Utah Power 10: The 2026 Preseason Board

Week 1: six of the ten play by Friday night

Thursday, Aug. 13: Skyridge at Mountain Ridge, 7 p.m. MT, KJZZ. Friday, Aug. 14: Corner Canyon at Davis, Lone Peak at Crimson Cliffs, Timpview at Layton, American Fork at Pleasant Grove, Ridgeline at Morgan, Arbor View (Nev.) at West, 7 p.m.

This is a Power 10, and that is deliberate

A composite needs at least three credible, current, statewide polls to average. Utah does not have them.

The Rivals composite was last updated July 17. High School Football America's Utah Top 10 ran July 28. The Deseret News coaches poll from July 20 is organized by classification, which makes it the best reporting in the state and useless for building one statewide list. And KSL has not published a 2026 preseason Top 20+1; its most recent preseason edition is dated Aug. 11, 2025, a year old to the day, and it still lists players who are now on college rosters.

So this is opinion, built on film, returning production, schedule and roster movement. It is not an average of other people's work and we are not dressing it up as one.

1. Corner Canyon (6A)

Twelve wins, 46.2 points a game and 17.3 allowed, first in 6A in both, first in RPI, and a 35-20 win over Lone Peak for a third straight title and a sixth since 2018.

Then everything left. Eric Kjar went to Weber State having lost 10 games in nine seasons. And all six of Corner Canyon's first-team all-state selections were seniors: Helaman Casuga at quarterback, Weston Briggs at tailback after 1,119 yards at 7.6 a carry and four touchdowns in the title game alone, Kai Meza at receiver with 64 catches for 1,074, Jayden Pearce at end with 10 sacks and 11 tackles for loss, and two SPIN All-Americans in tackle Esun Tafa, now at USC, and corner Joaquin Rodriguez, whose 14 games produced five interceptions and 14 breakups and who spent the postseason erasing whoever the other team liked best.

Casey Sutera takes over, and he is not an outsider inheriting a dynasty. He ran Kjar's defense here from 2017 to 2021, a stretch that produced three of the six rings, then went 35-14 in four years at Brighton with back-to-back 5A semifinal trips. Kjar recommended him for the job. "We expect to keep the same tradition," Sutera said. His younger brother Frankie runs the defense.

Here is the part the panic misses. Four all-state selections do return, and three of them are SPIN All-American Watch List candidates: second-team guard Jack West, plus watch-listers Tate Patterson at linebacker, Diesel Dart at safety and receiver, and Josh Harris at corner. That is a real floor, and a better one than the departures make it look.

The unknown is senior Jaxon Pehrson, who has never started here. The list he is joining reads Zach Wilson, Devin Brown, Jaxson Dart, Bronson Evans, Isaac Wilson, Casuga. Region 3's coaches voted the Chargers the team to beat anyway.

2. Lone Peak (6A)

The strangest résumé on the board. Lone Peak went 8-5, tied for fourth in its own region at 1-3, ranked sixth in RPI, and played in the state final. They also beat Corner Canyon in the regular season in each of the past two years, 28-21 and 42-21, and lost to them in the title game both times.

Bart Brockbank is in his tenth season at 76-40 with rings in 2018 and 2021, and Kjar's departure ends nine years of a genuinely good coaching rivalry.

The cost was heavy. Four first-team all-staters graduated: receiver Jaron Pula, tackle Bott Mulitalo, safety Kennan Pula, and linebacker Anthon Grimmer, who had 144 tackles. Nobody in 6A lost more first-team talent except the champion.

What returns is quarterback Cruz Christensen, running back Sean Tahi, safety Gabe Harmon, and Kingston Stroshine, who made second-team all-state at outside linebacker as a freshman and is now a sophomore.

We have them second, a spot above their own region's coaches, because the postseason evidence outweighs the region record.

3. Orem (5A)

The defending 5A champion beat Springville 42-7 for the title and still took 19 of 22 first-place votes in the 5A coaches poll despite changing coaches.

Andy Stokes takes over having previously run Dixie and Timpview, inheriting four returning offensive starters and three defensive. He also landed the state's biggest transfer, Krew Jones, an Oklahoma-committed edge, in from Ridgeline. The traffic ran both ways, though. Orem lost Steeler Wesley, a 6-5 junior tight end with 13 offers, to Skyridge in the same offseason. Stokes inherits a better front seven and a thinner passing game than the team that won the title.

The schedule is the most audacious in Utah. Kamehameha Kapalama in Hawaii on Aug. 15, then Mater Dei at home on Aug. 29. Beat the Monarchs and third looks conservative immediately. It would be the biggest thing a Utah program has done since Corner Canyon stunned IMG Academy 35-34 in Draper in 2024, when the Ascenders were No. 2 in the USA Today Super 25 and the Chargers were No. 16.

4. Skyridge (6A)

Nine wins, second in 6A RPI, second in scoring at 42.3, a share of the Region 3 title, and a 13-7 loss to Lone Peak in the semifinal.

Nobody in the state played grittier football. A semifinal decided 13-7 is not a scoreline elite offenses usually survive.

Justin Hemm is in year four at 30-9 over three seasons, and five starters return on each side, the most balanced return in the region. The line is the strength: center Andy Anderson was first-team all-state as a junior and graded out at 94 percent, with three more returning starters beside him. We like junior Jagger Fountaine a great deal, and a first-time starter landing behind that line is the softest landing available in Region 3.

Gone are first-team end Harvie Moeai and first-team middle linebacker Griffin Kunz, who had 102 tackles. What arrives may matter more. Steeler Wesley, a 6-5, 210-pound junior tight end, transferred in from Orem, and he already carries 13 offers including BYU, Cal, Baylor, Arkansas and Arizona. 247Sports has him 23rd among tight ends nationally in the 2028 class and 11th in Utah, sitting right on the four-star line with two seasons left to move.

Put that beside a returning first-team all-state center and four returning linemen, and Skyridge is not a team in transition. It is a team that upgraded.

They open Thursday at Mountain Ridge, where they won 52-17 a year ago.

5. Davis (6A)

The unanimous Region 1 favorite and the widest gap between our board and the machines, which have Davis second in Utah. This is the one we most likely have wrong, and low. We will regret it quickly if Friday goes the way it might, and we would not be surprised to see Davis beat Corner Canyon in Kaysville.

Bode Sparrow is a SPIN All-American, the Deseret News 6A player of the year, and an Oklahoma commit: 83 catches, 1,228 yards, 16 touchdowns, plus 71 tackles, seven interceptions and two defensive scores. Jaxton Itaaehau returns as a Utah commit and second-team all-state receiver with 951 receiving yards, 11 touchdowns and five more on the ground. Davis took Lone Peak to double overtime in the quarterfinals and lost 41-38.

What they do not have is Tradon Bessinger, our QB1 last season and the best quarterback we saw anywhere in the country. Mr. Football, 4,300 yards and 53 touchdowns against four interceptions, 10,900 for his career, now at Iowa after flipping from Boise State. They also lost first-team middle linebacker Ethan Lockwood and his 140 tackles.

Junior Brodie Scheinberg replaces Bessinger, a 6-5 arm who spent his sophomore year at St. John Bosco and threw for 422 yards in eight games behind a national powerhouse's depth chart. Real talent, enormous shoes.

6. Mountain Ridge (6A)

The best story in Region 2, and a team we spent a long time arguing about.

The Sentinels went 10-3 and 6-0 in region, won the first region title in school history, beat Herriman twice, 24-8 and 22-14, and reached the first semifinal in school history before Corner Canyon ended it 59-20. Nick Robins did that in his debut season after arriving from Timpview, and calls it "a historic season at Mountain Ridge."

Mountain Ridge does not return as much as Corner Canyon, which brings back eight starters. It may return more at the positions that decide games. Tytan DeJong was first-team all-state at athlete as a junior with 1,057 receiving yards, nine touchdowns, 30 tackles and two interceptions, and committed to BYU on March 30 over Michigan, Stanford, Cal, Utah and Oregon State. Jaxon Hunt was second-team all-state at quarterback as a junior and is the only returning starting quarterback among 6A's preseason top five. Cole Uluave is back at linebacker.

What settled them at sixth: Region 2 coaches picked Herriman to win the region on 13 returning starters with Mountain Ridge second, the Sentinels lost first-team tight end Grayden Dumas and second-team receiver Kohen Cunningham, and the last time these two teams opened a season together Skyridge won by 35.

7. Timpview (5A)

Our most contrarian placement. Region 7's coaches picked Timpview third behind Orem and Springville, and the statewide 5A poll has them fourth. We have them seventh overall, higher than either vote implies.

The reasoning is that talent originates at Timpview whether or not it stays. Spencer Fano went from Provo to Utah to the ninth pick of the 2026 draft, taken by Cleveland. Helaman Casuga started at Timpview before he ever took a snap in Draper. The pipeline does not run dry, it just occasionally runs somewhere else, and Timpview assistants keep turning into head coaches at other programs, including two above them on this board.

The one who stayed is the reason to watch. Dennis Tua'one is the most explosive player in Utah and arguably anywhere out west, a four-star junior receiver inside the national top 100 and around 82nd at 247Sports, with Miami and USC leading for him. He was born in the Fort Lauderdale area and moved to Utah at eight. He runs 10.89 in the 100, long jumps nearly 22 feet, and has been used at quarterback as well as receiver.

If Layton beats them Friday, we will have been wrong quickly and we will say so.

8. West (5A)

The statewide 5A poll has West second, above Timpview. We have them below Timpview at eighth, which is a divergence we are choosing rather than one we stumbled into. The Panthers lost to Orem in last year's playoffs at Rice-Eccles.

Friday is a genuine test. Arbor View, our No. 3 team in Nevada, comes to Salt Lake City for a 7 p.m. kickoff. That is the sort of game a No. 8 either announces itself in or falls out of.

9. American Fork (6A)

Seven wins, seventh in RPI, out in the quarterfinals to Skyridge 56-29. But Aaron Behm is in his seventeenth season at 114-78, and the Cavemen return six starters on each side, the most of any Region 3 team.

Nate Childs is back at quarterback after starting most of last season, with three of his top four receiving threats returning, headlined by Michigan tight end commit Christian Hanshaw.

The front seven was among the best we watched anywhere last season, and most of it is back: second-team all-state end Dalin Afu, honorable-mention safety Noah Behm, and sophomore receiver Cash Tai'ese already carries an all-state mention on the other side. Ninth might be well short, and we find out fast. American Fork travels to Mater Dei on Aug. 21 for the Monarchs' home opener.

10. Ridgeline (4A)

A 14-0 defending 4A champion sits last on our board, and the reason is arithmetic rather than disrespect.

Ridgeline had seven first-team all-state selections last season plus 4A Player of the Year Nate Dahle. Seven of those eight were seniors. The eighth was Krew Jones, and he is at Orem now. Going undefeated against 4A opposition earns a place on this list. It does not yet earn a place above teams playing Region 3 schedules.

They open at Morgan, the Deseret News 3A preseason No. 1 for the fifth consecutive year.

Where we are already uneasy

This board locked on Aug. 6 and it stays locked. But reporting it out has left us with doubts worth stating plainly rather than quietly correcting later.

Davis at five, against a composite that says two. This is the likeliest miss on the board. Sparrow may simply be good enough to carry a first-year quarterback, and Friday in Kaysville tells us in about three hours.

Mountain Ridge at six. Less clear-cut, but live. They return a first-team all-state athlete and the only starting quarterback back among 6A's top five. Beat Skyridge on Thursday and we will rethink it. SPIN will be at that game.

Timpview at seven and West at eight. We inverted the statewide 5A order and left out Springville, ranked third there, entirely.

One more omission worth owning. Lehi is the fifth Region 3 school and it is nowhere on this board. This is a program that went 14-0 in 2022 and won the 5A championship in triple overtime over Timpview, then moved up a class and reached the 6A semifinals in 2024. Its own region's coaches now pick the Pioneers last. We think that is roughly right, and we also think it is the kind of thing that looks foolish by October.

Region 3's coaches describe the thing they are walking into without much romance. Lehi's Andy Hadfield calls it "a gauntlet." Those five schools have won the past seven 6A championships between them, though the trophies concentrate: Corner Canyon five, Lone Peak in 2021, Skyridge in 2022.

By Saturday morning this board has evidence attached to it for the first time. Some of what is written above will not survive contact.

Tell us which one of these ten we have wrong, and where they belong.