Diesel Dart is already committed and Gaige Weddle sees why Utah could make sense
· Yahoo Sports
Diesel Dart and Gaige Weddle are both Utah legacies, both love new coach Morgan Scalley and could do something to thrill Utes’ fans: They could play together.
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One chess piece has already been moved as Dart, a three-star safety from Draper (Utah) Corner Canyon who is playing out-of-his-mind so far this season, committed to the Utes in June.
He has some crazy unique connections to Scalley since he played youth football with Scalley’s nephew and Dart’s next-door neighbor is Scalley’s sister.
During a recent interview with the Corner Canyon two-way standout, Dart raved about Scalley taking over the program, his demeanor and how he’d basically do anything for Utah’s new coach.
“Coach Scalley is a players’ guy,” Dart said. “He has relationships with every single person in the locker room and he’s the kind of guy where you go into a meeting with him and the first 10 minutes you’re just talking about life and he’s cracking jokes.
“He’s the kind of coach you’d really want to go out and die for on that field. Him being that way and also with their new safeties coach, coach (Derrick) Odum, he was a GA when my dad was there, so those two have a really good relationship and the safeties he’s put in the league, the most notable one being Eric Weddle.
“I felt like I was in a spot to not only play but excel and become better at everything and put the best chance possible to getting to where I want to be in four or five years and that’s the NFL. I felt Utah was the best place and the best opportunity to do so.”
Dart knows full well what it takes to make it to the NFL since his brother, Jaxson, first went to USC and then thrived at Ole Miss before being a first-round pick of the New York Giants and now the starting quarterback.
Weddle knows the NFL sacrifice, too. His father, Eric, played in the league for more than a decade mainly with the San Diego Chargers and it’s now why Gaige Weddle is starring at Rancho Bernardo, Calif., on both sides of the ball.
Ohio State and Georgia are definitely high for Weddle, the No. 2 player in the 2028 California state rankings and a four-star safety, but this summer he said Utah had moved into the top three – especially after Bode Sparrow committed to Oklahoma, another contender in his recruitment.
Early on, Weddle was amibguous about following his dad with the Utes. Maybe didn’t want the comparisons. Maybe wanted to do his own thing. But now Utah is very much in the picture – Scalley is a big part of that – and the Weddles will be in Salt Lake City this weekend for the induction into the ring of honor.
“Learning more about it and thinking about recruiting and being in it has excluded the part of my dad going there and actually in some cases it would be a benefit if I go to Utah because of my name, my NIL will be bigger because of the platform I have in Utah because of my dad,” Weddle said.
“The pressure, all this and that, I don’t really care that my dad went there. I’m going to write my own legacy at Utah if I decide to go to Utah. A couple years ago, I was unsure but it’s really up to me.”
Dart said that he and Weddle don’t really know each other well. That might be changing soon if the two meet up at Utah games.
The Corner Canyon standout is expected to sign in December and head over to play for the Utes. Weddle is a 2028 prospect so he’ll have more time to decide. But the idea of two big-time legacy names playing together for the Utes is enticing.
Whoever their dads were at Utah – Brandon Dart and Eric Weddle – won’t change the fact that Diesel and Gaige want to make their own names, their own memories, maybe together.
“Utah fans are great,” Weddle said. “They’re not going to hold me to a standard of what my dad did because I’m not him.”