You can thank Britain Coveys wedding reception for Utah signing QB Cooper Justice

Publish date: 2024-04-28

SALT LAKE CITY — Drew Lisk was the host for the weekend, and he asked a prospective future Utah quarterback what he wanted to do on a Saturday night in Salt Lake City. The 6-foot-6, 230-something-pound lefty prospect wisely conceded to the local. Lisk, a senior quarterback-to-be with the Utes, said there happened to be a wedding reception downtown at the Utah State Capitol Building. The quarterbacks weren’t going to crash it; no, they were invited. Pretty much everyone who knows Britain Covey, Utah’s gregarious all-conference slot receiver, was invited.

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So on the evening of Saturday, Jan. 25, Lisk and Lakeridge High (Tigard, Ore.) quarterback Cooper Justice drove to the Capitol Building. Once they walked through the massive double doors, they heard music blasting; the dance floor was full, as was the crowd. Full with Utah players, BYU players, Utah coaches, everyone acquainted with Covey, one of the most popular football players the state has seen. Justice was on his official Utah visit, already leaning toward donning Utah crimson red.

There, in that building just over a century old, Justice looked around and felt the finish line drawing near.

“Drew took me around and he introduced me to every player,” Justice recalled. “I shook so many hands. It was pretty crazy. I can’t remember a lot of the people, because it was the entire team.”

Four days later, Justice announced his commitment to Utah, even though he’d silently committed on the day after Covey’s wedding, securing the program’s first high school quarterback signee since Jack Tuttle in 2018. On Wednesday morning, Justice made it official, rounding out Utah’s 2020 class. In the last two years, Utah has signed transfer quarterbacks Cam Rising (formerly of Texas, in 2019) and Jake Bentley (formerly of South Carolina, in 2020). That’s an ample top-end of the quarterback rotation, but what offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig needed was a signal-caller to mold for the future, a young quarterback to sign and spend time in the system for a couple of seasons, to be groomed for the future, not the present.

Bentley’s one and only go at Utah will come in 2020 after he signed in December as a graduate transfer following four seasons at South Carolina. Rising, who had to sit out most of 2019 due to NCAA transfer rules, will be a redshirt sophomore in 2020 and has three years of eligibility remaining. Lisk, a former walk-on who, for a few games, earned the No. 2 quarterback role in 2019, is near the end of his playing days.

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Kyle Whittingham said in late December after the early signing period that no staff can be caught with its pants down at the quarterback position. So Ludwig’s quarterbacks room is finally taking shape in the post-Tyler Huntley era. Bentley, Rising, Lisk are there to compete and help usher along Justice, whose own recruiting story is unlike most quarterbacks who signed their national letter of intent for a Division I scholarship on National Signing Day.

“The quarterback position is unique,” Whittingham said Wednesday. “It has become more unique in the last three years with the advent of the portal. A lot of teams just pick up their quarterback for that year out of the portal and it’s a one-and-done situation. Yes, we wanted to recruit a quarterback to try and balance it out.

“We feel we’re in a good spot,  (and) then next year we’ll have to retool the room again. That quarterbacks room turns over quite a bit now.”

For years, all Justice was trying to do was be part of a conversation. Any conversation. He was his own self-marketer. He had to be. He’d always dreamed of playing college football, but he didn’t have any varsity film to send anyone until his senior year at Lakeridge. The big lefty initially won the varsity quarterback job before his sophomore season, but a broken thumb on his throwing hand set him back. He missed most of his sophomore year and once his junior season rolled around, the staff went with the same QB who was No. 2 before Justice’s thumb broke. For two years in a row, Justice was on the sidelines with the headset on. He had a total of 23 varsity passing attempts. Only 11 completions. All he could do was wait.

“It was really tough because you’re trying to talk to coaches and find out what they want to see a little more of,” he said. “So, basically, I just got to my senior year and decided, ‘Well, I can sit back and just relax, or I can really push and try and make some dreams come true.’”

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Not a week went by, though, where Justice sat idle. He updated whatever clips he could wrangle together for Hudl highlight reels. He tweeted them out. He contacted coaches across the country, across various divisions. His aim wasn’t Division I or bust. It was any school that he prayed would return the direct message or text message or email. Justice created an extensive profile for himself on the website QB Hit List, which allows high school quarterbacks across the country to explain background about themselves, including on-field measurables and off-the-field interests.

“Honestly, just talk to whoever you can, because everything helps,” he said. “Anyone who was willing to talk? I was talking to them. It was a grind.”

Justice began to hit various football camps the summer before his senior season. From there, the interest began to pique, but still, nothing really materialized. The weekly side job of sending Twitter direct messages and emails and texts and calls to as many coaches as possible continued. Last summer, Washington State came calling. The Cougars liked Justice’s arm strength and size but were only offering him a preferred walk-on spot. It was a timely pick-me-up when all of his efforts were seemingly falling short.

“Once I had that, I realized (that) if you keep pushing, you can make something happen,” he said. “Then it kind of came back onto me and it was a matter of how much do I really want it? You’ve just got to keep trying.”

Offers began to hit the inbox. His first? Colorado School of Mines. Then came Georgetown, San Diego, Morehead State and Division III football powerhouse Linfield, about an hour away from his home in suburban Portland.

So how did a quarterback who had just one season of varsity experience end up on Utah’s radar? Justice had been in contact with Utah’s recruiting coordinator, Freddie Whittingham, off and on throughout his senior year at Lakeridge. Once the Pacers were in the Oregon state playoffs, Ludwig finally officially reached out to Justice. His senior year at Lakeridge featured his deep downfield throwing ability (1,870 passing yards, 17 touchdowns, six interceptions) coupled with his ability to pick up chunks of yardage with his massive frame (398 rushing yards, eight rushing touchdowns).

“Talking to Coach Ludwig … the things I were able to do this year also (includes) just being raw. It’s not really refined, so he’s excited to work with me and refine my skills and hone in on things,” Justice said. “There are small things I can fix, but he has a big vision for me. It’ll be on me, too, to keep up the hard work and push myself. He’s going to develop me into a pretty good quarterback.”

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“Just the upside,” Whittingham said Wednesday about the intrigue the program had when studying Justice. “He’s raw. That’s probably the best way to describe him.”

Once Utah came into the picture and officially offered in mid-December, Justice started doing his own homework on Ludwig’s systems. He watched film of Ludwig’s power-run teams at Wisconsin and spread-offense looks at Vanderbilt, and yes, even Ludwig’s first go-round at Utah when his spread look was part of a 13-0 season in 2008.

“It’s so flexible,” Justice said of how he fits into Ludwig’s scheme. “He’s had such a wide spectrum of plays he’s run, he’s going to find where his athletes are and he’s going to mold his offense around that. It’s cool to be able to be a part of that. However I play he’s going to mold the offense to that and you’ve got to just execute.”

“Big, athletic, raw, this is a quarterback who we are excited to see develop in our program, knowing that his skill-set and intelligence will make him a factor for the Utes in the years to come,” Ludwig said after the Utes announced Justice’s signing on Wednesday.

“This is a quarterback who we’re excited to see develop in our program.”@Coach_Ludwig on @Cooper1 pic.twitter.com/TqoooAqWGX

— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) February 5, 2020

Utah’s known for pursuing multi-sport athletes because the staff believes it makes future players more well-rounded athletes at the next level. The 6-foot-6 lefty is Lakeridge High’s ace starter on a baseball team that has a shot at a state crown in 2020. Justice touched about 86 miles per hour over the summer before prepping for football season and hopes to get near 90 this spring. Justice also held Division I baseball offers from San Francisco and Cal-State Bakersfield.

“He looks like Justin Herbert as far as his stature,” Whittingham said. “You can’t compare him to Justin Herbert for what he’s doing at quarterback yet, but as far as how he looks, he looks just like that.

Justice expects to arrive in Salt Lake City in mid-June after baseball season ends and he graduates from Lakeridge. Whittingham said Wednesday Justice is good enough to potentially get drafted in the 2020 MLB Draft, but said football is where he’s focused now.

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With two senior quarterbacks on the roster in 2020, Justice will be Ludwig’s needed long-play. Once Bentley and Lisk graduate, Utah will have only Rising and Justice as scholarship quarterbacks moving on starting in 2021. The finish line for so many future student-athletes signals the end of what was once way too many interview requests, too many messages from various fan bases, too much stress.

For Justice, there wasn’t just stress. There was no finish line in sight for a long time, no proverbial end zone to job into. He had to go out and make it happen for himself.

“There were a lot of schools and coaches I reached out to,” he said. “Some of them didn’t even respond, some of them already had a guy, or they didn’t see my fitting in there. There was a lot. I honestly could not give you an exact number, but there were a ton of schools. It was everyone I could.”

Utah, in need of a quarterback of the future, believes it found one in Justice, whose first introduction to the team was at a star wide receiver’s wedding reception. Pretty fitting, right?

“It made everything just so worth it,” Justice said. “It was definitely a long process and there were a lot of times where I was just feeling kind of down about everything, but it’s like, in the end, I’ve had this dream of playing college football since I can remember. And when it finally happens, it’s like, I’m going to be going to a Pac-12 school to play football. It’s an amazing feeling. You’re so thankful for all the time and effort, it’s so satisfying. I wasn’t wasting my time and my parents weren’t wasting their time.”

2020 Signing Day notes

(Photo of Cooper Justice: Courtesy of Cooper Justice)

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