According to 247Sports, the best recruiters in the state of Utah — when it comes to college football — work for Kyle Whittingham and the University of Utah.
Every year, the recruiting service rates the top recruiters around the country, based largely on which signees they were the primary recruiter for during the most recent recruiting cycle. In this case, that means the recently finalized 2024 class.
And based on 2024 recruiting classes, the top three recruiters in Utah all coach at Utah.
Chief among them is Utes defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley. Rated No. 31 among all Big 12 recruiters, Scalley has long been praised for his recruiting acumen, particularly in Texas.
Case in point, in February an unnamed high school football coach in Houston told The Athletic that Scalley is the single best out-of-state recruiter for the area.
“He doesn’t wait,” the coach told Sam Khan Jr. “He offers guys who don’t have any offers who are ball players. If Scalley offers you on Friday, by Monday you have Baylor, TCU and a bunch of others coming back behind.”
Another Houston-based coach noted that he has a relationship with Scalley going back years, while a third noted that Scalley has always done a great job.
247 Sports credits Scalley with bringing in three recruits for Utah in 2024 — a trio of safeties in Davis Andrews (three-star), Jeilani Davis (three-star) and Luke Bryant (unrated).
Other Ute coaches that rate well as recruiters included linebackers coach Colton Swann, No. 33 in the Big 12, and cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah, No. 40, who combined to bring five signees to Utah.
The fourth-best recruiter in Utah is BYU wide receivers coach Fesi Sitake, who comes in at No. 46. Only one other in-state coach was considered a top-50 recruiter in the Big 12 this cycle — BYU special teams coordinator Kelly Poppinga.
The best recruiters in the Big 12 were spread across multiple teams, with Houston secondary coach Zac Etheridge rating the best in the league. Houston, UCF, TCU, Arizona State, West Virginia, Kansas State and Kansas all had top-10 recruiters, though the Mountaineers had the highest quantity of quality recruiters, with three in the top 10, headlined by offensive coordinator Chad Scott.
No Utah-based coaches rated among the top 100 recruiters nationally in 2024, a group dominated by SEC and Big Ten coaches. Two of the three best recruiters in the country coach in the ACC, however. The top recruiter in the country is Fran Brown, the new head coach at Syracuse, formerly defensive backs coach at Georgia. And at No. 3 is Miami defensive line coach Jason Taylor.
No Utah State coach rated among the 25 best recruiters in the Mountain West Conference in 2024. The top recruiter in the MW was Colorado State wide receivers coach Chad Savage; the Rams claimed three of the five best recruiters in the conference and four of the top 10.
