path to the draft: uriah leiataua
2021 BYU SEASON:
The brotherhood at BYU is what convinced California native, Uriah Leiataua, to choose BYU over offers from Stanford, UCLA, and other Power 5 programs.
“The reason why I chose BYU is because the culture, especially the players — I call them my brothers at BYU. It's a different feeling than what I had with all the other recruiting trips I took in high school. I just found a different type of brotherhood at BYU,” Leiataua said of his decision to play for BYU.
Leiataua came back for his final year of eligibility, making the 2021 season his 6th season as a Cougar. This past season, the defensive lineman recorded 16 solo tackles and 2.5 sacks.
“This last season was awesome. It was one of the best seasons ever. But my favorite moment had to be when we beat Utah. I'm so glad I came back for that extra year,” said Leiataua of his last BYU Season.
After the bowl game, Leiataua retired from football. With only five sacks and 69 tackles in five seasons of playing, Leiataua was overlooked by scouts and NFL teams. It was not until January when BYU’s NFL liaison Jasen Ah You encouraged Leiataua to train for and participate in Pro Day and give his dream of playing in the NFL one last shot. Not wanting to have any regrets, Leiataua began training for Pro Day. Leiataua feels that both Ah You and the BYU football program have pushed him to reach the next level.
“BYU helped a lot with the level of competition, the way BYU trains and the way BYU lifts and everything like that. It's built on toughness, something that I am taking with me when I go to the next level,” Leiataua said.
PRO DAY TRAINING:
Leiataua has been training for Pro Day at Mayne Performance in South Jordan, Utah under Skyler Mayne. Mayne Performance specializes in sports performance, movement optimization, and athlete care. The majority of Leuitaua’s training group are players from the University of Utah.
“Pro Day preparations have been kind of crazy. All 24 hours are dedicated to your body and training your body for this one day to show up,” Leiataua said of his new training.
Leiataua’s training schedule is Monday through Saturday with Sunday being a recovery day. He wakes up at 7:30 am and has a morning workout that includes lifting and position work. The next few hours are spent doing recovery work. Then, he starts his second workout which mostly consists of light work — specifically practicing stances and technique for drills. To end the day, Leiataua does rehab recovery along with red light therapy and cryotherapy.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are testing days. This includes 20 yard shuttles, 20 yard splits, or a 10 yard split to practice for testing on Pro Day.
“I'm literally working from seven in the morning until eight at night when I get home. And that’s just the life now,” Leiataua said of his daily schedule.
Without school and other distractions, Leiataua is solely focused on his performance and football — but, he still makes time for free time.
“It's kind of fun to get to play video games. Don't worry about homework. I also have the boys to play video games with me like Neil [Pau’u] and Ty [Allgeier]. So that that's a cool part,” Leiataua said of his free time.
PRO DAY:
In order to get the attention of NFL teams and scouts, it’s important for Leiataua to put up impressive numbers on Pro Day.
When asked about his Pro Day goals, Leiataua said, “I just want to like catch eyes, to be honest. I'm putting a lot of stuff into Pro Day, so it’s a big thing for me. I just want to put up numbers that will give me a shot. And whatever team that takes a chance on me is going to get a good one.”
At BYU’s Pro Day, Leiataua participated in the vertical jump (28.5 inches), broad jump (9 feet 6 inches), 40-yard dash (5.09 seconds), 20-yard shuttle (4.70 seconds), and three-cone drill (7.46 seconds). Leiataua also completed 23-reps on the bench press, which would have ranked him No. 4 among the defensive ends at this year’s Combine. Following testing, Leiataua participated in positional workouts for the scouts.
“I am happy with how I performed today. I think I did really well and I’m excited about that. Today I just focused on attacking each drill we did and on performing my best,” said Leiataua of his Pro Day performance.
The 2022 NFL Draft will begin on April 28th in Las Vegas.