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  "path": "/sports/2026/06/03/utah-utes-football-recruiting-roundup/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-04T03:00:01.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.deseret.com",
  "tags": [
    "Ute Insiders newslett",
    "er",
    "hired Joe D’Orazio",
    "Here are the details of Morgan Scalley’s contract with Utah",
    "Ryder Lyons",
    "Byrd Ficklin",
    "Kelvin Obot",
    "Sire Stewart",
    "As Utah Athletics moves forward with its private equity deal with Otro Capital, the athletic department has begun a “reduction in force.”",
    "Big 12 QB rankings: How Brendan Sorsby quagmire changes things for Devon Dampier, Bear Bachmeier",
    "Taking stock of how Utes’ spring sports teams fared in 2026",
    "Former Ute standout making the most of his professional baseball journey",
    "It’s unanimous: Big 12 football coaches favor a 24-team college football playoff in 2027",
    "Utah track sends 2 to NCAA championships",
    "How Big 12 coaches feel about the state of the conference — and college basketball as a whole"
  ],
  "textContent": "_This article was first published in the_ Ute Insiders newsletter_. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Wednesday night._\n\nMorgan Scalley is right in the thick of building his first-ever recruiting class as Utah’s head coach, and he’s doing it his own way.\n\nKnown as a good recruiter with a keen eye for under-the-radar pickups as a safeties coach and defensive coordinator, Scalley is now in charge of the entire show.\n\nHe hired Joe D’Orazio, the former director of football strategy at USC, as the program’s general manager, and retained Mason Yellico as the director of player personnel.\n\nScalley has extensive experience as a lead recruiter, specializing in finding players in Texas, California and Utah, but he is now overseeing everything, which puts him in a different role than he’s used to.\n\nAs the head coach, he’s the face of the program for parents and recruits, helping each family understand the type of program — and head coach — their son could potentially play for.\n\n“Obviously, parents, recruits want to know that the head coach they’re coming in to play for cares about them,” Scalley told the Deseret News recently. “I want to be in contact with them. I want them to think that this is not just, ‘I’m going to see coach in the hallway and that’s it.’”\n\nOf course, as a good evaluator of talent himself, Scalley is still watching film on recruits and giving his opinion, but ultimately is trusting his position group coaches to bring in recruits that can both help the Utes win and fit with the culture.\n\n“I have to be able to trust that our coordinators and position coaches are bringing in who they want if they can help us win,” he said. “And ultimately, my job is to sell this place, to sell this experience, to sell what makes this place great and what’s going to make them great.”\n\nWhile each recruiting pitch is tailored to the individual player, part of Scalley’s “elevator pitch” on why a player should choose Utah is about continuity and consistency.\n\nScalley has been a Ute for his whole career, rising from the ranks of a player to a coach, and is just the second head coach of the program over the past 22 seasons. Since 2006, Scalley says, only 15 programs have had only two coaching changes over that time span, and those teams are “68% winning programs.”\n\nDuring the last four years, Scalley says, 68% of NFL draft picks played for only one school.\n\n“This is a place where you’re going to get developed, where you’re going to stick it out and you’re going to be loved. Culture matters. You’ve got an unbelievable fan base that shows up,” Scalley said.\n\nHere are the details of Morgan Scalley’s contract with Utah\n\n“I was at Big 12 coaches meetings the last two days and just in talking to the coaches, they said Rice-Eccles is the loudest environment, the toughest environment to play in. That’s saying something because there’s some really good environments in our conference. So you got an unbelievable fan base, you’re going to get developed both as a man and as a football player and you’re going to have a coaching staff that’s going to be here.”\n\nScalley was extremely busy last weekend as the Utes welcomed in 11 official visitors, according to On3, including four-star wide receivers Blake Wong and Ronnie Gomiller, four-star offensive linemen Gecova Doyal and Lincoln Mageo, and three-star safety Darrod Jacobs.\n\nFor Scalley, any recruit that Utah brings in needs to fit in with the team’s culture.\n\n“When we recruit and we bring these young men in on these weekends, we’re not just bringing in any dude. We’re bringing in guys we feel that fit our culture,” Scalley said. “You have to be real, you have to be genuine. They can recognize fake. So what I want is people to want us for who we are. And if that happens — and it does happen — we’ll be fine.\n\n“We got an unbelievable fan base, great support, great donors. This is an amazing place. I’ve had opportunities to leave and have never felt the need to because we have everything we need to win big here.”\n\nAs the calendar turned to June, Utah had just four commitments in its 2027 recruiting class, and is ranked last in On3’s Big 12 team recruiting rankings, but the Utes are just getting started.\n\nThe majority of its class is expected to commit by July after a flurry of June visits. Ever since early signing day was pushed up to December, most official visits happen during June, with commitments following shortly thereafter.\n\n“I think you’re going to see by June 20th, June 21st, which is the last day of visits before the dead period, I think you’re going to see them have seven to 10 new commitments by then,” On3/Rivals national recruiting analyst Brandon Huffman told the Deseret News this week.\n\nEach weekend in June will be full of official visitors. Next week, per On3, the Utes will host nine official visitors, including three-star quarterback Brody Rudnicki, and the weekend after, Utah will host 13 recruits, including four-star Davis wide receiver Bode Sparrow.\n\n“I think the way the recruiting calendar has expedited, you don’t have a choice but to decide early. For instance, Rivals is doing a big national recruiting day on July 1st and it’s not an official signing day, but you’ll see 90% of the Power Four schools classes almost done by July 1st,” Huffman said.\n\n### Who are some of the big targets for Utah?\n\n#### Brody Rudnicki, QB\n\nUtah has two quarterbacks visiting — Folsom, California, three-star Brody Rudnicki and Humble, Texas, three-star Noah Spinks.\n\nRudnicki is the higher-rated of the two and ranks No. 44 among 2027 quarterbacks in Rivals’ rankings. Utah is in the mix, per Huffman, but faces challenges from finalists BYU and Cal, though Cal recently signed a 2027 quarterback in Dane Weber.\n\nRudnicki played at the same high school as four-star Cougar commit Ryder Lyons after transferring from Oak Ridge High to Folsom. At Folsom, he sat behind Lyons, but led the school to a 42-28 comeback win in the state championship after Lyons left the game with an injury.\n\nLyons and Rudnicki, both Latter-day Saint members, plan to serve missions. Lyons is expected to be the heir apparent to Bear Bachmeier at BYU, and Rudnicki and Lyons have a great relationship.\n\nThe question is, does Rudnicki want to try and compete against Lyons for the starting spot yet again and possibly be behind him once more?\n\n“This guy’s been chomping at the bit and I know a lot of people think, ‘Oh, he was content, he transferred knowing he was going to sit behind Ryder in high school.’ A lot of that was to be developed in a good high school program. I think there’s people that feel, ‘Oh, he’ll do the same thing at BYU,’ Huffman said. “No, now I think it’s a competitive thing. So that could help with Utah, like, ‘Hey, the best chance to go up against Ryder and compete against him is to play against him.’\n\n“I know Cal is obviously a factor as well, just given the Northern California proximity. But I think Utah, I know (QB coach) Ryan Gunderson has made a nice push for him, so I think Utah’s got a very realistic chance at getting in and I think the timing is right. He’ll come in with not a lot of wear and tear on that arm of his, either.”\n\nThe timing could work out well.\n\nByrd Ficklin, given the Utes can hold onto him in the transfer portal for one more offseason, should be the starter in 2027 and beyond. Rudnicki would suit up in 2028, which would put him in line to be the backup in Ficklin’s senior season with a potential path to start a year later.\n\nThat being said, the Utes will have to fend off the Cougars and the Golden Bears for a shot at the three-star quarterback.\n\n#### Rashaun Lavata’i, OL\n\nRated a four-star prospect by Rivals, offensive tackle Rashaun Lavata’i is scheduled to visit Utah on June 12. He’ll also visit Oregon State and Washington State.\n\nThe 6-foot-6, 270-pound offensive tackle and Washington native is one of the top offensive linemen on the board for the Utes.\n\n“Labatai is a four star, an elite prospect, Rivals 300, was the MVP at the Under Armor camp in Phoenix. … I think he kind of fits in naturally at Utah,” Huffman said.\n\nThis year, Huffman says, the Utes may be looking more out of state for offensive linemen than in-state. Just three offensive linemen from the state of Utah make Rivals’ top 300 list.\n\n“It really seems, interestingly enough, for a school that’s always recruited in-state offensive linemen, it’s not a great offensive line class in the state in 2027. So they’re doing a lot of national offensive line recruiting and it’s kind of evident with how many official visits they’ve got coming in that are linemen from outside the state,” Huffman said.\n\n#### Ian Aloisio, OL\n\nOne of those top in-state targets on the offensive line is Ian Aloisio, who is ranked as the No. 6 player in the state of Utah by Rivals.\n\nHe will visit Utah on June 19 and Arizona on June 12, and the Utes are in a good position to earn his services. Aloisio will be a top priority to keep in-state for the Utes.\n\n#### Christian Hanshaw, TE\n\nAmerican Fork tight end Christian Hanshaw has drawn interest from all over the nation, including Florida, UCLA and Tennessee. Of course, he has the in-state offers from BYU and Utah, but Freddie and Kyle Whittingham at Michigan are also making a run at the talented tight end.\n\nHe’ll visit Utah, where Scalley and tight ends coach Luke Wells will make their pitch. Will he stay in state?\n\n“Going back to one of the in-state kids that I think that they really do have a good chance is Christian Hanshaw,” Huffman said.\n\n### Other top targets\n\nOther top targets include Orem edge rusher Jag Ioane, Davis wide receiver Sparrow (No. 1 the state of Utah) and Maple Mountain edge rusher Uhila Wolfgramm.\n\nAll three have Utah visits lined up, but it could be an uphill battle for the Utes to keep them in-state.\n\nFour-star California wide receiver Blake Wong is high on the Utes’ list, and after last weekend’s visit to Salt Lake City, Utah may have moved into a position to be competitive in the recruitment, though he does have offers from Oregon and Ohio State.\n\n“I think they made a very, very good move with him. I don’t want to call them the favorite, but I think they certainly moved into that very short list. I know BYU is definitely up there as well and Oregon obviously has made a big push there and he’s had a really good relationship with Oregon for some time,” Huffman said.\n\n“... I think Utah certainly went from being, ‘Hey, I’m going to take a visit,’ to very much a consideration for him.”\n\nAnother priority skill player is four-star wide receiver Ronnie Gomiller, who had a good visit with Utah this weekend.\n\n### What are the priority positions for Scalley in 2027?\n\nAs expected with Scalley’s culture, which prides itself on physicality, the trenches are a big priority, especially after the Utes lost all five starters on the offensive line.\n\n“Obviously, having two first-round draft picks is certainly helpful with a first-time offensive line coach, first-time college coach and Jordan Gross, there hasn’t been any seemingly dropoff in terms of his effort at that position,” Huffman said.\n\n“I mean, obviously Jim Harding had a lot of experience and then to go and get two first-round draft picks and develop them was huge. And then he goes and gets Kelvin Obot. But obviously nobody knows Kelvin Obot better than Jordan Gross, so it’s almost like you can give Jordan a lot of credit for him.\n\n“And so when he’s been out recruiting offensive linemen in this class, you’re seeing an emphasis on like, ‘Hey, we’re Utah. We pride ourselves on winning the trenches.’ So I think you’re seeing an emphasis on offensive linemen, you’re seeing an emphasis on edge rushers.”\n\nWe’ve discussed Lavata’i and Aloisio, and Utah will try to land other commitments from players like four-star offensive linemen Lincoln Mageo and Gecova Doyal and three-stars Tye Kennedy and Ben Rainwater.\n\nScalley will have to fend off his former boss for Mageo and Kennedy — Michigan has offered both players — but Utah has a shot.\n\n“I really like Tye Kennedy. Michigan’s recruiting him, he’s taken an official visit up to Michigan. But I know he really likes Utah. His dad played in the NFL for a long time, dad was a first-round draft pick. His brother played in the NFL for a long time, played at USC. So there’s some strong ties. I know he really likes Jordan Gross,” Huffman said.\n\nThe Utes have already seen action on the offensive line front after last weekend’s official visit, landing a commitment from three-star Arizona offensive lineman Sire Stewart late Tuesday night.\n\nThe 6-foot-5, 255-pound interior offensive lineman had offers from Arizona, Cal, Baylor, Duke and Oklahoma State, but Utah made enough of an impression this weekend for him to shut down his recruitment.\n\nOn the defensive line, the Utes have two commitments already — three-star edge rusher Jack Henderson and defensive lineman Tiki Teeples — and are in pursuit of more, like three-star edge rusher Cameron Saunders.\n\n### A look at who is already committed to Utah\n\n#### Jack Henderson, edge rusher, 6-3, 230 pounds, Bishop Kelly High (Boise, Idaho)\n\nHenderson committed to the Utes back in April, and at the time, didn’t hold many Power Four offers. Scalley and the Utes saw something special in their evaluation and offered him before any other Power Four school did, securing his commitment early.\n\nIt’s an under-the-radar pickup, something that Utah has become known for — see Eric Weddle, Alex Smith and Devin Lloyd as the highest-profile examples — and Huffman could surprise people when he suits up for the Utes.\n\n“I know he’s not the highest-rated guy in this class, but I finally got to see Jack Henderson myself when I was actually in Salt Lake City for the Under Armour camp,” Huffman said.\n\n“He’s kind of like that classic Utah guy that nobody really talks about. He’s from Idaho, he didn’t have a lot of offers and then ends up being, this is like the … Luther Elliss special. Find a guy that was lightly recruited and they turn him loose, the next thing you know, they’ve a Big 12 defensive player of the year type of guy.”\n\n#### Tiki Teeples, defensive lineman, 6-4, 265 pounds, Canyon View High (Waddell, Arizona)\n\nTeeples had offers from Texas Tech, Iowa State and West Virginia before deciding to commit to the Utes.\n\nIn his junior year for Canyon View High in Waddell, Arizona, Teeples tallied 63 tackles, 12.5 sacks, an interception and a forced fumble, and he could become a presence on the defensive line for the Utes.\n\n“He’s another guy that I’m super intrigued by. I think he could be that classic three tech. So again, where I mentioned that they’re kind of focusing on the trenches, two of their four — in my opinion, their best commits — are an edge rusher and a defensive lineman. So I really like both those guys,” Huffman said.\n\n#### Jonah Mailei, running back, 6-1, 205 pounds, Skyline High\n\nAnother player that Utah got in on early, Mailei committed to Utah over Boise State and Oregon State.\n\nHe rushed for 1,197 yards (6.2 yards per carry) and eight touchdowns last year for the Eagles. Out of the backfield, he also caught 25 passes for 347 yards and four scores and was named an honorable mention on the Deseret News’ 4A All-State team.\n\nMailei’s father, Marcus, played running back at Weber State and appeared in two games for the New Orleans Saints in their Super Bowl-winning season.\n\nHe was originally unranked by recruiting services, but is now a three-star prospect after committing to the Utes.\n\n#### Sire Stewart, offensive tackle, 6-5, 255 pounds, Chandler High (Chandler, Arizona)\n\nStewart became the first offensive line commit of the cycle for the Utes when he committed Tuesday.\n\nHe had offers from Arizona, Cal, Baylor, Duke and Oklahoma State, but committed soon after his visit to Salt Lake City.\n\nStewart is the first recruit landed by Jordan Gross, who is in his first-ever recruiting cycle. Look for the Utes to add at least a few more offensive linemen before the month is done.\n\n### Recruits for Ute fans to keep an eye on\n\nWho could be next up to commit to Utah? Keep an eye on three-star Texas safety Darrod “Bug” Jacobs and three-star California wide receiver Dillon Sykes.\n\nThe 6-foot-2, 175-pound Jacobs has offers from a number of Big 12 schools, including Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma State and Houston, but the Utes made a big impression on him on his visit.\n\n“I think that they made a major move for him this weekend and my colleague at Rivals Sam Spiegelman actually put in a prediction for Utah based on the visit,” Huffman said. “He’s canceled his subsequent official visits that were scheduled. So I think that Utah is certainly trending positively for him and they’re now in a very, very good position to get him.”\n\nThe 6-foot-5, 195-pound Sykes has offers from Purdue, Arizona and Navy, but Utah is in a good position.\n\n“I think that Utah is, again, in a fantastic spot for him right now. I think that there’s been a prediction for the Utes for a while and it’s always felt like a matter of when, not if they’re going to get him,” Huffman said.\n\n### In case you missed it\n\nAs Utah Athletics moves forward with its private equity deal with Otro Capital, the athletic department has begun a “reduction in force.” \n\nAs select units transition to Utah’s new, for-profit LLC, Crimson Brand Partners, employees began receiving notice on Friday that they will be laid off June 30, with the option to reapply for a similar position with Crimson Brand Partners.\n\n### From the archives\n\nBig 12 QB rankings: How Brendan Sorsby quagmire changes things for Devon Dampier, Bear Bachmeier\n\nTaking stock of how Utes’ spring sports teams fared in 2026\n\nFormer Ute standout making the most of his professional baseball journey\n\n### Extra points\n\n  * It’s unanimous: Big 12 football coaches favor a 24-team college football playoff in 2027\n  * Utah track sends 2 to NCAA championships\n  * How Big 12 coaches feel about the state of the conference — and college basketball as a whole\n\n",
  "title": "‘Everything we need to win big here’: How Morgan Scalley’s first recruiting class at Utah is shaping up"
}