Just two weeks before Wednesday's college football national letter of intent signing day, SUU football coach Gary Andersen threw the T-Birds a curve when he resigned to accept an offer at the University of Utah.
With recruits hanging in the balance, SUU athletic director Tom Douple averted disaster by hiring Wes Meier, an assistant on the staff, as Andersen's replacement.
Douple met with Meier for nearly three hours the day Andersen resigned, and two days later he was hired as the coach. Meier kept the current staff intact. Wednesday, Meier and his staff signed 22 players — including 18 Utah high school seniors — and one junior college transfer.
"None of the kids that we were recruiting that decided to go other places never said it was because Coach Andersen left. As soon as the word got out, a lot of guys did call us and express concern," Meier said. "We immediately got back on the phone and made home visits and got those guys back on board."
Headlining the list is Dixie State transfer Kevin Richardson, who joins Dixie teammates Joel Butler and Michael Knight, who signed with the T-Birds in the early signing period. The T-Birds also inked Ameen Shaheen (Snow College), Mike Palefau (Snow College), Gordon Reid (Snow College) and David Zelasko (Phoenix College) during the early period.
"I think this is as high-quality class as Southern Utah has ever brought in," Meier said. "We were in some real battles with some other schools for some of these guys."
That's saying a lot with the solid class last year, which included Derik Bringhurst, Iosefa Robins, Casey Rehrer, Michael Culpepper, Ryan Zimmerman and Justin Walterscheid.
Of the 18 prep signees this year, 16 of them were first- or second-team all-state selections and two more were honorable mentions.
"Numbers-wise we didn't take on as many kids (as last year) because we didn't have to. We filled in some holes last year," Meier said. "We were a little more selective . . . The overall athleticism and levels of players we brought in took us up a notch."
The T-Birds' list of high school players includes: Ben Macey (Logan), Abbel Aiono (Granger), Fesi Sitake (Hillcrest), Greg Bulloch (North Sevier), Jamar Lee (Northridge) and Ashton Steadman (Skyline).
In all, the T-Birds signed four tight ends, four defensive linemen, three each of offensive linemen and linebackers, and two each of quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers and defensive backs.
E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com