With the Utes moving into the now PAC-12, I thought it might be interesting to look at their past 5 recruiting classes as a prognosticator of how they might fare in the 2011 conference race. I also included Colorado in this review.
Using Rivals final recruiting rankings for each class, the Utes' place in the PAC-12 would have been:
2007: worse than 9th. (the Rivals rankings stop at 50th.
2008: worse than 9th. (see above).
2009: 8
2010: 7
2011: 6
In the first 2 years all of the PAC-12 South teams ended up with higher ranked classes than did Utah. In the last 3 classes only USC and UCLA did. Given equal coaching, the prospects for the Utes look to be poor in 2011-12, and improving each year after that. Thus, based on recruiting alone, a final result of 4th-6th in the South should be anticipated for 2011.
By the way, this does not reflect my personal prediction. I'm just throwing it out there for discussion.
Using Rivals final recruiting rankings for each class, the Utes' place in the PAC-12 would have been:
2007: worse than 9th. (the Rivals rankings stop at 50th.
2008: worse than 9th. (see above).
2009: 8
2010: 7
2011: 6
In the first 2 years all of the PAC-12 South teams ended up with higher ranked classes than did Utah. In the last 3 classes only USC and UCLA did. Given equal coaching, the prospects for the Utes look to be poor in 2011-12, and improving each year after that. Thus, based on recruiting alone, a final result of 4th-6th in the South should be anticipated for 2011.
By the way, this does not reflect my personal prediction. I'm just throwing it out there for discussion.