Every player’s college choice is an individual decision, and student athletes often make decisions about their future based on factors far beyond the field of play. Still, the commitment of Dahlin Mesake, a three-star linebacker with a rising profile at national power Bishop Gorman High School (Las Vegas, Nev.), remains particularly curious and unique.
On Tuesday, Mesake committed to Utah State. He picked the Aggies ahead of nine other scholarship offers. Five of those nine offers came from major Power 5 programs. Two of the others were from UCF and BYU, where he was previously committed until April, when he reopened his recruitment.
So, what drove Mesake to Utah State? According to the Herald Journal, a newspaper from Utah that covers Utah State, the Aggies have recruited Mesake as a defensive end, a move that could register with the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Nevada native.
It’s also possible that Mesake decided to commit to a program where he knew he was highly valued now after suffering an injury in Friday’s face off with Hawaii power St. Louis High School (Honolulu, Hi.).
That doesn’t change the fact that power programs like LSU, Florida, Oregon and Mississippi State, among others, have extended scholarship offers to Mesake. He has the opportunity to play in the SEC, assuming those scholarship offers aren’t pulled back in the aftermath of his injury Friday night.
For now, they don’t matter. Mesake is a Utah State Aggie, and will remain so unless another program can turn his head before either the Early Signing Period or National Signing Day.
