Former BYU and Baylor Basketball player Caleb Lohner commits to Utah Football???

Caleb loner is finally committed to Utah but not Utah basketball necessarily Utah football let's discuss on today's lock on Utes you are locked on youut your daily podcast on the Utah Utes part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hello everyone and thank you for making locked on you your first listen every single day we are available on all platforms including YouTube and wherever you may get your podcast if this is your first time listening to our show make sure you like And subscribe love interacting with all of you in the YouTube comments as well as on social media where you can follow our show at locked onut onx today's episode of Locked on Utes is brought to you by Monopoly Go game off we got to talk more about Monopoly go this fast-paced game lets you team up with friends for tournaments to unlock awesome prizes like unique stickers for trading cool playing pieces and hilarious emojis for taunting your friends so download Monopoly go now free on the Google Play or the App Store game on my name is JJ wio former intern inside L Utah athletic department and on today's show I'm excited to be joined by fan nation's all UT Austin eem who recently had his birthday and just graduated from the University of Utah so Austin we greatly appreciate you joining us on a busy weekend and uh we got a crazy topic for you to talk about post uh your time at Utah as uh Caleb loner a former Utah basketball recruit when I was going to Utah my sophomore year I remember passing by just walking Caleb loner when he was on his visit and we were all Utah landed him we were all excited this is back with Larry kroviak then he decommitted and went to BYU and he was obviously at that time not very popular in Salt Lake City stays at Utah for two years and then ends up going over to play for the Baylor Bears he's there for two years and you know it never really hasn't gone as it as he probably hoped fourstar former fourstar guy if you look at what he averaged last year right 2.4 points per game 2.3 rebounds he played a ton for Baylor you look at he played in actually 35 games which is tied for the most he's played in a season but he didn't score much and in general he's never averaged more than seven points at any point during his career so it was announced today that he's finally coming to Utah and we're like oh okay sounds good and then you see football with the potential to play basketball to say I was shocked was understatement you lose track of the eligibility with these guys and I know it's a new coaching staff and everything obviously for football and with with basketball too like that but um yeah I was definitely surprised when I saw the news Austin I'm excited for the simple fact of loner if for football 68 235 not a lot of guys built like that I think there's potential we can talk about that in a moment but I I was definitely stunned when I saw the news how how did you react to it yeah I think stunned is a is a good word to use I mean this is this is one we've heard in the rumor mill for what seems like weeks now that Caleb was thinking about coming to the U and then the news broke today and it's he's coming to the U to play football maybe basketball but he's coming to the U to play football first what okay interesting um but yeah intriguing I I am very intrigued how this is going to work like you said guy that's 68 235 pounds he's huge it's kind of like it almost feels like that last infinity stone in like Utah's tight end room it's like we have everything else what do we need a guy that's giant um but he's athletic I mean he's really athletic like you said maybe didn't score very often on the basketball court but he appeared in all 69 games for Baylor over the last two seasons so he's obviously doing something right if he's playing that many games with the team um but yeah it's going to be interesting to see his transfer to football I couldn't find any about him playing football in high school so I don't think he played football in high school um like a lot of other guys that make the transition from basketball to football so it's going to be really interesting to see how he fits in and that's not to mention that I think Utah has one of the deepest tight end rooms it's had uh this upcoming season I mean we got guys like Brant keithy obviously coming back Landon King made a name for himself last season Carson Ryan transferred from UCLA Doan Bentley was one of the studs from spring camp uh coaches were raving about him all offse and I think that'll continue here in the summer but like you have so many guys in Utah tight end room I didn't even name some other ones but you have so many guys and Caleb's gonna have to come in and he's gonna have to beat those guys he's gonna have to beat at least two or three if he wants to see um time on the field and I don't know if he can do that we'll see how fast he can learn yeah it's just I mean and even I'll throw in Mickey sugga toaga right Utah's blocking tight end from last season a defensive end who's still trying to get settled in um I mean yeah like you mentioned that's where I'm trying to piece this together of and I will say I saw reports he only had one year of Eligibility left I saw he played in the 20120 and 2021 season as I thought I understood that was that season you have an extra eligibility from like so that's where that's where everything posted says he has one more left even though he played you know those those it shows he played four years so I I just I don't understand how I I don't see how he plays this fall like that's what I will just come out way you already highlighted all the guys who were there even if one of them gets hurt Caleb loner is a heck of an athlete how is he gonna become a better route Runner than Landon King right away how's he become a better blocker and pass catcher than Carson Ryan even Micki suaga who made the transition from DN to tight end still played football like the knows the physicality all the things that were there and he was tasked being a blocker and it it wasn't the seamless transition for him last year and it would not be a seamless transition for loner and just because you have I guess a year eligibility also means a year of football and basketball but there's too many things that go on in each sport I don't remember there have been guys who played both and been somewhat successful but that was a long time ago Jimmy Graham and Antonio Gates like I just I don't see how he can be there every single day with the football team and then also be there with the basketball team learning the plays and going through everything with them like they literally have conflicts all during November so how could you do both I'm so confused I think the talent is there I'll say this based on what I've also seen if he is serious about playing football he should red shirt and that way Brant keithy will be gone maybe some of the other guys will be gone and then maybe next year he can crack a little bit there are only a few guys in the NFL I will say that are have his like six8 height so that part of it is what intrigues me but I just have a hard time seeing this be something that materializes because of how deep the tight end room is at Utah maybe that's why they're willing to take a chance on him and some other places weren't with the scholarship but I I just think find it very difficult that a guy who like you said even went to wasach high school played basketball I didn't see anything about him playing football either is just gonna put up pick up football and play at the the D1 level right away I I don't see it I think he's gonna have to redt if he wants to play football but does that mean he wants to play basketball and then would wouldn't that ruin the year of Eligibility have left does he maybe have two left somehow because he played during the co year I just so much up in the air Austin yeah yeah a lot of questions uh so many questions I think we could sit here and talk the entire podcast about yeah g loner and all the questions is he gonna do football is he gonna do football this season is he gonna do it next season but this is where I get to be Devil's ad Advocate it would be really cool and we've seen it happen before right you mentioned Antonio Gates Jimmy Graham Jimmy Graham played 120 games with Miami uh at basketball before he made the switch to tight end I think more recently there's Mo Ali Cox he's a tight end for the Indianapolis Colts he played 142 games for VCU competed in four NCAA tournaments and then made the transition to the NFL as an undrafted free agent Tony G I know we're going way back Tony G played basketball for Cal in the late 90s averaged five or six points per game so we've seen guys do it like the transition from basketball to tight end isn't it's not like it's never been done before there's a lot of really good tight ends that have done it but like you said most of those guys were a long time ago um I think something besides just the transition from basketball to football that's interesting is like you said earlier his size like 67 uh 68 235 pounds can't think of a lot of players especially the ones that play tight end that fit that more 30 in the NFL I don't know about college football but from what I looked up there's like less than 30 in the NFL who have who are 68 yeah and one of the guys I think of is Donald Parham Jr he plays for the Los Angeles Chargers 68 I know you're a Chargers fan so you got to shout out your guy too I I am I am Shameless plug for the Chargers um but he's a guy he comes in undrafted free agent comes in every once in a while and the thing the thing about him is you can just Chuck the ball up top yeah and he he'll make a catch but then again even then he doesn't produce much only a couple touchdowns also when you're that big you have the the question of injuries football is a lot more of a contact sport than basketball so we'll see if Caleb's body can hold up but yeah just to go back to the word it's intriguing it's so intriguing so I'm definitely interested I can't wait to see how it plays out if it ends up working out it's going to be awesome and I think if there's any coaching staff that can make it work out it's this Utah coaching staff I mean we see them switch positions all the time so maybe they can switch make a player switch Sports and then maybe they can make that a Seth transition I guess we'll see yeah that's that's what they're hoping to do so I'm I'm very excited to see if it's going to work out it's definitely one of those things that raises your eyebrows like huh we're we're doing this like okay we'll we'll see if it works but generate a lot of excitement um it took till 2024 for loner to come to Utah when it was supposed to be back in 2020 so it's been a long time in the making but uh I'm excited to see how it all works out and it is going to be uh gonna be fun to follow on lockdown yet we'll probably talk about it a lot more over the course of the off season too and we have a lot more to talk about on today's episode too we got to talk about some of the 2025 players that are visiting Utah and Utah landed a 2024 commit it's a walk-on wanted to give him some sh to because this Utah team's had some pretty good Walk-Ons in the past so we're going to be diving into that in one moment but first want to talk to you all about one of the sponsors of today's episode of Locked on UT our friends at LinkedIn jobs when you're hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role that's why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs LinkedIn jobs has the tools to help you find the right Professionals for your team faster and for free LinkedIn isn't just another job board they have a vast Network that helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else even those who aren't actively searching for new job but might be open to the perfect role in a given month over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites so if you're not looking on LinkedIn you're looking in the wrong place on LinkedIn 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours High professionals like a professionals on LinkedIn don't forget 2.5 million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring that's because they are constantly finding new ways to make the process e easier they even launched a feature that helps you write job descriptions making the process that much quicker post your job for free at linkedin.com lockon colge that's all caps no spaces locked on College and once again that's linkedin.com lockon colge to post your jobs are free terms and conditions do apply all right Austin let's talk some Utah recruiting there are some really good players in the class of 2025 they're going to be visiting Utah but want to give one of the recent commits to Utah his shine that is Isaiah brown a 2024 ridgepoint High School grad who's going to be coming up to Utah coming from Sugarland Texas and he is going to be joining this Utah talk tee and this is a guy in brown who is going to be a walk- on as I mentioned and look he he's not the biggest I I think he's was listed at like 59 and I think that's the thing that's really holding him back from getting offers but when I turn on the tape I see a guy who's fast and I will say fast for I think he needs to grow his speed to still play at the next level at a high level but I that can be grown with time too the reaction the reaction and the IQ are what really stood out to me the rec play recognition like boom I see where I got to go I'm sprinting I'm getting there in time and I'm the play love that um just plays hard every time does a good job wrapping up he's really tough he has nice hands as well I thought he battled well in coverage despite only being 59 a few times too and he also changed his Direction pretty well already mentioned doing a good job wrapping up too that was just something that that popped in my opinion as well so this is a guy in brown who look it's gonna be an uphill battle for him to earn major snaps because he's not the tallest and the truth is the measurements matter we just talked about why we're excited about Caleb loner because of his measurements and not because he's played any football he's literally the opposite of Isaiah brown but one is 68 and that's the and 235 and brown as I mentioned is like kind of that five is 59 right in that range and that's just you don't see a lot of successful Corners at that height but Utah football was ba built on these kind of guys smart players that come in Buy in and work hard and that's why I'm interested and excited to see what brown can do I think this is a really nice walk-on pickup I agree JT and I think we watched the same tape because I had very similar notes I really liked Browns football instincts I liked his IQ his tackling impressed me I also made a note about he looked really good making open field tackles wrapping up he he went low went for the legs was good at wrapping up all the receivers and I think some quarterbacks that he tackled I think he plays bigger than his size um he was making some hits that looks pretty good for a guy that's five listed at 5'9 160 pounds um played good in press obviously what we watched highlights so we saw all the good stuff but um I think thing he had a high ankle sprain in 2024 and that really limited his snaps I assume that also uh led to him not getting many offers and having to walk on at the University of Utah but it is it's a really it's a really interesting pickup I think has a ton of upside obviously um we both watch the tape and he he has a lot of things that he really does well ran a 45240 I think so decently fast obviously he's going to grow into his speed as he comes to college gets weight training in continues growing and and working um but yeah Isa Isaiah Brown's really interesting to me in terms of size I'm not saying skill in terms of size he kind of reminds me of Clark Phillips yeah um which is Clark Phillips he's a smart football player maybe a little bit undersized but he's in the NFL now he obviously succeeded did something right at the University of Utah so we'll see I think Brown could potentially potentially um have something similar happen yeah I'm excited to see him I think it's something that's going to take some time it'd probably be a few years before we hear his name called if he doesn't hit the portal before then because a lot of guys do tend to do that but uh definitely rooting for him based on what I saw on tape so excited to see what brown will have the opportunity to do with Utah this summer once he gets up there in August but before we get to August we have some big time players that are visiting the University of Utah the first of those is going to be Westlake defensive end Nui teao Mo poo and I am apologizing if I mispronounced that name but NC is a guy who I looked at coming out of Westlake High School 62 220 pounds this is a guy who's a three star defensive end and he's coming up to the University of Utah to make his official visit on June 14th also visiting Stanford on the 7th and Cal on the 21st but this is a guy who ranks as the 862 player in the country the 66th Edge he's the 10th overall player in the state of Utah and you look at his stats of what he did last year at Westlake 48 total tackles 12 tackles for l and also three added sacks and that's the first thing that jump stands out to me is those tackles for loss this is a guy who is extremely fast off the edge I know we just talked about speed with brown but Nui has the linebacker quickness like he sees ball it's like boom he breaks on it like there is a different level this the the level of linebacker speed like this is three star speed you see why this is a a hot commodity a top 10 player in the state of Utah currently right like he's extremely athletic the change of Direction abilities are there the open field tackling what he could offer as a Blitzer I think is really impressive too um does a good job standing up blockers to can really get around blocks from what I saw I didn't see much of a pass rushing repertoire so he actually might be a guy that I look at like okay you're 62220 right now I want you to play inside linebacker because you are such a good tackle in space because you do such a good job reading defense because when you see gaps you shoot right through it and you're strong enough to make big hits jar the ball loose and break things up I didn't see a pass rusher he L as a dend outside linebacker I see an inside line back or more at the University of Utah but I think this is a guy who if he was to get to Utah I would love to see Colton Swan get his hands on him and when you have that kind of a speed at the linebacker position you can do dangerous things at the next level yeah I like that you mentioned um if Nui did come to the University of Utah making that switch to linebacker because I think he he could develop as an edge but he has all the qualities of a linebacker like you mentioned that speed 62 225 he's a guy that could really fit in as a linebacker at the Collegian level obviously top 10 player in the state for a reason uh because he's athletic and he's produced on the field but I would love to see him um commit to Utah maybe think about becoming a linebacker but even if he does commit to Utah uh wants to stay on the line I can't wait to see Luther Ellis just get his hands on him continue to work on him um Utah is one of the best in the country I think at developing defensive Talent especially defensive line Talent uh so it would be really exciting to see uh newc come to the you yeah if he was if he was going to be an edge we got to get him on a weight plan too he's got to add some more muscle 220 is a DN to Utah I just don't think that that would be tough right now but that's what's nice about him being a 2025 guy still has the entire fall season to get through and even probably a red shirt like it's rare to see freshman DN contribute right away too Spencer Foo kind of spoiled us with how well he played overall even with some woses as a freshman that's not normal and speaking of offensive line M let move now to Aaron Dunn the Spanish four tackle 68 285 this goes back to what talked about with loner where it's just a size thing I mean when you turn on the tape this is what a college football player looks like and he's still in high school so he's absolutely steamrolling dudes out here this is a guy I used to do Utah football run a recruiting site um and this was a guy and remember having ranked High even back then because he's just big and strong he's athletic too he can get out space and steamroll people really good polar too and you know he just needs to continue to refine his technique to me obviously plays a little high because he's is 68 like that but I think that's something that you continue to work on to you get to the next level and the strength is there but I mean all he has all the tools in the world to be an unreal tackle Prospect and and not in the NFL draft honestly I'll even go that far and say like that's the kind of future I could potentially see for a guy like an Aaron dun right and you're looking at when he's gonna visit Blair unalo reported that he's going to take his Utah visit on June 14th so a lot of these Utah guys G be up here then these are the instap type of players both Dunn and Nui that I think are Paramount for Utah to continue to land as they hope to stay at the Forefront of college football and I really like what Dunn is done I think he's another guy who like we mentioned Spencer Foo would have a chance to start right away once he got up to Utah after if he was an early and rolly and got a little bit of more coaching yeah dun's going into a senior year of high school and he already has Collegiate if not NFL size like he could play at those levels he's 68 290 I just saw Joe Al get drafted by the Chargers at number five that's a gigantic human and done matches him in terms of size um I think it's going to be an uphill battle for Utah to land him obviously he's an instate guy and that definitely helps our chances but he took a visit to USC in Oregon in April I think BYU and UCLA are are also trying to VI for him um but it would be amazing to see him come to Utah and join just the young core that Utah has um in terms of tackles I think this season Caleb lomu and Spencer Foo are going to start on the edges and I mean those guys are young F's going um into a second year L's just coming in uh so it might take a little bit obviously Dunn would have plenty of time to develop behind those guys um but yeah 68 290 who wouldn't want Aaron Dunn protecting their quarterback um and he would be a great addition to Utah's 2025 class I think hurt uh missing out on Jerome miles really hurt that number two player in the state that one really hurt Utah uh but getting done would would definitely help ease the pain with that loss absolutely agree and miles is still going to take his visit to Utah so never say never there although I would be surprised if he did DEC I mean Wilson the Wilson factor is what I still give a chance he had the opportunity to play again with Isaac Wilson after their repertoire in college thinks Utah says a shot there but you're right I wouldn't I don't feel outstanding about it it's gonna be interesting to see how Utah ends up making it out in the class of 2025 and we had a lot of time to talk about the exciting recruits that'll be coming up to Utah this fall because there are plenty of them that are still set to make their visits and could potentially be additions to this team in the fall of 25 not this fall as I stated but getting excited for football season it's closing in one thing that wasn't exciting is seeing Davon Smith officially commit to St John's he was in the portal probably wasn't coming back but you think like ah just maybe and then you see him commit and you know it's final so we're going to talk about him departing the University of Utah basketball program in one moment but first want to talk to you all about one of the sponsors of today's episode of lockdown Utes our friends at Monopoly go all right game off we got to pause here talk more about Monopoly go I know what you're saying flag on the play you already talked about that but there's just so much good stuff in this game in Monopoly go you can team up with friends for time tournaments where you're working together to build up each other's boards the more you win together the more awesome prizes you unlock and there's so much more to get whether it's Unique stickers you can trade with friends to complete albums for prizes there's also cool new playing pieces to travel the boards with hilarious emojis for taunting friends when you smash their buildings or Heist their vaults plus Monopoly go feels new and exciting every day with constantly changing tournaments and challenges a ton including their own unique mini games like digging for Treasure or robot machine and there's always new timed events to help you win big like a massive multiplayer for everything you win or rent frenzies there's always something fun to discover in Monopoly go so get off the bench and go download it now free on the Google Play or the App Store game on with Monopoly go all right Austin daon Smith is now a member of St John's he went in joined Rick patino Squad last year Smith with the team averaged 13 a games six rebounds seven assists 46% overall from the field and was a triple double machine set the Pack 12 single season triple double record in his final season obviously made him a hot commodity in the transfer portal so not surprising to see the six-foot athletic guard find a new home in the Big East you know he was at Georgia Tech came out to Utah now goes back over towards the east coast more it's a tough loss for Utah Utah basketball obviously not in the greatest place right now on on Friday's show I uh to spoke about the whole thing going on obviously where uh you're losing Chris Burgess to BYU and we already mentioned you're like just the recruiting some of their strikeouts they had there it's been a rough go for the men's basketball program and sucks to see deavon go and no officially like yeah even if there was a sliver of a chance to come back he's not coming back and Utah's definitely worst without him than they would have been yeah man it hurts it feels like just yesterday we were talking about Devon's eligibility and being super excited that he was granted eligibility this year and able to play for Utah and then he bursts onto the scene five triple doubles like one of the best guards Utah's had in a really long time and now he's gone and it hurts and you can't really blame him joining Rick patino that's that's a hard um program to go up against uh I think he was also looking at Kentucky so there's some Heavy Hitters wanting wanting Devon to come and in the end St John's got him but yeah it just adds it's like the it's a knife through the heart and what's been a rough couple of weeks for the Utah basketball program obviously with de Marlo and Chris Burgess both leaving and then CBA hitting the transfer portal roelly Forster going leaving um now Devon it hurts it hurts when you last season was obviously going really good until it wasn't and then it seems like it's just gone downhill um for the last month or two uh but I think you talk about a a transfer from Wake Forest today so did yep there's always hope right yeah and he's got some potential didn't do a ton at wake four he's had actually his best game against Utah so hopefully he's a Craig Smith and his staff are able to Parlay that and more success come this fall uh GNA be something that's interesting to watch and see it all play out you mentioned Austin hasn't been the greatest stretch for Utah basketball with some of the things they've lost out on but it has been a good stretch for you as you recently graduated from the University of Utah for anyone who is listening this podcast the only reason they're 24 minutes into it now is they love the University of Utah so Austin what will you look back on most fondly during your time at the U oh man oh man uh there's so many things um I'm from California coming to Utah was a gamble I knew nothing about this state I had only been to Southern Utah but man I love Salt Lake now I love Utah I love Utah Sports um some of the best moments I've ever had were at Utah football games just watching cam Rising TR through the end zone to beat USC rushing the field going to the um Rose Bull against Ohio State even though we lost that was I think the best sporting event I've ever been to in my entire life and man getting to right about Utah sports with Fan Nation getting to be on this podcast talking about it uh I mean these are dreams of mine I I love talking about sports so getting to do it with you getting to do it um with Sports Illustrated on fan nation has just been a dream come true well you do a great job there so make sure you guys head over as you always do when you come on this show too Austin so make sure you guys head over to Fan Nation all if you want to check out Austin stuff his ex handle is at Austin E55 and Austin thank you again for joining us thank you JT this is awesome man always great talking to you that's going to do it for today's edition of lockon ye we'll be back with you tomorrow talking more things in the world of Utah football and Utah Athletics we look forward to seeing you then