It’s been a little over a week since 4-star prospect Bott Mulitalo announced his commitment to sign with the BYU football program, but the potential impact of his decision shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Mulitalo is a 6-foot-4, 275 pound offensive line product from Lone Peak High School who originally committed to Oregon before switching his decision to BYU. Rated the No. 90 overall recruit nationally by the 247 Sports Network, Mulitalo claimed offers from a bevy of programs including USC, Oregon, Utah, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Arizona State and Iowa State among several other top tier programs.

While his recruiting accolades are impressive across the board, the true significance of his commitment is with regards to the need he’ll help address. Should BYU hope to legitimately and consistently compete nationally, it simply has to develop better line play along both the offensive and defensive fronts.

Take BYU’s thrilling 22-21 win over Utah last season as a recent example.

To any honest observer, the Cougars were very fortunate to come away from Salt Lake City with a win, all factors considered. While BYU set the pace early, the Utes came back strong led by a defensive front that all but stalemated and even crushed most everything thrown its way in the second half.

BYU’s offensive line was simply overwhelmed, to put it bluntly, and while Utah saw a number of struggles last year, its defensive front set the standard for Big-12 play throughout the season.

The Cougars now have to meet that standard, and it begins on the recruiting front.

So securing the commitment of 4-star prospects like Mulitalo along the offensive front shouldn’t be taken for granted, along with the signing of fellow Lone Peak 4-star offensive line prospect Austin Pay this past year.

Sure, neither Mulitalo and Pay have played a down for BYU, let alone participated in a single practice session, and several top flight prospects never reach their promise at the collegiate level. But enough do, and those same top flight prospects typically dominate the top slate of draft picks in the NFL draft most years.

The recent 2025 NFL draft results help prove this point.

Nine of the top 10 picks of the 2025 NFL draft were rated as either 4 or 5-star prospects out of high school and an astounding 26 of the 32 first round selections were rated as such. Those same draft picks largely entered the draft upon completion of highly successful collegiate campaigns where they boosted their respective team’s overall play significantly.

The hope is that Mulitalo, along with Pay and other top recruits will boost the overall production of one of BYU’s most critical positions so it can compete and even usher in an advantage over programs like Utah. It’s apparent that both Mulitalo and Pay see BYU’s potential in accomplishing as much and is a big reason why both opted to join the program when presented with many other opportunities.

It’s also imperative that BYU cash in on top local talent from top programs in its backyard such as Lone Peak, Timpview and now Lehi.

The Cougars have lost out on too many recruiting battles for top local prospects in recent years, most notably to Utah, but appear to be addressing that problem effectively during recent recruiting cycles. They’ve done as much by being allotted better recruiting resources due to Big-12 Conference affiliation, but more importantly by showing credibility on the gridiron that it lacked throughout the Independence era.

So while BYU still has some way to go in matching and even surpassing the line play of top programs like Utah, securing commitments of top prospects like Mulitalo indicate that it just may get there.