California has long been fertile recruiting ground for Utah’s football program.
There are 25 players on Utah’s roster that hail from the Golden State, including stars like quarterback Cam Rising (Ventura) and cornerback Clark Phillips III (Lakewood).
“I feel like we’re good examples of guys that enjoy the Utah experience,” Phillips said. “We’re able to tell guys, ‘It’s not what you think.’ I had my own set of opinions before I set down on campus. They were definitely changed. For instance, I had never seen snow. I’m able to tell California kids, ‘Hey, it’s not as bad as you think.’”
“Utah has always recruited Cali well and has gotten a lot of great football players,” Rising said. “A lot of them are playing on Sundays right now. It’s nice to be a part of that group of Cali Utes.”
While USC and UCLA are set to leave the Pac-12 in 2024, coach Kyle Whittingham is confident that the California pipeline will continue to be productive for the program for years into the future.
“It’s certainly in our recruiting footprint. We’ll always have a connection to Southern California, the proximity to Utah. It’s just an hour-and-20-minute plane flight. I think we’re always going to have a presence down here,” the coach said during Pac-12 media day in Los Angeles. “Is there going to be maybe some Pac-10 games that are neutral-site games that take place in Southern Cal? I think we’ll figure out some ways to always have a presence.
“We’ll continue to recruit Southern California, obviously. If you look at all the areas that we do recruit, the majority of players on our roster are from the Southern California area.”
The Utes have one game in California this season — on Oct. 8 against UCLA at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
