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PROVO — BYU’s football program drew widespread national attention on National Letter of Intent Day 2015 by signing a recruit that nobody had ever heard of — and happened to be listed at 6-foot-7, 410 pounds.
That recruit, Motekiai (Mo) Langi, hailed from Liahona, Tonga, and had never played football before. On top of that, he was departing for a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Then-Cougar head coach Bronco Mendenhall offered Langi a scholarship just 15 minutes after meeting him just a little more than a week before Signing Day.
After his two-year mission to Arizona, Langi joined the BYU football program in 2017 and played on special teams that season, both the field goal kick and block units. During fall camp in 2017, a video of Langi making a one-armed tackle went viral.
Then he dropped about 100 pounds before missing the entire 2018 campaign due to a neck injury and subsequent surgery.
On Wednesday, Langi announced via Instagram that his football career is over for health reasons.
[To read the full story go to DeseretNews.com](<http://www.ksl.com/ad_logger/ad_logger.php?location=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900069920/behemoth-byu-lineman-mo-langi-explains-his-retirement-from-football-expresses-gratitude-for-experience.html&sponsor=Behemoth BYU lineman Mo Langi explains his retirement from football, expresses gratitude for experience>)
