Jay Tufele is a name that will be going down in Bingham football history. He started playing football in 5^th grade, and although it was a rocky start, he managed to excel into a five-star recruit and commit to playing football at the University of Southern California.

“I really sucked when I was little, but I loved competing with everyone,” said Tufele, “so I worked hard every day just so to get as good as I could be.”

Growing up, Tufele never thought he would be playing Division I college football. He liked rugby better than football, and football was just something he did for fun. It was not until the end of Tufele’s sophomore year that the college scouts started reaching out to him. And before he knew it, he was getting recruited by the top Division I colleges all over the country.

“I went on unofficial trips to USC, Washington, UCLA, Cal Berkely, Washington state, Michigan, Ohio State, BYU, and Utah,” said Tufele, “and it came down to USC and Utah. I just felt like USC was the right fit for me.”

When Tufele visited USC for the first time, he fell in love with everything they had to offer athletically and academically. He will be reporting to USC on June 15^th to start training for football season.

“I’m most excited to play in front of thousands of people. I mean Bingham might have a lot of fans, but at USC they have like 95 thousand, so that’s a lot different,” said Tufele.

In January, Tufele got a glimpse of playing in front of big crowds when he had the opportunity to play in the U.S. Army All American Bowl. According to their website, the U.S. Army All-American Bowl is the nation’s premier high school All-American game. It features the best 100 players and consists of an East vs. West match-up every January in San Antonio’s Alamodome, with a worldwide audience broadcasted on NBC.

“This game was so awesome. I got to play with the best players in the country and just competing with them and seeing how I am with them was an awesome experience,” said Tufele.

Jay Tufele is someone that the upcoming Bingham football players will always have to look up to.

“I’ve loved playing with Jay these past few years, and he has always been one of the hardest workers on the team,” said teammate Ben Malohi. “He deserves all the big things coming his way.”

Jay Tufele has left his mark at Bingham, and now it’s time for him to leave his mark on the rest of the nation.

Don’t forget to tune in for the next college football season to watch him play as a USC Trojan.