BYU football recruit sparks buzz as MVP of Under Armour Next Camp
When Bott Mulitalo lines up in the trenches, you can feel the shift. Pads pop a little louder. Coaches stop mid-sentence. Recruits watch quietly. And last weekend at the Under Armour Next Camp in Salt Lake City, the Lone Peak standout made sure everyone knew why he's BYU's top offensive line commit in the class of 2026.
The 6-foot-4, 275-pound Mulitalo left no doubt, taking home the Offensive Line MVP award after a commanding performance that showcased his raw strength, balance, and explosiveness against the best competition from across the West. The four-star recruit didn't just win reps—he erased defenders.
Advertisement
Mulitalo, who is currently rated No. 90 overall in the 2026 class by 247Sports, has transitioned from the defensive line to offensive tackle, a move that looks more genius by the day. While he continues to refine his pass-blocking sets, his natural ability to anchor and drive defenders into the turf is already at a collegiate level.
It wasn't just the trophy that made headlines—it was who he did it in front of. The Salt Lake City edition of the Under Armour Camp drew elite talent from states like Arizona, California, Oregon, and Colorado. Among the BYU faithful, though, Mulitalo's performance stood tallest. He was one of five Cougar commits competing, part of a strong showing from BYU's 2026 class that also included fellow four-star Brock Harris.
Mulitalo's early commitment to BYU came after flipping from Oregon, largely due to his growing connection with offensive line coach TJ Woods. That bond now looks like a cornerstone in BYU's rebuilding strategy up front.
The message from Mulitalo this weekend was clear: he's not just committed—he's coming for dominance.
Advertisement
If this is what he's doing before his senior year, just imagine the impact when he finally suits up in Cougar blue.
Related: AJ Dybantsa take his talents to international stage
Related: BYU Basketball players are turning heads for unexpected choice
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Iowa basketball hosting in-state 2026 recruiting standout
Iowa is hosting one of the best in-state products on Wednesday and Thursday. Eliot Clough shared the news that Iowa is welcoming in Waukee Northwest forward Colin Rice for a visit. Rice is ranked as a three-star prospect per 247Sports. The in-state product averaged 12.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per game while shooting 38% from 3-point range last season. Advertisement Per 247Sports, Rice is the nation's No. 59 small forward and the No. 3 player from the state of Iowa. The Hawkeyes and head coach Ben McCollum doled out an offer to Rice on May 1 and now have quickly orchestrated this official visit. Rice also has offers from Nebraska, Northwestern, Drake, Murray State, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa and Saint Louis. The 6-foot-7 forward also plays for UAA squad Martin Brothers. Hawkeye Insider's Sean Bock submitted a 247Sports crystal ball prediction for Rice to commit to the Hawkeyes back on May 12. Rice is also slated to visit Nebraska later this month. Here's a look at some of Rice's recent highlights. Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Josh on X: @JoshOnREF This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Iowa basketball hosting in-state 2026 recruiting standout
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Iowa basketball earns official visit from priority 2026 recruit
Iowa basketball is set to host one of its priority recruiting targets in the 2026 class later this month. Hawkeye Insider's Sean Bock reported that four-star forward Trey Thompson has set an official visit to Iowa for June 23. Advertisement Thompson is a four-star power forward in the 247Sports composite rankings, the nation's 131st-ranked player, the No. 26 power forward and the No. 4 player from Tennessee. The 6-foot-8 forward hails from Greeneville High School in the Volunteer State. Thompson also holds offers from schools such as Purdue, Tennessee, Indiana and Kansas. Other programs that have offered include Stanford, UConn, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Xavier, Appalachian State, Butler, East Tennessee State, Indiana State and Ohio. The Hawkeyes are currently without a 2026 commit, but Iowa also just hosted three-star in-state forward Colin Rice. Advertisement Thompson has garnered more and more attention from high-major programs as he excels with the Tennessee Impact team on the Adidas 3SSB Circuit. According to On3's Jamie Shaw, Thompson was averaging 17.6 points per game on 39.2% shooting from 3-point distance thus far in Adidas 3SSB Circuit play. Here's a look at Thompson's recent Adidas 3SSB highlights. Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Josh on X: @JoshOnREF This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Iowa basketball earns official visit from priority 2026 recruit
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
What the last 5 years of the NFL Draft tells us about college football recruiting
In many ways, the NFL Draft serves as the ultimate finish line in recruiting. It provides a final tale of the tape in determining which programs delivered on their promise of helping these athletes fulfill their professional dreams. NIL, the transfer portal and conference realignment have altered the state of college football quite a bit over the last few years. But recruits still typically prioritize getting to the NFL when making their decisions. Advertisement So, who has done the best job of that in recent years? We studied the last five years of the draft — all 1,294 picks and where those players came from — to try to figure it out. Here is a collection of thoughts on various subjects. Note: All recruiting rankings are from the 247Sports Composite. People love to criticize recruiting services, especially when players such as Cam Ward — an unranked prospect coming out of high school in south Texas — become the first pick in the NFL draft. But the reality is that blue-chip recruits (four- and five-stars) still dominate the draft. Ward is the anomaly. In the last five years, only seven players who were not ranked at all in the 247Sports Composite (4.3 percent) were among the 160 players taken in the first round of the draft. An overwhelming majority (80.1 percent) of the players drafted overall (not just in the first round) were ranked as three-stars or better. On average, there are roughly 32 five-star recruits and somewhere between 300 to 400 four-stars among the thousands of high school prospects per cycle. In the recent five-year draft window, 65 percent of the first-round picks (104 of 160) and 52 percent of the players taken in the first three rounds (267 of 514) were blue-chip recruits coming out of high school. Texas, Florida, Georgia and California have long been considered the biggest hotbeds for football talent, and nothing has changed. Those four states continue to be the biggest producers of NFL players, with Georgia (20) taking a small lead over Texas (19) for first-round selections. Here's a look at the top 10 NFL talent producers over the last five years by state, including how many of those total selections were blue-chip recruits. One outside factor you have to consider when looking at all data is how the COVID-19 pandemic affected recruiting and draft results. The NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to all players who participated in the 2020 season. That certainly didn't stop the best players in college football from making a quick exit for the draft if they could. Nearly one in five draft picks over the last five years still made the jump to the pros after only three seasons in school. Here's a look at where players were drafted by the amount of time they spent in college. Playing for a Power 4 program — there are currently 69 — still gives a player the best odds of getting drafted. Just under 84 percent of the NFL Draft picks over the last five years played their last college game for a school that was in a Power 4 league (or Notre Dame) at the time. The transfer portal has affected those numbers, with many of the Power 4 players drafted having started their careers at a lower level. In all, nearly a quarter of the players drafted over the last five years (26.4 percent) signed with a junior college, FCS, Division II or Group of 5 program out of high school. Advertisement The reality, however, is that three-fourths of the players taken in the draft over the last five years played for only one college program. That number, however, is decreasing as the number of transfers increases every year. Of the 257 players selected in this year's draft, 96 transferred at least once. That's 37 percent. In 2021, only 10 percent of the draft picks (27 of the 259) were transfers. Only two first-round picks in both 2021 and 2022 were transfers — quarterback Justin Fields and edge rusher Jaelen Phillips in 2021 and receiver Jameson Williams and guard Zion Johnson in 2022. That number jumped to five in 2023, peaked at nine in 2024 and dipped to seven this year. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the top 50 programs in terms of producing NFL Draft picks over the last five years reside in Power 4 conferences. It also shouldn't come as a surprise that the four programs that won national titles over the last five years top that list. The last five drafts include players from the 2015 through the 2022 recruiting cycles. Only one of the top 15 programs in terms of producing NFL talent over the last five years ranked outside of the top 25 when it came to average recruiting class rankings: South Carolina, which still ranked in the top 30. What's far more impressive from a development standpoint are the Power 4 programs that ranked outside of the top 40 in recruiting rankings yet produced NFL talent at a top-40 level. The Pitt Panthers top the list among those schools with 20 draft picks over the last five years, including two first-rounders — second most in the ACC behind Clemson (22). Of those 20 picks, only three were transfers, and among the 17 homegrown talents, only one was a blue-chip recruit coming out of high school (safety Damar Hamlin). Advertisement Before he left for Wisconsin in November 2022, Luke Fickel did an equally impressive job stocking the shelves with NFL talent at Cincinnati — and did so before the program joined a Power 4 conference. The Bearcats have had 18 players drafted over the last five years. Four were transfers, including the only three blue-chippers to get drafted from Cincinnati. The rest were rated three-stars or lower, including top-five pick Sauce Gardner, who was the No. 1,605 prospect in the 2019 cycle. Kansas State, Iowa State, Illinois, Purdue and Minnesota all ranked in the top 40 of NFL talent producers with 13 picks each despite ranking outside of the top 50 in the recruiting rankings. These are the top non-Power 4 talent producers over the last five years. (Oregon State and Washington State are not on this list since they were both P4 programs during the recruiting cycles. Neither are BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF since they are now in a P4 league.) Schools love to claim they're the best at producing talent by position. We've gone ahead and done the homework to end the argument, at least for recent history. Quarterback: Alabama, Florida and Ohio State all have the right to call themselves the best at producing pro talent at the moment, with three draft picks each at the position over the last five years. We'd give the slight edge to the Buckeyes, considering Fields and C.J. Stroud were first-rounders and Stroud is an entrenched NFL starter. Running back: Michigan and Texas lead the way with five draft picks each over the last five years, with Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina not far behind with four each. You could make the argument that Pro Bowler Bijan Robinson gives Texas the edge with how he's performed early in his pro career. Receiver: Ohio State has produced five first-round picks at the position over the last five years, including top-10 picks in Marvin Harrison and Garrett Wilson. And Jeremiah Smith could be the No. 1 pick in the 2027 draft. But don't forget about LSU. The Tigers have had six receivers taken in the last five years and have stars Ja'Marr Chase, Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. doing damage in the league now. Advertisement Tight end: Nobody has produced more draft picks in the last five years at tight end than Penn State with four, and that includes 2025 first-rounder Tyler Warren. But it's hard to ignore the impact of Georgia's Brock Bowers, and the Bulldogs are one of a handful of programs (Miami, Michigan and Ohio State are the others) to have three tight ends drafted since 2021. Offensive line: Georgia leads with 11 picks, but only two were first-rounders. Ohio State is next with nine, including three first-rounders. LSU and Michigan have produced eight, with Will Campbell representing the Tigers in Round 1. No O-linemen from Michigan, meanwhile, have been drafted in the first two rounds. Defensive line: Georgia has had 11 defensive linemen drafted since 2021, including seven first-rounders. LSU, with 10, ranks second, but none of the Tigers have gone in the first round. Alabama, Michigan and Ohio State are next with nine picks each, with the Wolverines boasting five first-rounders — most notably Aidan Hutchinson. Linebackers: Only nine players classified as linebackers have been taken in the first round in the last five years, and Penn State's Micah Parsons is one of them. Georgia's Quay Walker is another and is among the six from the Bulldogs. Clemson, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Washington and Penn State are next, each with four linebackers drafted. Defensive backs: Why has Georgia been so good? Probably because it keeps producing the most NFL talent at every defensive position. The Bulldogs have had 13 defensive backs picked, including three first-rounders in Lewis Cline, Malaki Starks and Eric Stokes. Alabama is next with nine, followed by Penn State with eight. Recruiting sites do a fine job of highlighting the coaches who sign the most high-end prospects, but how much does this really tell us? You mean an assistant coach at Georgia is good at signing top talent? Shocking! Here are a few recruiters who have done good work at some programs that don't sign top-10 classes on a consistent basis — and we acknowledge that this can be a bit cloudy considering not every prospect has a clearly defined lead recruiter. Advertisement Fresno State head coach Matt Entz: The two-time FCS Coach of the Year had three players from his North Dakota State teams drafted in the last few years, including 2025 first-round pick Grey Zabel and second-rounders Dillon Radunz and Cody Mauch. All three players were either two-star or unranked recruits. Idaho defensive coordinator Cort Dennison: The former Louisville and Oregon assistant did a fine job plucking quality three-star recruits out of the Southeast, including quarterback Jordan Travis, receiver Tutu Atwell and defensive lineman Brandon Dorlus. Five of his former three-stars were drafted over the last five years. Kentucky tight ends coach Vince Marrow: The longtime assistant has been the lead recruiter for five Kentucky players who have been drafted in the last five years. Washington defensive coordinator Ryan Walters: In his time at Missouri, Walters was the lead recruiter for six players who were eventually drafted. All of them were three-star recruits, and four ranked in the 1,000s. West Virginia special teams coach Chris Haering: The former longtime Wisconsin assistant recruited six Badgers who were drafted, including Super Bowl-winning linebacker Leo Chenal. (Photo of Bo Nix: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
