LOGAN, Utah (Wednesday, Dec. 15) – Utah State head football coach Blake Anderson announced portions of his second signing class on Wednesday, as part of the NCAA Early Signing Day. The class, which includes 14 total players, is comprised of 11 high school athletes and three four-year transfers.
“It’s a great foundation for what we’re trying to do,” Anderson said. “We’ll focus more with the back half of this class on veteran-type bodies that could fill in key, veteran departures. On the front of this, we wanted to make a big emphasis on building the fronts and we wanted to stay close to home. Six guys from the state is huge. We have another one from right down the road in Idaho Falls with Paul Fitzgerald. We get a built-in family member in Sione (Motu’apuaka), Hale’s big, little brother. Then, we have a guy like Anthony Switzer who we already know, spent time with and recruited. It’s a great foundation for what we’re wanting to do with key positions on the offensive and defensive line and skill positions such as a quarterback and running back. We’ll just continue to build around that. It’s a great start.”
Of the 14 players, seven will enroll at Utah State in January for the 2022 spring semester.
“A big key for us winning this year was how many guys we could add last January, who could go through spring and through summer,” Anderson added. “This is no different and we’re not done. There is a chance that over the course of the holidays we could potentially add a few more transition players, whether it be transfer portal or junior college guys that graduate on time. To have that many guys coming in January already out of this class, especially getting out of high school early, they don’t go into fall camp like a freshman. They have a chance to really go into it like a veteran and be part of the two-deep.”
The state of Utah produced the most signees with six, followed by three players from Texas, and one player each from Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii and Idaho.
Eight of Anderson’s signees are defensive players with five linebackers, two defensive linemen and one defensive back. Of the six offensive players that signed, three are offensive linemen and two are quarterbacks, to go along with one running back.
Utah State will announce its complete 2022 signing class on Wednesday, Feb. 2.
HIGH SCHOOL SIGNEES (11)
Max Alford^ LB 6-1 215 Fr. HS Park City, Utah (Park City HS)
Teague Andersen OL 6-5 285 Fr. HS Lehi, Utah (Lehi HS)
Robert Briggs RB 5-7 170 Fr. HS Bellville, Texas (Bellville HS)
Bishop Davenport QB 6-1 190 Fr. HS Spring, Texas (Spring HS)
Paul Fitzgerald^ DE 6-3 235 Fr. HS Idaho Falls, Idaho (Thunder Ridge HS)
Lofa Fonoti-Maikui^ LB 6-3 185 Fr. HS Layton, Utah (Northridge HS)
Weylin Lapuaho^ OL 6-4 295 Fr. HS South Jordan, Utah (Bingham HS)
Sione Motu’apuaka OL 6-5 280 Fr. HS Honolulu, Hawaii (Radford HS)
Adam Tomczyk DT 6-4 260 Fr. HS Los Alamitos, California (Los Alamitos HS)
Chase Tuatagaloa QB 6-4 200 Fr. HS Orem, Utah (Orem HS)
Joshua Williams LB 6-2 205 Fr. HS Mesquite, Texas (Mesquite HS)
FOUR-YEAR TRANSFER (3)
Gurvan Hall Jr.^ S 6-0 190 Sr. TR West Palm Beach, Florida (Palm Beach Gardens HS/Miami)
Anthony Switzer^ LB 6-0 205 Jr. TR Marion, Arkansas (Marion HS/Arkansas State)
MJ Tafisi^ LB 6-0 230 Jr. TR West Jordan, Utah (Alta HS/Washington)
^ Will enroll at Utah State for the 2022 spring semester.