Football announces 2014 recruiting class
National signing day in college football took place Wednesday, which meant Utah State football head coach Matt Wells could announce his second recruiting class at USU. The class consisted of 26 athletes.
“This has been something we’ve been working on for 12 months. I remember this time a year ago, we’d just gotten done looking at a bunch of 2013 kids,” Wells said. “There are several on here that we offered on this day a year ago. It’s kind of neat and satisfying for us as a staff to see the culmination of our efforts come down to signing a kid and getting to talk about him publicly.”
The class features 18 high school players and eight junior college transfers. Of the 28 signees, nine are in-state recruits, eight are from California, four are from Texas, four from Florida and one is from Missouri.
“We were just really aggressive about what we wanted from Florida, Texas and California. California is a little different from those two with a lot more junior college kids,” Wells said. “We put three coaches in California, two in Texas and two in Florida. You emphasize where you put your guys and time and effort. We’ve got connections in all three of those states.”
USU heavily addressed its needs on the defensive front in the class. 10 of the recruits were either defensive lineman or linebackers.
“In the big overall picture, we had big needs at defensive line and big needs at linebacker. I think both of them were met from depth standpoints,” Wells said. “There will also be some guys that will be added to that that we won’t talk about yet. We won’t release that yet, but they’re going to add to us and be able to play immediately next year.”
One quarterback, Kent Myers, signed in the class. Myers has already drawn comparisons from many people watching the program to Chuckie Keeton and Darell Garretson because of his winning attitude and dual-threat ability. Wells is among those making that comparison.
“He’s got moxie. He has great character and a great family. I think he’s got a bright future. He carries himself well. He’s very similar to Darell and Chuckie in those ways,” Wells said. “I’m very pleased with signing Kent Myers. He was the first kid we went after right after the bowl game, and we got him. He’s been loyal to us through the last 10 days.”
Myers led his team to a district championship during his senior season in Texas. He completed 243 of 344 passes, throwing for 3,522 yards, 42 touchdowns and five interceptions. He also had 10 rushing touchdowns that season.
There are five signees who are currently enrolled at USU, two of whom were in high school not too long ago but graduated early.
“They’re going to get thrown into the fire right out of the gate,” Wells said about the two high school recruits. “Chase (Christiansen) and Ian (Togiai) are two in-state kids that are tall, can run and will hit you.”
For Wells, this is his first full year recruiting as a head coach. He took over for Gary Andersen at the end of last season and was named head coach Dec. 20, 2012.
“The biggest thing I look at is that this class is a direct reflection of our program and the blueprint that we have used to build it over the last several years,” Wells said. “A year ago, I sat at a podium next door and talked about the blueprint for Aggie football and how it wasn’t going to change. I think this class shouts out that it’s not going to change.”
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