This past weekend the University of Utah welcomed an intriguing legacy-recruit on an official visit, Herriman HS’s Ephraim Asiata. The son of beloved former Ute, Matt Asiata, took his first official visit, soaking it all in with his family by his side.

“It was great. I loved the whole thing — especially my family; my family loved the whole thing,” said Asiata. “That just made me love the whole thing even more, because they were happy.”

While it was a big moment for him — especially after everything he went through and overcame the last year and a half — Asiata enjoyed seeing his family share the spotlight.

“I feel like my dad especially, he was reliving his little moments he used to have. And I can tell because he was all hyped the whole weekend,” said Asiata. “My mom was [hyped] too; she loves the sport just as much as we do. My sister, my whole family just loves football, to be honest, especially my little brothers. Then looking up to my dad and following after me, I think they just had the best time over there watching everything go down.”

Aside from his family’s experience, the most impactful moment he had on the trip was his one-on-one conversation with Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham.

“I think that really hit,” said Asiata. “I feel like that was the most important part that impacted the whole trip, was the talk with Coach Whitt.”

Asiata went on to say that it was the genuine love that he felt from Whittingham that really struck a chord in him.

During all of his conversations with the coaches, they left his future position up to him. Asiata could end up at either linebacker or defensive end. His peak weight was 225 pounds just before the tragic event that led to him missing his junior season. During that time, Asiata said he dropped to 150 pounds, but he’s now back up to 215 and gaining at a positive rate.

“They have trust in what I’m doing right now, to put on a little more weight before college,” said Asiata.

The main coach he spent time with during his visit was defensive ends coach Lewis Powell. Despite Asiata not playing his junior season after initially not knowing if he’d ever be cleared to play the game again, Powell holds a strong belief in what Asiata is capable of.

“He told me, ‘You wouldn’t be in this seat if I didn’t think you had a chance to compete with our guys right now,’” according to Asiata. “So, I’ve kept that in my head and I’m going to keep working through my senior season.”

His player hosts were Logan and Spencer Fano. He also spent time with his relative, another Ute great, Isaac Asiata. They went to the Strawberry Days Festival and battled it out playing a bunch of games of Madden.

During his time spent with them, the culture of the Utah program is what stood out to Asiata in his conversations with Isaac, the Fano brothers, and other players that he hung around.

“I'm sure every school has their own little culture, but I even asked the players one-one-one without any of the coaches there,” said Asiata. “The first thing they talked about was the culture and the way the boys go about things.’

Overall, the trip was so impactful that with his family history with Utah and his own experience, it was difficult for the legacy Ute to not want to commit on the trip.

“That was definitely hard after the talk with Coach Whitt. Even the first day, that was just all so surreal,” said Asiata. “I was just trying to be in the moment and everything was going the way I wanted it to. I’d say the visit had a big pull on my decision.”

Two weeks ago, Asiata wanted to wait on committing anywhere until the end of his senior season in order to increase his offers and enjoy the experience. Now after his Utah visit, he’s acknowledged that that decision might come not long after his BYU visit.

That shows how big of an impact his Utah visit was.