Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Both coaching staffs at Utah and BYU have made consistent visits to Lone Peak High over the past year or so. While there, they’re always certain to make contact with Chase Hansen.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Hansen looks to be one of the top in-state football recruits for 2012. He has held offers from both BYU and Utah for about a year now, and is considering what both programs have to offer.
Hansen could well be defined as an “athlete,” with the option to play at a number of positions when he gets to college. While he’s played a lot on the defensive side of the ball, he’s now focusing on playing quarterback at Lone Peak.
“I love playing quarterback, and that would definitely be my first choice to play in college,” Hansen said. “I’m very open to playing on defense, and I have a lot of good experience on that side of the ball, just whatever is best for me and for the team, I’ll do, but quarterback is definitely my first choice.”
If anyone can relate to Hansen’s situation, it's BYU offensive coordinator Brandon Doman.
Doman starred at Skyline High, but was largely regarded as someone who could play a number of positions at the collegiate level. While at BYU, he started out at quarterback, before playing some at wide receiver, and even trying the defensive side of the ball a bit, before returning to the QB position for his final two seasons.
“He talks to me about it all the time,” said Hansen. “We’re a lot a like in that way, I guess, and it’s great to talk to a coach that has been through a similar situation I could be going through. Having him as both my quarterback coach and as the offensive coordinator there is definitely one of the things I like best about BYU.”
The similarities Hansen has with Doman don’t end there. A quick glance of BYU’s past rosters show a total of nine Domans having passed through the BYU program, with all of them holding some type of relation to the current OC.
Hansen, meanwhile has had his father, Brian Hansen, two of his uncles, Regan and Bruce Hansen, and one of his cousins, Isaac Kelly, play football for BYU.
“We’re a BYU family for sure,” Hansen said.
BYU's offer shortly after his sophomore season was the first, and Utah followed three months later, and has kept in good contact with him ever since.
“I’ve been to two of Utah’s junior days, I’ve attended a lot of their practices, and I really like their program,” Hansen said. “Utah has a lot of good momentum right now going into the Pac-12, and it just seems as if they’re really up-to-date as a program with everything they do.”
His primary recruiters from Utah have been Jay Hill and Kalani Sitake, with whom he’s built very good relationships.
“They’re both great guys. All the coaches at Utah are,” he said. “I love going up there and seeing how they run things. It’s an exciting program, and definitely a program I’m very interested in playing for.”
One of the Ute coaches he’s anxious to get to know better is new Ute offensive coordinator Norm Chow.
“He’s a legend, obviously, and what’s cool is that my father and my uncles played for him while they were at BYU,” he said. “Utah is doing a lot of exciting things with their offense and Chow is obviously one of the best offensive coaches in the country, so I definitely like that a lot about Utah.”
Hansen also has an uncle, Randy Hansen, who played for Utah.
“We’re just a football family, I guess," Chase said. "All of my uncles and my dad all speak highly of their experiences at BYU and at Utah.”
While his recruitment would seem to be a slugfest between BYU and Utah, it could change in short order because Hansen has been getting a lot of attention from other Pac-12 programs, particularly those in the Northwest.
“I’ve had a lot of contact with Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Stanford, and from UCLA,” he said. “Coaches from all those schools have come and visited me at my school, and they’re obviously very interested.”
Like a lot of college programs, the out-of-state schools want to see him perform live at their camps this summer before offering. For that reason, Hansen is planning to visit a lot of the schools that have shown interest.
“I don’t know exactly which camps I’ll be going to, but I’m definitely going up to the Northwest this summer,” he said. “I’m definitely going to Oregon’s and Oregon State’s camp, and I’d love to go to Stanford’s and Washington’s as well. I plan to just hit each camp for one day, and I also plan on attending at least one day of both BYU’s and Utah’s camps.”
Chase is LDS and has definite plans to serve a mission. He plans to leave for his mission straight out of high school, and start his collegiate career following his two years of service.
He also has plan to make his commitment before the start of his senior season.
“It’s tough making my decision, and it might get even tougher here soon,” he said. “Every time I think I’m close to making a decision, another school starts showing me more interest, and I start thinking about that school, or another school, and yeah, it’s going to be a very tough decision for me. I want to make sure that I make the best decision, and that I learn about every program as much as I can before making that decision, but I definitely feel that I will be making that decision before the start of next season.”
