Jake Wahlin Commits to Utah

[byufan4ever]

Forward Jake Wahlin Commits to Utah Post Mission

This is incredibly disappointing. We're used to seeing this the other way around. LDS kid, just off his mission, and to Utah? With the transfer portal it is somewhat easy to just go grab another student-athlete, but this was someone that Pope had recruited, so what went wrong?

Also, per the article, this could have an impact on Collin Chandler as him and Jake were close and were planning on rooming together at BYU. A potential downside to getting so many transfer portal players is that they are most likely sold on the promise of playing time so maybe Wahlin saw all of the additions and just didn't think he had a viable path to playing time for several seasons. I dunno.

In other news a few weeks ago Tanner Toolson entered the transfer portal. I was under the impression that he was a preferred walk-on, but VTF says he was a scholarship player. He was a "legacy" player, but was not highly recruited out of HS and simply was not likely to get any meaningful playing time anytime soon.

[jadesroom]

I'm disappointed but not surprised. The rumors of Wahlin transferring have been circulating for months. Pope has not endeared himself to the Timpview crowd: Ereckson, Hansen, and Wahlin have all transferred. One of the criticisms of Dave Rose is that he didn't recruit too far from Utah and Idaho.Tthe valid counter argument at the time is that there were some outstanding LDS recruits: Mika, Jake Toolson, the Haws brothers, etc. Now the criticism of Pope is that he's not recruiting enough Utah kids.

It's too early to tell if the latest departures are much of a loss, but it's safe to say that none are as good as Mika, TJ, or Tyler. The good news is that subsequent classes have great LDS players and two have signed with BYU: Chandler and Davis. In addition, Pope has to recruit better players in order to compete in the Big 12. But problems can easily arise--as we discovered last year--when he shoots for the stars and crash lands on the moon.