Football: Shak Headed to Utah
As you've probably read on The Salt Lake Tribune's Web site or in the newspaper's sports section today, or on several recruiting-oriented message boards, Alta High running back Sausan Shakerin orally committed to play football for the University of Utah earlier this week.
I finally reached Shak last night after getting a rock-solid tip about the commitment around 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Although Shak wouldn't confirm the commitment, he acknowledged that "maybe" it was true. Based on the earlier tip and some information that my colleague at The Tribune, Lya Wodraska, had gathered, we decided to go with the story.
Lya wrote it and sent it in to the paper because I was away from my computer last night. The only reason I mention that is because someone left a comment under the story accusing me of plagiarizing it from a recruiting Web site and called me "gutless" for not putting my name on it. I helped with it; I did not write it, but I obviously stand by it, as will Lya.
This morning, the commitment was confirmed in an e-mail from a person extremely close to Shak, although the purpose of the e-mail was not to confirm but to chastise us a little bit for making it sound like Shak was rude to Stanford coaches. Certainly, he was not.
I've never heard the young man say a rude or condescending thing in
a dozen or so conversations with him the past two years.
But that's probably more "behind-the-scenes" stuff than you wanted to know.
The big story is that the Utes have landed a bonafide blue-chipper, even if he was injured for a good chunk of the season. At the end of the season, Shak looked like his old self and I have no doubt that he will be a huge contributor for the Utes.
Ute fans are crowing about the get, and rightly so. Schools such as Stanford, LSU, Oregon and BYU wanted the 6-foot-2, 200-pound star, one of the most heavily recruited running backs I can remember in 16 or so years covering Utah high school sports.
However, a little too much is being made over the fact that the Utes beat BYU for Shakerin.
Shakerin was always a real long shot to go to BYU, something at least two Cougar coaches acknowledged to me months ago. Even a Ute coaching source acknowledged that the real battle for Shak was not with BYU, but Stanford and others.
For one, Shakerin is not Mormon. Second, his family has absolutely no ties to BYU, but has several connections to Utah. For instance, former Ute standout Bo Nagahi is Shakerin's cousin.
All that, however, shouldn't take away from the elation of Utah fans. This kid can play.
Former Brighton star Reno Mahe (BYU) and former Highland star Haloti Ngata (Oregon) are still the best high school football players I have ever covered, but I would put Shak in the top 10, no question about it.
I finally reached Shak last night after getting a rock-solid tip about the commitment around 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Although Shak wouldn't confirm the commitment, he acknowledged that "maybe" it was true. Based on the earlier tip and some information that my colleague at The Tribune, Lya Wodraska, had gathered, we decided to go with the story.
Lya wrote it and sent it in to the paper because I was away from my computer last night. The only reason I mention that is because someone left a comment under the story accusing me of plagiarizing it from a recruiting Web site and called me "gutless" for not putting my name on it. I helped with it; I did not write it, but I obviously stand by it, as will Lya.
This morning, the commitment was confirmed in an e-mail from a person extremely close to Shak, although the purpose of the e-mail was not to confirm but to chastise us a little bit for making it sound like Shak was rude to Stanford coaches. Certainly, he was not.
I've never heard the young man say a rude or condescending thing in
a dozen or so conversations with him the past two years.
But that's probably more "behind-the-scenes" stuff than you wanted to know.
The big story is that the Utes have landed a bonafide blue-chipper, even if he was injured for a good chunk of the season. At the end of the season, Shak looked like his old self and I have no doubt that he will be a huge contributor for the Utes.
Ute fans are crowing about the get, and rightly so. Schools such as Stanford, LSU, Oregon and BYU wanted the 6-foot-2, 200-pound star, one of the most heavily recruited running backs I can remember in 16 or so years covering Utah high school sports.
However, a little too much is being made over the fact that the Utes beat BYU for Shakerin.
Shakerin was always a real long shot to go to BYU, something at least two Cougar coaches acknowledged to me months ago. Even a Ute coaching source acknowledged that the real battle for Shak was not with BYU, but Stanford and others.
For one, Shakerin is not Mormon. Second, his family has absolutely no ties to BYU, but has several connections to Utah. For instance, former Ute standout Bo Nagahi is Shakerin's cousin.
All that, however, shouldn't take away from the elation of Utah fans. This kid can play.
Former Brighton star Reno Mahe (BYU) and former Highland star Haloti Ngata (Oregon) are still the best high school football players I have ever covered, but I would put Shak in the top 10, no question about it.
3 Comments:
Im very happy to see a blue chip recruit like Shak Stay here in Utah and play for the home town Utes.
Coach Whittingham and his staff are doing a great job recruiting.
Thanks for information.
I noticed you took your comment about Derek Tuimauga out of the story - probably because it was not true. He did not have a BYU offer at the time he committed to Utah. I would have been better if you would have acknowledged the error rather than sneaking it out.
As you point out, Shak was never headed to BYU. And Kruger wasn't either. They will both be great performers for Utah. Increasingly, BYU and Utah are not after the same players anyway as Kyle and Bronco continue to polish their very different systems and expectations. I have to ask,am I the only reader who has noticed that this blog focuses on the U of U? It is the "U of U recruiting trail". Some attention to BYU (I guess you have to throw that in with BYU being ranked and such), no attention to Utah State, Weber State, Utah Valley, Dixie, Snow, Southern Utah...Five of the last ten articles are about Utah.
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