Utah lands talented NW lineman

An offensive lineman we really liked a lot at the Nike camp in Oregon this past summer was Shelton's (Wash.) Caleb Schlauderaff. The athlete took his first official visit to Utah a few weeks ago and decided there was no need to look elsewhere.

"I committed about a week ago," Schlauderaff said. "I knew that was the place for me but I wanted to wait and talk things over with my parents before doing anything. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Utah was the best place for me so there was no need to take other visits or look at other schools.

"I got along really well the players and also have a strong relationship with the coaches. The team really impressed me when I saw them in action. They played Wyoming that weekend and beat them pretty good. They have a nice program and I like their style of play. I had a chance to go out and see the city as well and felt very comfortable there. Basically, there wasn't one single negative to the visit so I decided to go ahead and jump on the offer."

Idaho and Easter Washington had also offered Schlauderaff and after seeing him in Oregon, we've been surprised he didn't have close to double digit offers. The big lineman measured out at 6-5, 270 pounds, clocked a 5.11 in the 40, 4.78 in the shuttle, jumped 29 inches in the vertical and did 29 reps on the bench. His 71.22 SPARQ Rating was one of the best in the entire camp and tops among all linemen.

"I'm excited about Utah but I really don't know where they see me fitting in as far as what position or how early I'll play," Schlauderaff said. "I just want to come in and compete and if I'm good enough to play early, that great. If not, I think it would be good to red-shirt and put some more weight on. I'm just going to work really hard and see how everything plays out."