Weber State football: Wildcats land JC quarterback, but mostly high school skill players

Weber State football coach Jody Sears was ebullient about the 2013 recruiting class, his first as coach.

"I've been so excited for this day," said Sears, who had the interim tag taken off his title following WSU's 2012 season where the Wildcats finished 2-9. "We've been working our tails off the last four weeks."

Of the more than 20 recruits who signed letters of intent, probably the most important was junior college quarterback Alfonso Medina. The Santa Monica College product and Pacific Conference MVP led his team to a pair of conference championships while throwing for 51 touchdowns during his career.

The 6-foot, 190-pound Medina threw for 2,640 yards and 30 touchdowns in 2012. He was one of four quarterbacks — including three freshmen — recruited to Weber State, which needed to replace two-year starter Mike Hoke.

"The kid's a winner," Sears said about Medina, who already has transferred to WSU. "He was one guy ... we had targeted. We saw a lot of quarterbacks, but we kept coming back to Alfonso."

Medina needs targets to throw to, and Sears also was pleased with the speed and athleticism of the receiving corps coming to WSU. He highlighted Gabe Davis and Comeron Livingston, two of six Florida-based players coming to Weber State, as well as Mountain Crest's Eddy Hall and Hawaiian high school product Kai Gonda.

Weber State found a pipeline into Florida thanks to first-year quarterback coach and Gainesville native John Rascati.

"Our biggest thing, we wanted play-making ability at the wide receiver spot," Sears said. "We wanted toughness, character and play-making ability."

As of Wednesday afternoon, the recruiting split was weighted toward the offensive side of the football, mostly skill players. All but two the Wildcats' new recruits are high school products.

martyr@sltrib.com

Twitter:@tribmarty —