Gaige Weddle set for Utah visit as Eric Weddle enters Ring of Honor

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Gaige Weddle has been around Utah Utes football his whole life.

This Saturday, he’ll be back at Rice-Eccles Stadium in a much different spot, as one of the Utes’ top recruiting targets.

The elite 2028 safety and arguably Utah’s biggest target in the class will be in Salt Lake City as the No. 21 Utes host Arkansas, where he'll watch his dad become a permanent part of Utah football history.

Eric Weddle will become the fourth member of the Utah Football Ring of Honor, joining Alex Smith, Ron McBride and Roy Jefferson. His name will be permanently displayed on the press box at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

For Gaige, that makes an already important recruiting visit unique. There is obviously a legacy piece to this recruitment, there is no getting around that. But Utah is not recruiting Gaige because he is Eric Weddle’s son.

He has turned himself into one of the best players in the 2028 class and has become a national recruit being targeted by just about every program you can list.

At Rancho Bernardo, Weddle does a little bit of everything. As a sophomore, he threw for 2,224 yards and 19 touchdowns at quarterback, ran for another 679 yards and 10 touchdowns, and then finished with 101 tackles on defense.

Ohio State, Georgia, Oklahoma, Miami, USC, and plenty of other major programs are involved, but Utah has stayed right in the middle of it. Last month it was reported that Utah, Ohio State and Georgia had emerged as the three frontrunners in his recruitment.

Utah has something working in its favor that none of those schools can really replicate, but it goes beyond Eric playing here.

Gaige has built his own relationships with the program.

“The biggest thing for me is the relationships at Utah,” Weddle recently told KSL Sports, adding that Salt Lake City “almost feels like home.”

That is probably the most important part of this recruitment for Utah.

Gaige has made it clear that his dad’s history with the program won't make the decision for him. He wants to find the place where he can develop, build his own relationships, and create his own legacy. And Utah has done a really good job putting itself in that conversation. Morgan Scalley is a huge part of that.

Scalley and Eric Weddle were teammates in Utah’s secondary during the 2003 and 2004 seasons, and both started on the back end of the 2004 team that went 12-0, won the Fiesta Bowl, and finished No. 4 in the country.

Now, more than 20 years later, Scalley is the head coach at Utah and is trying to recruit Weddle’s son to come play safety for the Utes.

You really cannot draw that one up any better.

Eric went on to become one of the best defensive players in Utah history. He was a two-time Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year, finished his Utah career with 18 interceptions, spent 14 seasons in the NFL, made six Pro Bowls, and eventually won a Super Bowl with the Rams. He will enter the College Football Hall of Fame later this year and could eventually have a real shot at joining the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, too.

Saturday will celebrate all of that. But for Utah, it is also another major opportunity with Gaige.

This will not be some quiet offseason unofficial visit. Rice-Eccles will be under the lights for an 8:15 p.m. local time kickoff on ESPN, Arkansas is coming to town, it is a Red Out, and Gaige will get another look at the program while his family is being honored in front of the stadium.

Utah still has a long way to go here. Ohio State and Georgia are not going anywhere, and plenty of other programs will continue pushing for one of the best defensive backs in the country.

But the Utes have put themselves in a real spot. The relationships are there. Gaige is comfortable around the program. Scalley has a connection with the Weddle family that goes back more than two decades. And now Utah gets him back on campus for a night that will mean a lot to his family.

There are not many recruitments where one of your top targets can come to a game and watch his dad’s name go up on the stadium. That is what makes Saturday different.

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