Priority Target Lopeti Moala Recaps Junior Day at BYU

Casey Lundquist | Jan 28, 2025

BYU target and Davis High School prospect Lopeti Moala / Lopeti Moala

On Saturday, BYU hosted a large group of unofficial visitors for Junior Day. Lopeti Moala, a defensive lineman from Davis High School, was one of the recruits in attendance. Moala is one of the top players in Utah in the 2026 class. His offer sheet includes competing offers from USC, UCLA, Utah, Arizona State, Arizona, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, and Washington State. We caught up with Moala to discuss his experience at BYU's Junior Day and get an update on his recruitment.

It was a busy day for Lopeti and his family. He spent the morning up on the hill at the University of Utah for their Juniro Day before coming down to Provo for BYU's festivities.

"The first thing we got to do was meet the staff," Moala said. "[It] was great because as a player, when considering where you want to go, you want to know the people you’re going to be with everyday. Then we were able to hear from the man himself, Coach Sitake, which was awesome because he shared some personal experiences with us and that was great to be able to connect with him. "

After meeting with the staff, the recruits attended a dinner. They learned about the educational aspects of BYU before heading over to the BYU basketball game.

"The BYU basketball game was another great experience to see that the support from Cougar Nation is the same for all sports!"

During his visit, he also had the opportunity to meet with BYU defensive line coach Sione Po'uha. It stood out as his favorite part of the visit. "[My favorite part was] the opportunity I had to sit down with my position group and not talk about the X’s and O’s, but about the feeling that is there at BYU, and what makes it not different, but unique."

Of the members of BYU's coaching staff, Moala said he is closest with Coach Po'uha. Moala is actually a relative of Coach Po'uha - Coach Po'uha's wife is the cousin of Lopeti's mom. "Being able to talk with Coach Po’uha about not only the experience you get with football, but the experiences you have outside of football that makes BYU unique...the connection [Coach Po'uha and I] had talking about not only developing as a player, but as a son, brother and father."

Moala is in no rush to make his college decision. He tells BYU On SI that he is leaning towards announcing his college decision during his senior season.

It's easy to see why Moala's offer sheet has been growing over the last few weeks. He has great size for a high school prospect at 6'4 and 230 pounds. His athletic ceiling is really high, he uses his hands really well at the point of attack, and he is just scratching the surface of his potential.

Moala will be a name to remember throughout the 2026 recruiting cycle. He will be a top target for BYU over the next several months.