CougarNation.com - Coach Peck of Bingham discusses how recruiting has changed in Utah

June 26, 2012

Kacey Robbins
CougarNation.com Publisher

When you think of the best high school football teams in Utah, one of the first to come to mind would be Bingham High School in South Jordan. Coach Dave Peck has been at the helm for the last 12 years and has created a pipeline of recruits for BYU. We asked Coach Peck how that pipeline started.

"Jeff Rhea, he was a senior my first year at Bingham. Then we didn't have any for a few years. I would say Jordan Pendelton was the first one when you want to say "in" the pipeline because after Jordan Pendelton it just kept happening. And part of it was when Brandon Doman went to BYU and became the main recruiter for Bingham. Bingham was running a very clean program with a code of ethics and a drug and alcohol policy, and basically running a program very similar to what BYU runs. And what it came down to was when they have a Bingham kid and anyone else and they think they are about even, we're going to take the Bingham kid, because we know what we are going to get."

Another longstanding pipeline to BYU has been Timpview - nestled against Y Mountain and next door to the campus of BYU. Right now on BYU's roster there are 10 athletes who played for Timpview. So with the hiring of Cary Whittingham, the brother of Utah's Head Coach Kyle Whittingham, how would that affect the Cougars?
"I'm sure it will affect them in a couple cases. You would think with Kyle having his brother there, there could be a little more of a Utah connection. But what it comes down to is it's going to be the kid and his family. And if they're already BYU guys and that's their first choice that is not going to change."
"A lot the kids grow up in the shadows of BYU and they're either BYU fans or they're not. It does not matter who the head coach is. A lot of my kids went to BYU and they could have gone anywhere in the nation but they were just BYU guys and that's where they wanted to be because of the culture and the way the program is ran."
With the amount of talent that Bingham and Timpview are producing the recruiting competition in the state of Utah has changed a bit. We just saw one of Utah's top QB prospects commit to the National Champions, Alabama. Coach Peck has seen an increase in other top Universities as well.
"I would say over the past six or seven years people out of state have become more and more aware of what good athletes we have in Utah. We have coaches from Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, and Wisconsin call on a regular basis and all of the Pac12 schools have been coming to Bingham for the last five or six years."
One place that has been significant for Coach Peck and these athletes to show off their talent is the NLA Elite 7on7 camp.
"For the last five years I've been taking an all star group down to Las Vegas. And we have done really well. Four of the five years we've been in the semi finals or better. 3 of the 5 we've been in the finals."
"This year there was 42 teams for this 7on7 competition and Team Utah went undefeated and beat Keyshawn Johnson's club team in the finals - which every one of his kids is a D1 athlete. We're not a surprise anymore. Cooper Bateman was supposed to be our QB then two weeks before he had to pull out because of the Elite 11. So we ended up taking Jake Lloyd from Timpview. Our TE Dalton Shultz was picked as the Outstanding TE." Shultz a 6'5 215 TE from Bingham holds offers from several schools including BYU and Utah.
Currently on the BYU roster are six athletes who played at Bingham under Coach Peck, and just yesterday we learned of another Bingham commit in Hayden Weichers We look forward to seeing more success from Coach Peck and his team.

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