Jay Tufele Commits To...

South Jordan (Utah) Bingham four-star defensive tackle Jay Tufele is one of the best high players to come out of the state of Utah. He was the hometown Utah Utes top target in the class of 2017. Today, he announced that he will be playing college football at USC.

Losing the top rated player in the state of Utah, and Utah’s top target in 2017, is a huge blow, especially to a Pac-12 South rival. This marks the sixth-straight season when the 247Sports Composite Ranking top player in the state of Utah has headed out of state. Since the 2012 recruiting class, Utah’s first as a member of the Pac-12, only 2/17 (11.7%) of in-state four-star or higher prospects have chosen Utah (those two are offensive tackle Jackson Barton and defensive end Maxs Tupai). The last time Utah got the top ranked player in the state of Utah was in 2011, when South Jordan (Utah) Bingham four-star running Harvey Langi back chose Utah over USC and others and the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, but he only ended up playing one season at Utah.

Tufele will likely compete for playing time right away at USC. Defensive tackle was the one question mark for USC, and they have answered it well with Tufele along with Independence (Ore.) Central four-star defensive tackle Marlon Tuipulotu, who is an early enrollee. The rich just keep getting richer...