Corner Canyon teammates Isaac Wilson and Isaiah Garcia headline Utah’s 2024 recruiting class

A pair of Corner Canyon High teammates headlined Utah’s 2024 recruiting class, as 15 players signed their national letter of intent to play for the Utes on Wednesday.

Quarterback Isaac Wilson and offensive tackle Isaiah Garcia, both four-star recruits, played together in Draper and now will move 23 miles north to continue their football careers together.

Both players are graduating high school early and will enroll at the university in January. That extra time being around the team, including spring ball, will give them the opportunity to learn Utah’s system, get acclimated with college and start meshing with the team and coaches.

“I can’t wait to learn from (fellow QB) Cam Rising. He’s been killing it,” Wilson told the Deseret News. “Getting up there early, that’s really been my focus because I get to see the difference between high school and college and their different aspects, but I’m just excited to learn from Cam Rising when I get up there.”

Wilson, who led Corner Canyon to the 6A state championship this season, was named the Deseret News’ Mr. Football this month. He broke the Utah state record for most total yards in a season with 5,901 yards — 4,595 passing yards and 1,306 rushing yards.

“He’s a terrific player. Exceptional arm, can make every throw, great pocket presence, does a great job of extending the play and keeping his eyes downfield,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.

“I think you hear me say that over and over throughout the course of a season when we play good quarterbacks. These are the traits that they all seem to have in common and he has those traits — being able to extend the play and put the ball downfield after he has broken the pocket. Also an exceptional runner. He can run as well as anybody that we’ve had here from the quarterback position and we’re excited about what he brings to the table. He’s going to be a very good player for us in our estimation.”

While he’ll sit behind Rising in his first year, Wilson is going to make the most of the opportunity to learn from the veteran quarterback to be able to hit the ground running, both to compete with Brandon Rose to be Rising’s backup in 2024 and when the starting position opens up in 2025.

The 6-foot, 196-pound Wilson was ranked as the No. 1 2024 recruit from the state of Utah by Rivals and On3 and the No. 13 quarterback in the nation by ESPN, choosing the Utes over an offer list that included Oregon, Miami, UCLA and BYU, among others.

A “prominent” SEC team not originally on the offer list also made a late charge for Wilson, Whittingham said, but he remained steadfast in his Utah commitment.

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One of the offensive linemen who could be blocking for Wilson if he becomes Utah’s future quarterback is Garcia. The 6-foot-5, 290-pound offensive tackle was ranked as the No. 1 2024 recruit from the state of Utah by 247Sports and ESPN. He chose Utah over offers from Alabama, Oregon, Stanford, USC, UCLA and BYU, among others.

As we’ve seen with true freshman tackle Spencer Fano, who started 11 games this year (missing one due to injury), if you’re good enough to start, Utah will start you — even with no previous college game experience.

Wednesday was a fairly uneventful signing day for Utah as far as surprises go.

That’s a good thing for the Utes.

“I guess the overriding theme for this class would be no drama. It unfolded almost exactly as we anticipated. There’s still a few things up in the air, but like I said, it was as expected,” Whittingham said.

The only unexpected news of the day came when Elijah Elliss, the son of Utah defensive tackles coach Luther Elliss, signed with Utah after decommitting from Idaho on Tuesday.

The Layton Christian Academy prospect, who will play along the defensive line according to Utah, was named to the Deseret News 2A all-state first team this year.

There were no surprise decommitments or flips to another school, with all 14 players committed to Utah heading into Wednesday’s early signing day, plus Elliss, signing with the Utes.

The Utes inked three of the top five recruits in the state of Utah, per 247Sports composite rankings — Garcia (No. 1), Wilson (No. 2), and American Fork safety Davis Andrews (No. 5), and are in the hunt for the No. 3 ranked player, Bountiful safety Faletau Satuala, who will announce his college decision during during the 2024 All-American Bowl on Jan. 6.

Elsewhere in the Beehive State, Utah signed three-star Corner Canyon edge rusher Kash Dillon, who checks in at No. 8 in the 247Sports Utah state composite ratings, and three-star Olympus safety Luke Bryant.

It was a defense-heavy class to try to build back the numbers lost on that side of the ball to the NFL and the transfer portal.

Utah was able to keep the majority of its offensive contributors, so the defensive side was a big priority in this year’s recruiting class.

“We were down on numbers on defense, particularly with guys that are opting out for the NFL and also had some attrition throughout the year, so it was skewed in that direction by design,” Whittingham said.

Utah shored up the defensive backfield for next season with three-star safety Jeilani Davis, three-star junior college transfer safety Maurice Evans, three-star cornerback Sammie Hunter, three-star cornerback Quimari Shemwell and three-star cornerback LaTrsitan Thompson signing.

Bryant and Davis Andrews also play safety, but will serve two-year missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints out of high school.

“We’ve been light back there for a few years now. It really manifested against Ohio State (in 2023 Rose Bowl). ... We took a step in the right direction with last year’s class and we feel like we are getting up to where we ultimately needed to be with this class. ... We could add even more secondary players before this is all finished,” Whittingham said.

Elsewhere on defense are three-star linebacker Hunter Andrews, three-star linebacker Ashtin Kekahuna-Lopes, defensive lineman Elliss and edge rusher Dillon.

Aside from Wilson and Garcia on offense, Utah added three-star wide receiver David Washington and three-star wide receiver Zacharyus Williams to help with the wide receivers room, which is losing Devaughn Vele (NFL draft) and Mikey Matthews (transfer portal).

Utah’s 247Sports team ranking for this class (high school and junior college players) is No. 61 nationally and No. 13 in the 16-team Big 12, significantly down from last year’s No. 20 national ranking, but two factors play into that.

Factor No. 1 is the class size, as recruiting rankings use class size as a big factor. Utah signed 15 players (Elliss isn’t in the 247Sports database, so he doesn’t count towards the rankings) compared to 22 in the 2023 class and 20 in the 2022 class.

Whittingham said the 2024 roster additions will be about 65% high school and junior college players and 35% through the transfer portal.

Utah is saving room for players in the portal, hence the smaller class size, and Whittingham said Wednesday night that more portal players will be added in the next 2-10 days.

Utah has secured four transfer signings so far — Idaho running back Anthony Woods, Gerogia Tech cornerback Kenan Johnson, BYU defensive end John Henry Daley and UCLA tight end Carsen Ryan.

Factor No. 2 is that Utah signed just two 247Sports composite four-star players compared to eight in the 2023 class.

Sorting by 247Sports composite average recruit rating, which doesn’t factor in class size, Utah’s average 2024 recruit has a rating of 87.54, which ranks fourth in the Big 12, behind Colorado (93.13, six commits), Texas Tech (89.15, 21 commits) and UCF (88.21, 18 commits).

Comparing 2024’s 87.54 average recruit rating to the last five years (2023: 88.76, 2022: 87.46, 2021: 87.75, 2020: 86.52, 2019: 86.47), it’s about in line with Utah’s post-2020 classes, but is a definite drop from last year’s top-20 class.

Here’s a look at Utah’s 2024 commits, sorted by their 247Sports composite rating.

Utah’s 2024 high school and junior college recruiting class (as of Dec. 20)

• Isaiah Garcia, OT, 247Sports composite four-star, 6-foot-5, 290 pounds, Corner Canyon High, Draper, Utah.

• Isaac Wilson, QB, 247Sports composite four-star, 6-foot, 196 pounds, Corner Canyon High, Draper, Utah.

• Hunter Andrews, LB, 247Sports composite three-star, 6-foot-3, 212 pounds, Magnolia High, Magnolia, Texas.

• Zacharyus Williams, WR, 247Sports composite three-star, 6-foot-2, 191 pounds, Junipero Serra High, Gardena, California.

• David Washington, WR, 247Sports composite three-star, 6-foot, 185 pounds, Las Vegas Academy High, Las Vegas, Nevada.

• Davis Andrews, S, 247Sports composite three-star, 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, American Fork High, American Fork, Utah.

• Jeilani Davis, S, 247Sports composite three-star, 6-foot-1, 190 pounds, Mater Dei High, Santa Ana, California.

• Kash Dillon, edge, 247Sports composite three-star, 6-foot-5, 222 pounds, Corner Canyon High, Draper, Utah.

• Ashtin Kekahuna-Lopes, LB, 247Sports composite three-star, 6-foot-3, 210 pounds, St. John Bosco High, Bellflower, California.

• Sammie Hunter, CB, 247Sports composite three-star, 5-foot-11, 178 pounds, Chandler High, Chandler, Arizona.

• Maurice Evans, S, 247Sports composite three-star, 6-foot-1, 192 pounds, Blinn College, Brenham, Texas.

• Quimari Shemwell, CB, 247Sports composite three-star, 5-foot-11, 160 pounds, Long Beach Poly High, Long Beach, California.

• LaTristan Thompson, CB, 247Sports composite three-star, 5-foot-10, 170 pounds, Mount Pleasant High, Mount Pleasant, Texas.

• Luke Bryant, S, 247Sports three-star (no composite ranking), 6-foot-1, 198 pounds, Olympus High, Salt Lake City, Utah.

• Elijah Elliss, DL, no composite ranking, 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, Layton Christian Academy, Layton, Utah.