Utah Utes football: 12 players returning home to face TCU

Growing up in Texas, Derrick Shelby really wanted to go to TCU and play football. He used to attend TCU camps and talk with TCU coaches. But the offer never came from the Horned Frogs.

Shelby played for Hightower High School in Houston, three and a half hours south of Fort Worth, but when TCU didn't show enough interest, he jumped at the chance to play for Utah.

You can imagine how excited Shelby is for Saturday's big game.

"Oh, I can't wait," he said. "Going back to Texas with the opportunity to play in front of your family is just a special feeling."

Then there's the TCU thing.

"I wanted to go to TCU," he said. "I went to all of their camps and everything, but I guess I wasn't good enough. I talked to their coaches, but no offers. I guess I can show them that they missed out."

Shelby is a Ute defensive end who started 10 games as a freshman last year and started every game this year. He's one of a dozen Ute players who hail from Texas and have made their way up to Utah.

Other starters are defensive backs Joe Dale and Brandon Burton, and wide receiver Jereme Brooks. Another Texan, Terrance Cain, started the first seven games at quarterback before being replaced by Jordan Wynn.

Ute coach Kyle Whittingham has made Texas a recruiting priority, along with Utah and California, since becoming head coach. The Utes had four players from Texas when he started, and the number has tripled to 12 this year. Within two to three years, Whittingham would like to double that number.

"That's a projection of ours, to get 20 to 25 from Texas, two or three years down the road," Whittingham said. "There's plentiful talent in Texas. They had over 400 signees last year. You research and beat bushes and look under the rocks and do everything you can. There's a lot of talent there."

Morgan Scalley is one of three Ute assistants who recruit Texas, and he says the more players the Utes get from Texas, the easier it is to recruit. Also, Utah's recent success on the field hasn't hurt.

"That's a big-time selling point for us, that we've had success in bringing people over here and having success on the football field and graduating players," Scalley said. "It helps out to be able to say, 'Hey we've got (Texas) players and then you list the schools that they're from. The biggest deal is getting them up here because once they get up here, they see the atmosphere and meet the players from Texas and see how much they love it."

Quarterback Brian Johnson, last year's Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year, and cornerback Brice McCain, who has gone on to play for the Houston Texans in the NFL, were a couple of Texans recruited the year before Whittingham became coach in 2005.