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The Utah State Aggies made a big splash on Monday when local Logan, Utah, high school speedy wide receiver verbally committed to stay at home and play for Matt Wells at Utah State. Looking at the recruiting sites Artist is listed as a two-star prospect but he is much more than that.
Artist is a legitimate fast player as he was the 100 meter and 200 meters champion in Utah in his junior year and was clocked at a 10.64 and 21.66, respectively. Even in the hand timed 40-yard dash, Artist was timed at 4.39 and at the Nike SPARK event he ran a 4.58.
During his junior year he compiled 42 passes for 776 yards and nine touchdowns and he has played on various Utah seven on seven all-star teams this summer.
Artist had official offers from Army, Utah State and various FCS schools in the West, but he was getting big time interest from most of the Pac-12 and Big Ten schools, Notre Dame, Boise State and Missouri. This could be a steal for the Aggies and hopefully the coaching staff is able to keep the local product to stay at home.
Despite having a legitimate chance to land some Pac-12 offers, Chad Artist felt at home with Utah State. @ChadA_4 Big get for #UtahState
— Doug Kimmel (@DougKimmelScout) June 30, 2014
Scout.com's Doug Kimmel caught up with Artist in late April and there plenty of teams wanting a piece of the wide receiver:
"Notre Dame, Colorado, Boise State, Wisconsin, Navy, and Weber State have all been up to Logan this spring, and I know Utah and Washington State will be up here soon," Artist claimed. "It sounds like Weber State may be offering me very shortly, all the other schools want to see me at their camps."
Artist drastically improved from his sophomore year to junior year by cutting off .7 seconds in the 100 and 1.5 second off his 200-meter times. Confidence is high for Artist who feels that 2014 he could have a breakout year. If Artist has that career year he hopes to have then expect bigger programs attempt to try to sway him to play in one of the power conferences.
His addition to the Aggies will help in rebuilding a wide receiver corp that lost quite a bit of production from the 2013 season, and Artist would be a welcomed add come the 2015 football team.
Now take a look at some highlights of Artist from his junior year via Hudl: