regularly in the AP and CFP national rankings. They are getting the most out of the players they recruit.
Their coaches, without the luxury of fully developed players, are developing talent and identifying players who will fit into their schemes and play certain roles. He has demonstrated the ability to find potential players who were overlooked by other schools (see Bird Ficklin).
(Side note: Many of BYU and Utah’s players are from Utah – among players ranked in the top 200 in their recruiting classes, 15 of the 26 are from Utah high schools.)
In 25 years, BYU has finished in the top 25 of the national rankings eight times, Utah 10 times. This year they will undoubtedly finish in the top 25 again. BYU is 10-1, Utah is 9-2.
Meanwhile, schools like UCLA routinely finish in the top recruiting classes, but have little to show for it (the Bruins have finished in the national rankings only four times in 25 years, despite being located in the recruiting hub of California).
As of right now, both the Cougars and Utes are still in the hunt for qualifying for the 12-team College Football Playoff, with BYU far more likely than Utah, but still. Not bad for two teams built largely on three-star (and no-star) recruits.
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