Utah Football: Bringing In A Few Key Visitors From The Transfer Portal

SALT LAKE CITY—Utah football has been active in the transfer portal over the last few weeks. The Utes currently have 14 additions from the portal and could be close to landing a couple more. 

Utah has effectively tackled critical areas of need, significantly addressing the quarterback, running back, receiver, and defensive secondary position groups. In the next few days, they will also host several visitors to potentially enhance the class further.

Utah plans to host seven transfer portal visitors to campus between today and early next week. Only three have been publicly reported, and a source close to the situation asked that the other four visitors be kept anonymous until they are similarly reported.

Washington State receiver Carlos Hernandez

Hernandez will visit Utah today, January 3rd. He will then meet with his former head coach, Jake Dickert, at Wake Forest tomorrow, January 4th. He will then travel to Virginia to meet with them on January 6th.

He’s a 6-foot 189-pound wideout who played in 20 games over the last two seasons in Pullman. He totaled 55 receptions for 655 yards and five touchdowns during that span.

As a freshman in 2023, Hernandez played in all 12 games and racked up 24 catches for 258 yards. This season, an injury caused Hernandez to miss the first five games, but he still played in eight contests with six starts. He ended up hauling in 31 receptions for 397 yards and five touchdowns this season.

Utah State running back Rashul Faison

The 5-foot-11, 200-pounder from Utah State is one of the top running backs in the transfer portal. Faison is a wanted man after rushing for 1,109 yards and eight touchdowns on 198 carries this past season. He is a player who benefitted from the Diego Pavia-JUCO ruling a couple of weeks ago.

He just finished a visit to Florida State and still plans to visit Alabama, Utah, and North Carolina. Faison has raved about his experience in Tallahassee but is still expected to take his other visits. Faison will be in Utah on Sunday, and will be accompanied by two others who are visiting as well.

Obviously, the competition is quite stiff, and Utah is already in pretty good shape at running back. However, Faison was thoroughly impressive when Utah faced the Aggies in Logan this season, and the opportunity to add another dynamic option in the backfield is worth pursuing.

Arkansas receiver Dazmin James

James also has a full slate of visits ahead. He is visiting Purdue today and then will travel to Oklahoma State tomorrow. He will be in Utah on Sunday, accompanied by Rashul Faison and one other visitor. After Utah, he will head to Mississippi State on Monday and California on Wednesday.

He’s a 6-foot-2, 195-pound receiver with dynamic speed. In high school, he registered a personal best of 10.46 seconds in the 100-meter dash. During the recruiting process, he also recorded multiple sub-4.4-second 40-yard dash numbers.

James doesn’t have the production of others. He redshirted and did not see action in 2023. This past season, he did not see the field until his breakout performance of three catches for 137 yards and one touchdown last week in Arkansas’ bowl game win over Texas Tech.

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Utah welcomed two of the four unnamed visitors yesterday/today; as mentioned, they will welcome another on Sunday and one more on Monday.

Steve Bartle is the Utah insider for KSL Sports. He hosts The Utah Blockcast (SUBSCRIBE) and appears on KSL Sports Zone to break down the Utes. You can follow him on X for the latest Utah updates and game analysis.

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