16 in-state gridders sign to play for Cougars, Utes and Aggies

Although much of the state is blanketed in snow and the opening of fall camp is still six months away, college football is never far from the minds of its fans.

Hundreds of ardent boosters gathered at the campuses of BYU and Utah Wednesday to celebrate national letter-of-intent day and catch a glimpse of the future.

In Provo, Cougar coach Bronco Mendenhall reiterated that his recruiting base is the Beehive State and his 21-player class of 2008 featured eight from local high schools. Three hail from Bingham — tight end Austin Holt, placekicker Justin Sorensen and linebacker Iona Pritchard.

"I like players who really want to be at BYU," Mendenhall said of the Miner trio. "When you go in a player's room and you see the (program's) mission statement above his bed, that's a good indicator that he's the right kind of young man. When they win a lot of football games as well under a head coach (Dave Peck) who has patterned a lot of his program similarly after how we do things here, they know expectations also."

Of the 15 players Utah coach Kyle Whittingham signed, five were local products, including Alta running back Sausan Shakerin, Timpanogos lineman Dave Kruger and Bingham lineman Derek Tuimauga.

"We feel good about our in-state production. We have five excellent football players who we are very excited about," Whittingham said. "In addition to those five, we have three in-state signees returning from missions and three in-state walk-ons. We have 11 new scholarship players from Utah. That's great for the state. Utah is always our first priority. We don't want to miss any kids in the state and want to make sure not to overlook anyone. The talent in Utah gets better every year. There are probably 20 to 25 Division I players in the state this year."

A year ago, Mendenhall created a stir on letter-of-intent day when he declared, "We didn't lose to anybody and won't lose to anybody, I think, from this point on in in-state recruiting."

That comment drew the ire of Utah defensive coordinator Gary Andersen, who responded: "First of all, I would be surprised if Bronco made that statement. If he did, it was ignorant and not factual. Utah and BYU will battle on in-state recruits year in and year out. However, we do not always recruit the same players. We feel very good about our in-state recruits and have once again signed quality players from the state of Utah. And we look forward to recruiting against BYU in the future and winning."

Mendenhall admitted Wednesday that he and his staff recruited both Kruger and Shakerin but lost out to the Utes.