COLUMN: Aggies Becoming Top Choice for Utah Recruits
In the world of college football recruiting, Bingham (UT) safety Bridger Peck’s recent commitment to Utah State hardly registered on the Utah sports scene, much less the national headlines.
Rated as a two-star recruit by Scout.com, Peck’s online profile listed only two official scholarship offers before his commitment last week. And for Utah State to beat out Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) member Weber State for Peck’s future services hardly seems worth mentioning, especially as in-state schools like Utah and BYU make waves on the national recruiting scene.
Yet lost amidst the short writeups about the 6-foot-2, 215 pound senior was the real significance of Peck’s verbal pledge. By committing to play for coach Gary Andersen and the Aggies, Peck represents a growing number of Utah high school football players who find themselves increasingly drawn to Logan.
“I love the coaching staff and what they’re about,” Peck said of Utah State. “I’ve been talking to a bunch of the players who are already up there about how they’re turning the program around and just what they are about and stuff like that”
Peck’s commitment is indicative of a shift in Utah football recruiting not only because he represents the idea of many Utah prospects coming around to a change of culture at Utah State, but also because he stands for an increasing number of local products who’ve grown frustrated with the recruiting approaches of the University of Utah and Brigham Young. Peck, who said he would have had scholarship offers from Utah and BYU had he been decided on his mission plans, claimed that Utah State held an edge over Utah and BYU because of the personalized approach that the Aggie coaches took towards his recruitment.
“The big thing which made me decide to go up [to Logan] was when all the coaches wrote me individual letters,” said Peck, whose brother, Remington, was a former all-state tight end at Bingham and is expected to play for BYU after finishing his mission.
“That was a big thing,” Bridger added. “My brother got recruited a little bit by Utah State and by BYU — and my brother was a big recruit for BYU — but they did nothing like [writing personal letters] to him. [Utah State] did that for me. It made me feel good that they took that time out of their days. I know how busy the coaches are. To write me a letter, it makes me respect them a lot more.”
Peck is the 11th player from the South Jordan powerhouse to commit to a Division I school from the class of 2011. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, 13 Bingham players currently hold at least one Division I scholarship offer, making the program amongst the strongest in the state.
According to Peck, he’s not the only Miner who has found the Aggie program appealing. Saying that more and more central and southern Utah prep stars are looking toward Utah State, Peck cited Aggie head coach Gary Andersen as a major reason for the Beehive State’s best to consider the former WAC bottom feeder.
“Everyone who I’ve talked to likes coach Andersen and what he teaches,” Peck said. “Just from the fundamentals and how to live your life and stuff like that. He’s not just about football. He cares about how you do and school and how you succeed and all of that. I think that is really important.”
Peck said that most Bingham players knew little to nothing about Utah State before coach Andersen arrived, and pointed to the high school’s proximity to Provo and Salt Lake City as a major reason why many former prep stars passed on checking out Logan.
“With a lot of the kids at [Bingham HS] who are starting to like Utah State…they’ve been up there and are starting to know what the program is like. I mean, down here where we’re at [in South Jordan], we hardly ever heard about Utah State. Nobody really talked about them or things like that.”
Like many high school recruits in Utah, Peck had interest in the state’s two flagship programs – Utah and BYU – before committing to Utah State. Also, like many Utah high school prospects, he said that he “always wanted to stay in state” on account of playing close to his family and friends. Yet he found Utah’s coaching staff to be especially elusive and aloof during his recruitment, and said that Utah State’s staff made him feel much more comfortable with committing and not forcing a mission decision upon him while still in high school.
“Utah was weird to me,” Peck said. “They always seemed like they were interested but the next time they weren’t.”
“It kind of seemed like [the coaches] would lie to me each time,” added Peck. “What I like about Utah State is that if they like you they’ll tell you. If they don’t, then they’ll tell you. The [coaches at USU] know how you feel when you get lied to and stuff, so they just want you to be honest with them and they’ll be honest right back.”
Honesty from the coaching staff was a big draw for Peck when it came to USU competing against the future Pac-10 school, which has increasingly abandoned its Utah recruiting base in recent years to pursue athletes from California and Texas. With more and more in-state prospects finding the University of Utah looking elseware, the options for Beehive State prep stars have suddenly become fewer. Yet BYU has only partially filled the void, expanding its own recruiting base nationally as the program expands in prestige. Coupled with the unique experience in Provo, and the insistence of BYU’s coaches to have mission decisions out of their recruits, many Utah high schoolers find themselves in the same boat as Peck.
Peck went on to say that Logan provides a good balance between the wholesomeness many LDS recruits are looking for with a more relaxed atmosphere that isn’t available in Provo. Saying he thought more Bingham and Salt Lake City recruits were taking the time to check-out Logan, he felt confident that the ability of Andersen and his staff to get prospects interested in Utah State would eventually pay dividends.
“The reason I like Utah State a lot more is that it isn’t so quiet,” Peck said. “Provo…I hate Provo and can’t stand driving down there. Just the setting [at USU] and all the things to do, the campus and stuff, it makes [high school recruits] want to go to a place where we’re going to enjoy ourselves for four years and not hate it.”
Bridger Peck may not have held official scholarship offers from Utah or BYU, but his commitment is a telling sign for an Aggie program which is suddenly making itself relevant both on the field and on the recruiting trail. What does the future hold for Utah State? With Utah expecting a boost in California-based recruiting with next year’s move to the PAC-10, along with BYU’s continual progression to recruit players from across the nation, it could mean more and more of Utah’s top prep players look northward to play their college ball. And with a prestigious head coach, welcoming community, and a rejuvenated interest around campus for the football program, those recruits may just put Utah State back on the path to becoming a winning program in the WAC.
Adam Nettina is a senior History major and member of the Football Writers Association of America. You can follow him on twitter at twitter.com/AdamNettina