Three weeks ago, BYU’s right-tackle plan was an “or.”
Siosiua Latu-Finau or Bott Mulitalo. A redshirt freshman or a true freshman. Neither had started a college game, and the first audition would come on the road against TCU because Andrew Gentry’s ankle injury had removed a veteran from the lineup.
The latest depth chart no longer needs the conjunction. Mulitalo is listed first by himself, with Latu-Finau behind him, for Saturday’s trip to UCF.
That change was earned against the best defense BYU has faced. On3 named Mulitalo one of its top true freshmen from Week 7 after he allowed zero pressures on 38 pass-blocking plays in the 28-24 win over Notre Dame, citing Pro Football Focus. He was making his third start.
The zero is impressive. The speed of the promotion is the more useful story.
BYU did not spend the last three games hiding a freshman until Gentry returned. It gave Mulitalo the whole right edge, kept the quarterback clean in consecutive games and removed the shared-starter label before the middle of the season. A position that looked like an emergency in Fort Worth now looks like a choice.
The depth chart moved in three steps
| Week | BYU’s right-tackle picture | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| TCU | Latu-Finau or Mulitalo | First college start available after Gentry’s surgery |
| Iowa State | Young replacement settling in | BYU allowed no sacks while producing 506 yards |
| Notre Dame | Mulitalo’s third start | Zero pressures allowed on 38 pass plays; BYU again allowed no sacks |
| UCF | Mulitalo, then Latu-Finau | The “or” designation is gone |
The table should not be read as a solo act. Pass protection belongs to five linemen, the backs, tight ends and quarterback. BYU’s official line-of-the-week release credits the group with allowing zero sacks and only two tackles for loss against Notre Dame. The offense gained 360 yards and rushed for 121 against a defense that had held seven straight opponents under 100 on the ground.
Mulitalo’s individual line matters because right tackle was the obvious place to test that group.
Gentry started every game for BYU in 2025 and the first three this season. He brought size, experience and the calm of a player who had already worked through Big Ten football at Michigan. When he underwent surgery after Colorado State, BYU replaced 17 consecutive Cougar starts with a competition between two players who had none.
TCU knew it. Iowa State knew it. Notre Dame certainly knew it.
Three starts later, Mulitalo has gone from the question on the protection plan to one reason the plan survived.
Zero pressures is better than a highlight block
Offensive linemen are easiest to notice when something goes wrong. A missed twist puts the quarterback on the ground. A late hand creates a holding flag. One bad edge turns third-and-manageable into a punt.
That is why On3’s 38-play sample carries more weight than one violent block circulating online. Mulitalo did not win one snap against Notre Dame. He avoided losing the pass-protection assignment across an entire night.
The Irish entered Provo averaging 2.5 sacks per game. They got none. BYU also kept four red-zone possessions alive long enough to finish all four with touchdowns.
Those possessions asked different things from the right side.
The opening drive mixed Bear Bachmeier runs with play action. The throwback touchdown to Bachmeier required the protection to hold while Kyler Kasper received the handoff look, stopped and returned the ball across the formation. The final drive included three straight quarterback runs inside the 15, then a third-and-goal pass after a false start backed BYU from the 1 to the 6.
Notre Dame could attack a freshman tackle on an obvious passing down. It still did not reach Bachmeier before he found Walker Lyons for the winning touchdown.
That does not mean Mulitalo played a perfect game. PFF’s pressure count is one grading service’s chart, and BYU’s offense had a false start at the worst possible moment. It does mean the feared failure never appeared. The right edge did not produce a sack, hurry or hit credited to Mulitalo over those 38 pass plays.
For a true freshman in his third start, that is sturdier evidence than a recruiting ranking.
His one year on offense makes the timeline stranger
BYU lists Mulitalo at 6-foot-5 and 310 pounds. The body was ready for college football. His position history was not supposed to be.
Mulitalo played defense through his junior year at Lone Peak. BYU’s official profile credits him with 45 tackles, 16 tackles for loss and six sacks in 2024. He moved to the offensive line as a senior, earned first-team all-state recognition and won offensive-line MVP at the Under Armour Next camp in Utah.
On3 notes that he was once committed to USC as a defensive lineman before his rise as an offensive-line prospect. That means the Notre Dame game came during only his second season playing the position full time.
The defensive background helps explain some of what scouts saw. A former edge player understands how a rusher wants to threaten outside leverage, convert speed to power or punish an overset with an inside counter. Understanding the problem is not the same as solving it at college speed, though. Hands, balance, foot timing and communication with the right guard all had to catch up.
BYU gave that development a careful runway before it became an emergency. Mulitalo received first-team work during fall camp. He opened the season behind Gentry and appeared in the first three games. Those reserve snaps did not prove he could handle TCU, Iowa State and Notre Dame. They kept his first meaningful action from also being his first exposure to the offense.
The staff’s early choice looks better now. Testing a freshman with the first unit in August can feel like depth-chart theater. In this case, it was preparation for a problem that arrived in September.
BYU did not have to shrink the offense
The easiest way to protect a young tackle is to ask less of everybody.
Keep a tight end attached. Chip the edge with a back. Throw quickly. Run away from the replacement. Those tools remain useful, especially when the game or opponent demands them, but they also narrow the offense if they become permanent rules.
BYU’s last two games suggest Mulitalo has not forced that kind of retreat.
Bachmeier threw for 329 yards against Iowa State and 224 against Notre Dame. The Cougars did not allow a sack in either game. Against the Irish, Bachmeier also became part of the rushing plan near the goal line and caught the throwback touchdown. The offense used its quarterback as a passer, runner and receiver rather than treating every snap as a rescue mission for the right tackle.
That freedom showed up on the winning play. A false start had already made the down harder. BYU still kept enough of its normal passing structure to let Lyons work into the end zone and Bachmeier wait for the window.
The line’s Big 12 weekly award belongs to the full group. Mulitalo’s zero-pressure chart explains why the group could function normally at the one spot where normal should have been hardest.
There is a recruiting lesson here, too. Depth is not the number of 300-pound players on the roster. It is whether the next player can preserve the call sheet when a starter disappears. BYU had plenty of large bodies in August. It now has evidence that one of them can hold a premium position against a top defense.
The UCF test is about repetition, not another award
Mulitalo will not get to keep the Notre Dame grade in Orlando. UCF gets a fresh film sample and a clear target.
The Knights had an open week before facing BYU. That gives their staff extra time to study how the Cougars helped the right side, when Mulitalo set vertically, how he handled movement and which pressures changed the protection. A freshman who surprised one opponent becomes a scouting assignment for the next.
BYU should expect UCF to make him prove the same skills again. The most revealing snaps may not be one-on-one speed rushes. They may be late movement, a linebacker added outside or a twist that forces Mulitalo and right guard Kyle Sfarcioc to exchange defenders without hesitation.
The standard is not another zero. Offensive tackles can play well and allow a pressure. The standard is whether BYU keeps its full offense available without dedicating every answer to one edge.
The permanent UCF game center has the confirmed Saturday 1:30 p.m. Mountain kickoff on FOX. The football schedule keeps the rest of BYU’s Big 12 path together.
Three checkpoints will say more than a weekly grade:
- Can Mulitalo handle UCF’s first obvious passing situation without immediate help?
- Does BYU continue running its normal play-action and quarterback-run menu toward either side?
- When UCF changes the picture after the snap, does the right side pass the movement cleanly?
Those are starting-tackle questions. That is the point.
Before TCU, Mulitalo and Latu-Finau were two promising answers to an unwanted problem. Before UCF, Mulitalo is the named starter coming off 38 clean pass-protection plays against Notre Dame.
The injury did not become good news. Losing Gentry cost BYU an experienced captain and forced a freshman into the difficult half of the schedule. Mulitalo has simply kept the cost from multiplying.
That is a better development than a dramatic rescue. BYU needed a right tackle. Three starts later, it appears to have one.
Sources and further reading
- On3: true freshman standouts from Week 7 for Mulitalo’s zero pressures on 38 pass-blocking plays, physical profile, Notre Dame assessment and one-year offensive-line background, with its charting attributed to Pro Football Focus.
- BYU Athletics: Big 12 Offensive Line of the Week for the unit’s second straight sack-free game, two tackles for loss allowed, 360 total yards, 121 rushing yards and Notre Dame’s defensive baselines.
- BYU Athletics: Bott Mulitalo profile for his listed size, Lone Peak history, defensive production, move to offense, camp recognition and recruiting record.
- KSL Sports: BYU’s UCF depth chart for Mulitalo becoming the clear first-team right tackle after previously sharing the line with Latu-Finau.
- Deseret News: BYU’s post-Gentry tackle competition for Gentry’s injury timeline and the original no-start replacement choice before TCU.
- BYU Sport Nuts: Notre Dame recap, three-honors analysis, football roster and Bott Mulitalo player page.
