College football recruiters are finding Utah to be an abundant resource. This is the reason
“The main factor is that Utahns tend to be high achievers. Whether it’s football or anything else, they have a fair amount of drive. Children become inspired, and their parents encourage them.
Eric Kjar, the football coach at Corner Canyon High
Later this month, Jackson Powers-Johnson, a Corner Canyon High alumnus and center for the University of Oregon, is anticipated to be selected in the first round of the NFL draft. The Rams have inquired about him by visiting his high school. In the 2021 selection, two more Utah locals, Zach Wilson (a graduate of Corner Canyon High School) and Penei Sewell (a graduate of Desert Hills High School), were selected with the second and seventh overall picks, respectively.Another Corner Canyon alum, Jaxson Dart, might be selected in the first round of the 2025 draft.
Ten players who were born in Utah were selected in the first three rounds of the last 11 drafts; the other players were first-round selections Garrett Bolles (2017), Star Lotulelei (2013), Nate Orchard (2015), Xavier Su’a-Filo (2014), Brady Christensen (2021), Julian Blackmon (2020), Cody Barton (2019), and Nick Vigil (2016). Some, including Jaylen Warren (undrafted, 2022), Puka Nacua (fifth round, 2023), and Dalton Schultz (fourth round, 2018), ought to have been selected in the first two rounds.
“Football in Utah has improved significantly. Football was good when I started, but I’ve watched it grow a lot,” adds head coach Eric Kjar of Corner Canyon, who took up the sport in 2004.
Pro Football Reference attests to the same. A list of NFL players who were born in Utah and saw action was generated by the website. It amply illustrates the rise in the stature of Utahn football players. (Note: Players who were born outside of Utah but attended a Utah high school are excluded.)
30 players (30 years) from 1953 to 1983
29 players (22 years) from 1985–2006
31 athletes (aged 13) from 2007 to 2019
2020–23 (30 players; 4 years)
Utah was ranked second among states with the most high school players picked per capita by NFL Communications after the 2021 draft. Utah ranked ninth in terms of population for the preceding five drafts, according to research done in 2022 by On3.com.
According to Jeremy Crabtree of On3, “Utah is home to some of the most underrated high school football in the country.” And perhaps it’s time to give Utah more credit after learning that the state is among those with the most draft selections per capita. The state has often sent players to the next level, considering that it has less than 1% of the population.
having 25 NFL players per 1,000 residents, Utah ranked No. 6 on 1033thegoat.com’s 2022 list of states having the highest NFL player per capita.
The growth of Utah prep football is evident in college recruiting, as one might anticipate. With 35 out of 8,638 players (a ratio of 1:247), Saturday Down South, an online college football publication, ranked Utah No. 5 in the nation per capita for producing FBS signees. It was nine years ago at the time. Since then, Utah’s stock has kept rising. In February, seven players from Corner Canyon signed Division I letters of intent, four of them with Power Four universities. Division I offers have already been extended to eight active Corner Canyon players.
According to Fred Whittingham, the recruiting coordinator at the University of Utah, “high school players in Utah are getting recruited more than ever.”
The reason behind this is a question. Although the population of the state has increased from 2.25 million in 2000 to 3.4 million in 2023, coaches point out that Utah is still only ranked 30th out of 50 states. Whittingham and Kjar point out the comparatively high Polynesian population in further detail.
According to Kjar, “the main reason is that Utahns tend to be pretty high achievers.” “They have a strong work ethic in anything they do, including football. Children become inspired, and their parents encourage them.
Whittingham and Kjar both remarked on the quality of coaching at the high school level in Utah, as well as the availability of camps and other player development initiatives, the state’s several strong Division I programs, and the presence of “a lot of big, long, tall bodies here in high school, which is an important trend in recruiting.”
Whittingham goes on, “The University of Utah has been a Power Five program in the state since 2011, with growing success and national exposure.” More Power Five programs have committed to recruiting the state as a result of our success.
Utah players now simply have better talent, for any of the reasons listed above. In other sports, it’s simpler to measure it objectively. Kjar, who also trains the track team at his school, remembers that the state qualifying mark for the 100-meter dash was 11.55 in 2007, when he started coaching the sport. Today, it is 11.15. Thirty-seven Utah high school sprinters went sub-11 seconds last year, six of them under 10.70, compared to just four in 2010 who broke 11 seconds with a top time of 10.83.
Some of the nation’s best high school football programs are found in Utah. Perhaps it’s time to give Utah more credit after discovering that the state ranks among those with the highest draft selections per capita. The state has routinely advanced players to the next stage, despite comprising less than 1% of the population.
Crabtree, Jeremy, from On3.com
Kjar points out an additional reason for Utah’s ascent in the football world: Twitter and the internet have altered the game for all players, but particularly for those in Utah and other remote, sparsely populated regions.
According to Kjar, Twitter has helped Utah become a little more national. Coaches share videos on Twitter, and kids utilize it extensively for recruiting. For many recruiters, Utah was a far-off place. That was not a location where they conducted recruitment. It is situated in the midst of a sparsely populated area. Now that coaches are looking for them, there are good youngsters there. More and more recruiting agencies and coaches are taking notice of our children.
A football talent clearinghouse now exists in Kjar’s office. He has hosted visits in the last few months from assistant coaches from every Pac-12 school, including Texas, Notre Dame, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Ohio State, and former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly and USC head coach Lincoln Riley.
QB is the one position, in Kjar’s opinion, where Utah is becoming more well-known. Wilson, the second overall choice in the 2021 NFL draft, had spent the previous three seasons playing for the New York Jets.
After transferring from USC, Dart starts for Ole Miss and has been linked to the Heisman Trophy. Boise State’s starting quarterback is Maddux Madsen, a sophomore from American Fork High. Last season at Utah State, McCae Hillstead, a sophomore from Skyridge High, and Cooper Legas, a junior from Orem High, shared the starting job.
Ohio State has sophomore quarterback Devin Brown, of Corner Canyon, ranked second on the depth chart. Zach’s brother, Isaac Wilson, also a graduate of Corner Canyon, is a freshman at Utah this spring. Cole Hagen, one more Corner Canyon alumnus, is vying for a slot at BYU following his Yale transfer. Provo native Jake Jensen, a junior, plays backup for USC.
A junior from Milford High School, Bryson Barnes started a few games for Utah before transferring to Utah State during the off-season. According to Kjar, “you see the quarterback position growing.” “It has grown significantly.” Whatever the metric, interest in and admiration for Utah’s high school football stars is growing.