Hello, everybody! The latest College Football Playoff rankings are out and it's time to play Which Ones Are Not Like the Other Ones?
Scan the rankings. You'll see that there is the usual cast of characters: Ohio State (yawn), Texas A&M , Georgia (yawn), Alabama (a total of eight teams from the SEC), plus Oregon and Notre Dame, and, uh, wait — What's this? BYU and Utah, ranked 11th and 13th, respectively?
How did those guys get in there?
It has gone largely unnoticed and perhaps under-appreciated what those two schools have accomplished this season. This is difficult to explain if you compare the talent of their players to that of other teams in the national rankings, as much as that is objectively possible.
Every year, 247 Sports ranks the nation's recruiting classes. Alabama, Georgia, USC, Ohio State and Texas (etc.) are always at the top of the rankings; you've got to scroll down (and down and down) through the rankings to find BYU and Utah. In 25 years, Utah has ranked in the top 50 only 14 times, and just once in the top 25 (19th in 2023). BYU has appeared in the top 50 only six times, with a high of 33rd in 2010.
Like hotels and restaurants, football recruits are ranked with stars. Five is the elite of the elite, like the Ritz-Carlton. Five-star recruits flock to Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, etc. each spring like birds to Capistrano, but five-star recruits are almost unheard of at BYU and Utah.
BYU has signed two five-star recruits — ever. They were quarterback Ben Olson in 2002 ( he never played a down for BYU , transferring to UCLA following a church mission) and offensive lineman Ofa Mohetau in 2003 (although lineman Matt Reynolds was a Parade All-American in 2005 and probably should have warranted five stars). The Cougars have received a commitment from quarterback Ryder Lyons for the class of 2026 — he was a composite five-star-rated talent entering the season.
If offensive lineman Kelvin Obot honors his commitment to Utah in the class of 2026, he will become the first composite five-star recruit the school has signed.
From 2011 to 2020 alone, Alabama signed 44 five-star recruits, Georgia 34, Ohio State 26, Clemson 20, USC, Florida State and LSU 19 each, according to MaxPreps. Nothing has changed. In the last 10 years, Alabama has signed at least 35 five-star athletes.
During the last 25 years, Utah has signed only four recruits out of high school who ranked in the top 100 of the 247 Sports rankings — offensive lineman Spencer Fano in 2023, linebacker Ethan Calvert in 2021, defensive back Clark Phillips III in 2020, and defensive tackle Leki Fotu in 2016.
For that matter, Utah has signed only 12 recruits from the top 200 of those rankings during those 25 years.
BYU has signed six top-50 recruits in that time — quarterback Tanner Mangum in 2012, quarterback Jake Heaps in 2010, Reynolds in 2005, Mohetau in 2003, Olson and lineman Scott Young in 2002. So: That's two in the last 20 years, and zero in the last 13.
If you go deeper into the rankings, BYU has signed a total of 14 recruits that ranked in the top 200.
Yet BYU and Utah, which have won 19 of 22 games so far this season, are winning and appear regularly in the AP and CFP national rankings. They are making the most of the players they recruit.
Their coaches, without the luxury of fully developed players, are developing talent and recognizing players who will fit into their schemes and fill certain roles. They have demonstrated a knack for finding players with potential who were overlooked by other schools ( see Byrd Ficklin ).
(Side note: Many of BYU's and Utah's recruits are Utahns — of those players who ranked among the top 200 in their recruiting classes, 15 of 26 are from Utah high schools.)
In 25 years, BYU has finished in the top 25 of the national rankings eight times, Utah 10 times. This year they will undoubtedly finish in the top 25 again. BYU is 10-1, Utah 9-2.
Meanwhile, schools such as UCLA finish regularly among the top recruiting classes, but have little to show for it (the Bruins have finished in the national rankings only four times in 25 years despite being based in the recruiting hotbed of California ).
At the moment, the Cougars and Utes are both still in the hunt for qualifying for the 12-team College Football Playoff, BYU much more so than Utah, but still. Not bad for two teams built largely on three-star (and no-star) recruits.
Utah quarterback Devon Dampier (4) gets a pass off just ahead of BYU defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa (57) as they play at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
