I’m excited to come home; it’s a special feeling. – Brandon Fanaika
A four-star recruit out of Pleasant Grove High, Brandon Fanaika will finally get the chance to play football at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday.
Tight end Dalton Schultz will be reunited with his Bingham teammate, defensive tackle Lowell Lotulelei, only they’ll be on opposite sides of the ball.
Fanaika and Schultz are two of the six Utah players on Stanford’s roster this season, and they’ll be two of the three expected to start for the Cardinal when they visit the Utes this Saturday at 8:15 p.m.
“I’m absolutely excited,” said Fanaika, whose older brother Jason played for Utah State and then Utah before graduating in 2015. “I’ve never played there. I always grew up telling myself it would be really cool to play there. Finally, I have the chance. I’m excited to come home; it’s a special feeling.”
Both players said it’s been hard not to look ahead on the schedule to this week’s game.
“Ever since I was a freshman, I’ve been looking forward to this,” he said. “When I was a freshman, Utah came here and my brother was on the team.”
Fanaika may see more of Lotulelei than Schultz, and the offensive guard said he’s looking forward to playing against Lotulelei as they’re good friends.
Schultz is familiar with Rice-Eccles as that’s where he helped Bingham win the 2013 5A state title in his senior season.
“I’m crazy excited,” he said. “I saw the schedule come out, and obviously, being from Utah, this is the game I was most excited for.”
Both players said there is a special nostalgia associated with leaving the state and then returning to compete against former teammates and friends made through football.
“It’s that you grew up with these people, childhood friends, playing with or against them, and then you go do your separate thing, and you're successful,” he said. “It’s great to see all your friends doing well in football, doing well in the classroom, and to have the opportunity to play each other, that’s a cool thing.”
In addition to Schultz and Fanaika, junior linebacker Sean Barton, a Woods Cross alum, will also take the field against Utah. The Cardinal also have three freshmen – Bountiful’s Houston Heimuli, Brighton’s Sione Lund, and Timpview’s Gabe Reid – on the roster. And there are several other Utah players who’ve committed to Stanford but are currently serving LDS missions.
In fact, Stanford has the most players from Utah on its roster outside of, of course, the Utes.
The key to why so many players from the Beehive State are finding their way to Stanford may be found in defensive coordinator Lance Anderson.
Head coach David Shaw said there are a number of reasons Anderson is having so much success luring players to Stanford.
“I think it’s two-fold,” Shaw said during Tuesday’s teleconference. “His history in the state, the number of people he’s met, and it’s also talking people through how those (LDS) missions work, and how it can work here at Stanford.”
While some college coaches balk at the idea that a player might commit and leave after a year or not show up for two years, Stanford has embraced missionaries, and has reaped the reward of great players like Fanaika.
“We take the long view,” Shaw said. “We don’t take short-term views. When we find the right person, the right kind of players, when we find all of those things together, and then they go on a mission for two years, when they come back, they’re still that same person. So we don’t feel like we have to eliminate them because of that.”
Shaw said what Stanford football is looking for is very similar to what Utah prep coaches appear to be teaching.
“We have a lot of ideals that are matching,” Shaw said. “Really good football, really good teams, you’ve got really good schools academically, and we’ve been able to find the guys who fit us, and that’s tough, physical, athletic, have high aspirations both in the sport of football and in life. And then you have guys who’ve come here and had great experiences, and those things go a long way for inviting other guys to come and have similar experiences.”
Schultz said that once Stanford expressed interest in him, they became a frontrunner.
“Stanford is a tough thing to turn down, for anybody,” he said. “The combination of athletics and academics is really unparalleled.”
Part of the reason Stanford is willing to accommodate the unusual situation is that the private school asks a lot of its potential students. “Stanford is not the easy choice,” Shaw said. “It’s a place (where) they have to want to come. …Once we find the right people, the road we give them is sometimes very difficult.”
Fanaika said Anderson was instrumental in helping him find his way to Stanford.
“It was definitely a fortunate situation,” he said. “They’re very supportive, especially having coach Anderson. …Growing up in Utah, I kind of just grew up a BYU and Utah fan. It wasn’t until high school, until I started getting reunited in general that Stanford was on my radar.”
Once he visited the campus, and saw a path for him to Stanford, that became his goal.
“I visited campus a few times, and it did turn into a dream of mine to be able to come to a school with such a prestigious education,” he said. “Education is really important to my parents, and they taught us that growing up. Education was always a priority, so I always tried my best to be a good student.”
The fifth of seven children, Fanaika said the recruiting process can be intimidating, especially at Stanford, but Anderson helped him navigate it.
“He was great, and gave me a big hand,” Fanaika said. “He was very understanding, and he was very aware, and I feel like it helped me so much. …It was a huge help.”
It also helped that a former high school teammate, Dallas Rogers, chose to play at Stanford and could also offer him support.
Both men said they’ve had some incredible experiences at Stanford and that the alumni association is very active with current students.
“I’ve met some pretty amazing people here,” he said. “I think one of the coolest experiences was being able to be a project-buddy with John Lynch, we were in the same group, and now he’s the GM of the 49ers. …It’s really cool kind of meeting so many amazing people here on campus.”
Schultz said his favorite aspect of attending Stanford has been the people he’s met.
“The people you meet in the classroom are doing incredible things,” he said. “And they’re even better people.”