Utah prep football players join slew of top FBS teams on National Signing Day

Video: Leki Fotu Ultimate Highlight
Herriman defensive end signed with Utah on National Signing Day.

Dozens of high school athletes across Utah signed with colleges on Wednesday morning on National Signing Day.

Pac-12 schools once again reeled in a boatload of players from Utah's ever-deepening talent pool. Utah, Stanford, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon State and Washington State all featured athletes from the Beehive State in their 2016 Signing Day classes.

Utah snagged the state's top ranked defensive player, per 247Sports, with the signing of Herriman defensive end Leki Fotu. Stanford claimed the top ranked offensive player by signing Brighton (Salt Lake City) receiver Simi Fehoko. For these players, getting the chance to test themselves in a Power 5 program is a living dream. Football, however, wasn't the only consideration in many of those cases.

Fehoko, for example, focused on choosing a school that was as strong in the classroom as on the field. That line of thinking is what led him to join Stanford, where Fehoko will play in 2018 after completing a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Throughout the whole recruiting process, the No. 1 aspect I looked at was the academics," Fehoko said. "Stanford's academics speaks for itself. The coaches have something going on, something that is special there. So that's where I want to be."

One notable development is that a top 2016 recruit from Utah did not sign with any schools. Murray defensive end Maxs Tupai deferred signing until a later date in the signing period.

Tupai, a four-star defensive end, simply wants more time to consider his options. He has made official visits to Oregon State, USC and Oklahoma already and has another visit scheduled for UCLA on Saturday. Tupai is considering Oklahoma, USC, UCLA and Utah.

Making a decision wasn't an easy thing for some players. Cottonwood (Salt Lake City) defensive end Fua Pututau and Corner Canyon (Draper) defensive end Keaton Bills both waited until Signing Day ceremonies to reveal their college choices. Both players chose to play for Utah after carefully weighing their options up until the 11th hour.

"It came down to the last day," Pututau said. "It was probably one of the hardest decisions I ever made — that's how hard it was."

Other players dealt with a different sort of uncertainty during the recruiting process. Brighton linebacker Jackson Kaufusi experienced some tense moments when he had an offer pulled by BYU in the fall — forcing him to re-open his recruitment — only to be offered again by the Cougars when the coaching staff changed in December.

Just signing his letter of intent lifted a huge weight off of Kaufusi. Now he can look forward to joining BYU in 2018 after he serves an LDS mission.

"It was kind of surprising when they first took it — the other staff," Kaufusi said. "And then they switched coaches and I was just hoping I would get recruited again because I realized BYU was the place for me and that's where I wanted to go. They offered everything I wanted. It was just a struggle. It took a lot of praying. It was just hard. And then they offered. It was just a huge relief."

BYU signed the most players from the state of Utah among the local FBS schools. The Cougars had 12 kids from the Beehive State in their 2016 class. Utah had six in its class. Utah State counted seven players from its home state among its 2016 signees.

John Coon covers Utah high school sports for MaxPreps. You can contact him at john_coon@hotmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @johncoonsports