Jace Sweeten Keeps Utah Tech's Big Sky Move Rooted in St. George

Jace Sweeten is listed on Utah Tech Football's spring roster as a junior inside linebacker from St. George, Utah, out of Crimson Cliffs High School. The St. George native gives the Trailblazers a Washington County defensive linebacker on the depth chart as the program prepares to leave the Western Athletic Conference for the Big Sky in 2026-27.

The roster line is short. It records position (inside linebacker), class (junior), hometown (St. George), and high school (Crimson Cliffs). Each detail is a verified piece of Utah Tech's spring football paperwork.

Crimson Cliffs to Utah Tech

Crimson Cliffs High School opened in 2020, making it one of Utah's newest 5A high school football programs. The school's name draws from the red-rock terrain that runs through Washington County, and the football program quickly built up a competitive 5A presence in southern Utah's prep-football circuit.

Sweeten is one of Crimson Cliffs' college-football signees. The route from Crimson Cliffs to the Utah Tech campus measures roughly four miles. That makes Sweeten a Washington County athlete playing college football at a Washington County college — the kind of hometown college route that is exceptionally rare in modern college football.

St. George has emerged as one of southern Utah's largest urban centers over the past two decades. The city's growth has accelerated the football pipeline that feeds Utah Tech, with the local high schools — Crimson Cliffs, Desert Hills, Dixie, Pine View, Snow Canyon — each producing regular Trailblazers signings.

The inside linebacker position

Inside linebacker is the defensive position closest to the line of scrimmage in most modern defensive schemes. The position calls the defensive signals on most snaps, anchors the run defense between the tackles, and drops into intermediate zone coverage on passing plays.

For Utah Tech specifically, the inside linebacker position has been one of the program's regular development targets. The Trailblazers' defensive scheme through the WAC era has used a mix of 4-3 and 3-4 looks, with the inside linebacker position remaining the centerpiece of the run-defense structure regardless of the front.

Sweeten's junior status places him in the middle of his college eligibility window, with two seasons of college football remaining. That gives the Trailblazers a player who will carry into the program's Big Sky era — exactly the kind of multi-year contributor a transitioning program needs at a leadership position.

The Big Sky transition

Utah Tech announced its Big Sky football membership in 2024. The conference move places the Trailblazers' football program in annual matchups against Weber State, Southern Utah, Idaho State, the Montana programs, and the rest of the Big Sky's western footprint.

For Utah's southern football identity, the conference change is a structural improvement. The WAC's recent membership has dropped to a small group of widely-spread programs, with travel that runs from Stephen F. Austin in Texas to Tarleton State to the Pacific Northwest. The Big Sky's footprint sits in the western United States and aligns better with the Trailblazers' regional calendar.

The other in-state Big Sky members give Utah Tech annual matchups against programs that share a recruiting pipeline. Weber State and SUU both pull from the same Utah county feeders that Crimson Cliffs and the other St. George programs feed. That means the Big Sky's Utah component will produce annual games where the in-state recruiting overlap is on the field on both sides.

The Utah Tech football program

Utah Tech competes at the FCS level and plays its home games at Greater Zion Stadium in St. George. The program completed its FCS-level transition in recent years after moving up from Division II, with the WAC conference membership serving as the program's introduction to the FCS competitive structure.

The football program's identity has been built around in-state development plus regional transfer additions. The roster typically blends Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California signees, with the southern Utah counties producing the largest single-state representation. Sweeten's roster line places him inside the program's local-development category — the players who come from the same county the campus calls home.

The athletic department's broader transition story matters here. Utah Tech is one of the Utah System of Higher Education's growing institutions, with university enrollment climbing rapidly over the past decade. The football program's Big Sky move is part of the school's broader strategy of building its athletics profile alongside that enrollment growth.

What's next

Utah Tech's spring depth chart and the program's Big Sky transition for 2026-27 are the next concrete checkpoints. Each Trailblazers' game recap and depth chart announcement on the official athletics site will be the next addition to Sweeten's record.

The spring depth chart typically lands in March or early April for Utah Tech. The program's spring game usually follows in mid-April. Those releases will determine Sweeten's position-group placement heading into the program's final WAC season.

The Big Sky transition for 2026-27 then opens the next phase of Sweeten's college career. The Trailblazers' first Big Sky home opener will be one of the program's most-anticipated games in years, with the in-state Big Sky matchups producing the kind of regional football schedule the school has been building toward.

For a Crimson Cliffs alum playing at Utah Tech, the Big Sky era means annual conference games inside the same state — the kind of in-state college football calendar most Utah-born athletes do not get to play.

For now, the verified record is the spring roster line, the Crimson Cliffs alma mater, the St. George hometown, and the junior inside linebacker designation. That gives Utah Tech football a documented Washington County defender on the roster as the program enters its transition window.