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SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah football program added 20 new players to the program Wednesday as part of the annual national signing day for football programs around the country.
Of the 25 scholarships available to Utah, the university brought in 20 new players, with 10 coming from the state of California. Five of the recruits — senior cornerback Ahmad Christian, and freshmen linebacker Jake Jackson, safety Austin Lee, defensive tackle Vaha Vainuku and wide receiver Tyrone Smith — have already enrolled in school and are eligible for spring football.
Four of the 25 scholarships were used ahead for players currently on the team's roster, including Jason Fanaika, Wallace Gonzalez, Tim Patrick and Jameson Field. One of the scholarships is still reserved for a player yet to be announced, according to head coach Kyle Whittingham.
Whittingham said Wednesday that this year's recruiting class is a good fit for the needs of the program, particularly for the offensive line where there is not a lot of depth. Whittingham pointed to incoming offensive linemen Darrin Paulo, Johnny Capra and Nick Carman as just some of the players he expects to significantly contribute to the offensive line's depth and potential.
"We felt we had another solid class. It sounds like a broken record every year, but we felt like we really took care of the immediate needs," Whittingham said. "Offensive line was at the top of the list, and we ended up taking five offensive linemen, closely followed by wide receiver and defensive back. Those were the three primary focuses of concern for us and to be able to restock. We were able to get good players at a number of other positions as well, so we feel good about the guys we got and time will tell."
This year's recruiting class includes the 10 California players, three from Florida, two from Utah and one from Arizona, Louisiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas. The secondary on the defensive of the ball had the most scholarships earned with six.
Recruits planning to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not sign a letter of intent Wednesday but are expected to join the program for the 2017 season and do not count toward the 2015 recruiting class numbers. Those expected to serve missions include Britain Covey, James Empey, Quinn Fabrizio, Chad Hekking and Chayden Johnston.
"Unlike most schools in the country we have guys that are coming off missions and we can't talk about those guys cause they don't sign anymore," Whittingham said. "They used to sign all your missionaries to a letter of intent, but now they put a restriction on the amount of letters you can sign."
