“They’re skilled, they’ve got a lot of talent, and there’s a lot of big, long kids,” Kjar said about Utah high school players.

“What (Jay) Hill was able to do here, how special that was — really show how competitive and how good you can be here, and how you can build it with local athletes,” Kjar said at his introductory press conference. “He really built this place to be special with Utah kids and really established that well, and I feel like I can do the same thing.”

And: “I like the group as a whole, and I thought they did a good job of evaluating,” Kjar said about the 18-player early signing class lined up by the previous coaching staff. “I’d like to have seen it been a little more Utah-based, but we’ll work on that.”

Now with incoming transfers, more freshmen signed in the regular signing period, a crop of walk-ons added and spring ball less than one month away, the returns are in: Kjar is living up to his promise.

Robert Casey, Weber State Athletics

By raw numbers, Weber State has 36 new players listed on its spring roster coming from the transfer portal or as walk-ons, 13 inked to the February signing class and 18 from the early period in December 2025.

(After signing 12 in the first week of the regular signing period, WSU announced Thursday the addition of Manti receiver Stone Mortensen to the freshmen class. As a senior, Mortensen racked up 77 catches for 1,537 yards and 17 touchdowns, while adding 44 tackles and seven interceptions as a safety.)

That’s a total of 67 new players. Of those, 41 are from Utah.

Some freshmen will serve missions before enrolling at Weber State and, as is typical after spring camp, not all walk-ons will find the fall roster — so the following math won’t directly translate as WSU needs to hit the 105-man roster limit.

But, with 46 returning players, Weber State currently has 113 football players listed on its spring roster; 59 are from Utah.

The number of players from the Beehive State on WSU’s roster has dwindled over the last five years, from 54 in 2021 down to 32 in 2025.

“It’s one of the deepest states per capita … based off NFL numbers, kids coming out of Utah. There’s a lot of talent here,” Kjar said in early February. “I think coaches are honestly afraid to make that jump. The Utah thing matters, but it’s not like the kids (in other states) are doing something different. … They’re putting their pants on the same way the other kids are, they’re working and developing, and their body types are the same. There are differences by position, for sure, to evaluate.

“I’m not trying to throw shade at anybody, but I think you have to trust your own evaluation process a lot in recruiting. As quickly as I’ve been into it, and I’ve seen it done from the other end for 22 years, coaches are afraid to do that,” he continued. “A lot of times they chase offers where kids have been offered first — this kid’s been offered, so I’m going to offer. We didn’t follow much of that; we trusted our evaluation with some of the Utah kids, especially, and felt like we’re taking really good kids we can develop but also are going to be good program kids.

“I don’t think you can be afraid of that. You’ve got to be able to resist following the norm and doing things the same way people have done it in coaching for a long time. You have to create ways to change what’s been done here over the last three or four years, and improve and get better at it.”

Kjar has boosted numbers closest to home in Northern Utah, signing Dyson Parker (Weber) and adding to the spring roster Tyler Buckway (Morgan), Ian Elmore (Weber), Jagger Hammer (Weber), Spencer Hill (Layton), Jay Macias (Box Elder), and Elias Parkinson (Layton) — while also reaching into fringe Northern Utah with Ridgeline players Cooper Clark, Nate Dahle and Hunter Knighton, and Bountiful players Semisi Felila and Porter Hadley.

Those players join returners Spencer Ferguson (Davis), Kash Gates (Davis), Ty Hunter (Syracuse), Braylon Parker (Weber), Kolton Sparrow (Weber) and Robert Young (Roy).

Elsewhere, many transfers have Utah ties with Zion Andreasen and Tate Kjar from Utah State, Omar Shah from Utah, and Snow College transfers Hadyn Magalei, Seth Rigtrup, Dallin Sweat and Teni Worthen all coming from Utah high schools.

“I love the Utah athlete and it’s something I think we can build off,” Kjar said. “And I think some of that’s really bolstering the roster and creating excitement around the program and in the area. And there’s good kids here. I’ve been out of state and played against a ton of those out-of-state teams … there’s not a gap. I don’t know why they feel like there is. I don’t know why schools are going as much out of state, but I’ll go out and get them. It’s going to work out great for us.

“We have that nice little pocket in there. You can get some kids here. I do feel like that there’s, especially that FCS level kid, borderline FBS kid, is a little under-recruited right now. One of the FCS schools in the state isn’t even touching Utah kids, so that works out great for us.”

The coaching staff reflects that as well. Every full-time coach on Kjar’s staff is either a native Utahn or played in the state.

Kjar himself is from Star Valley, Wyoming, but has been a high school head coach in Utah for 17 seasons prior to his hire at Weber State.

By city, assistants Isaac Asiata (Spanish Fork), Jace Campbell (Pleasant View), James Cowser (Kaysville), Gavin Fowler (Kaysville), Isiah Jackson (Sandy), Zach Larson (Orem) and Ono Tafisi (Salt Lake City) are natives of the state.

Associate head coach Tanner Jacobson (Southlake, Texas) played at BYU while Kam Garrett (Las Vegas), of course, played at Weber State (and BYU). Tana Vea (Inglewood, California) prepped at Juan Diego.

“First and foremost, you want to be with guys you trust and feel like you have confidence in to be able to do their job,” Kjar said. “I’ve got to have guys where we can work together and be on the same page, have good vertical alignment on where we see the program going. A lot of that’s with how we recruit, so there’s a ton of Utah ties.

“Really, I just wanted guys who came highly recommended from people I knew from around the state, like coach (Morgan) Scalley, coach (Kyle Whittingham) with Isaac, and I had a ton of guys with Tanner, just across the board, who talked really highly of him. Same with coach Fowler. (They are) guys I really trusted and felt like they would definitely care about this place and want to see us do well.”

Rounding up the best Utahns possible doesn’t guarantee success, but it could rejuvenate the spirit of the program. At the very least, with WSU having gone 5-11 in Big Sky games over the past two years, it can’t hurt.