Tyquez Hampton turning attention to Utes while committed to Cougars

The tide seems to turning in Tyquez Hampton’s recruitment, and it seems to favor Utah.

The three-star El Paso receiver’s visit to Salt Lake City was punctuated with an exciting 31-27 win over Southern Cal, but there was plenty more in store for him on the trip that made it memorable.

It was great, we went out watched them take on USC and it was a great game,” he said. “My parents and I went out there thinking it was just going to be like a regular visit, but when we first got out there they treated us like family. We had a lot of fun with the players; we went to a haunted house, we went out to eat.

“After the game we hung out with Coach (Kyle) Whittingham, the position coach I would have, Coach (Guy) Holliday, and that was pretty much it, but it was a great visit overall.”

This season at El Dorado High School, Hampton has hit his stride over the past few weeks, picking up more than half of his receiving yards for the season in his last two games. Through five games, he has 27 catches for 460 yards and six touchdowns.

While he’s been known to take a couple of carries out of the backfield himself, he was a surprised to see Utah’s offensive gameplan begin so focused on the run, but it wasn’t long before the Utes showed their prowess in the passing attack.

“At first it kind of threw me off because they were running it and running it,” he said. “I was like ‘OK, when are they going to start passing it,’ they brought me out here and they’re just running it. Then they kind of caught them off-guard and started hitting the receivers and just started hitting them there … but they have an offense they can run with as well, which is good.”

Hampton’s interest in Utah is understated by the fact that he is currently committed to Washington State, but he has yet to set a date for an official to Wazzu. He said that he is hoping to get it squared away by sometime in November, so he can begin filing financial aid paperwork to wherever he decides on.

Aside from the game, Hampton found himself pleasantly surprised with the emphasis put on academics by the football team and what that meant for the prospects of his education.

“Something that stood out to me away from football is nobody out there is failing,” he said. “They have one of the best APR [academic progress rates] in the country, they said that you really have to try hard to fail there.

“Utah has one of the top medical programs, and I’m looking to major in nursing/health administration,” he added. “With their commitment to not failing, I feel like that would better help me get my degree. I think the deal-breaker would really only be academics.”

Hampton had also kicked around the notion of taking an official to West Virginia as well, but it’s not looking like that will materialize at this point.

For now, he remains committed to Washington State, but it seems communication between the two parties might need to see an uptick sooner than later before a conference opponent lures him away.

“I’m still committed to Washington State,” he said. “But Utah is definitely a school now that I’ll be thinking about.”