So committing with Brigham Young football on Friday was a bittersweet achievement for Mulitalo, a 6-foot-3, 285-pound lineman at Hunter High - as his mother, Tioata Purcell Mulitalo, was a BYU football fan.

TotalBlueSports.com first reported the commitment, which is the 12th for the Cougars for their 2009 class.

"Mom would have been so happy," Mulitalo told the Web site. "BYU was her favorite school and she wanted at least one of us to make it there. She was a big fan from the old days when Steve Young and Ty Detmer played. She told us she had great memories of those days."

Mulitalo comes from a low-income family. His older brother, Ray Mulitalo, passed up a football scholarship with the University of Utah to accept a job to help support the family.

csun@sltrib.com