Tuipulotu tight-lipped on his college choice

Nation Ford senior football player Hank Tuipulotu is holding his cards close to the vest when it comes to revealing his next destination.

Tuipulotu, a tight end who led the nation in receiving this past season, recently visited the University of South Carolina. He was supposed to travel to Brigham Young University in Utah this past weekend, but the trip was postponed because of the major storm that blanketed the area. Tuipulotu, whose father and uncle both played for BYU, said recently he will make public his choice on Feb. 3, National Signing Day.

He committed verbally to BYU last year, but left his options open after a coaching change at the school. Tuipulotu said his visit to South Carolina, which also hired a new coach recently, was fun.

“It was really nice,” he said.

“There facilities are so, so sweet. They are building tons of new stuff. Coach (Will) Muschamp was a great hire. I think that program is on the rise. They got all the facilities, they got the coaching staff. I guess it depends on if they get the players.”

Tuipulotu had pretty much made his mind up that BYU was going to be his landing spot, but that was before Muschamp and his new administration showed interest in him. However, he is also getting a lot of attention from N.C. State and the University of Virginia, where former BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall was just named head coach.

Tuipulotu said the visit to BYU will help him make his mind up about where he will play college football. He also said he still may visit Virginia or N.C. State soon.

“That will be the final say between which of the two to pick,” he said.

“But there have been other schools reaching out to me, so I really don’t want to make a decision without considering all my options. I am just excited to compare the two – South Carolina and BYU.”

Tuipulotu said he will still go on a two-year Mormon mission trip before enrolling in school.

“All the schools came out and said they are OK (with that) and happy I am going on a mission,” he said. “It’s something I believe in.”

While Tuipulotu isn’t saying where he is going, others have already spoken out. His NaFo teammate, wide receiver Jordan Helms, committed verbally to North Greenville University and made it public via Twitter.

Their quarterback, Cole Martin, also is looking at North Greenville, but has interest from other schools, including Wingate University and Stetson University.

This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 3:10 PM with the headline "Tuipulotu tight-lipped on his college choice."