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Four-star WR Titus Mokiao-Atimalala commits to UCF

No coach, no problem.

As long as quarterback Dillon Gabriel is at UCF, that was good enough for Titus Mokiao-Atimalala. The four-star wide receiver from Hawaii, who was already close with Gabriel, committed to the Knights on Saturday over schools such as Maryland, Oregon, UCLA, Washington State and Maryland.

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UCF lost head coach Josh Heupel to Tennessee last week, just a few days after athletic director Danny White departed for Knoxville. The Knights are in the midst of a national search for both roles. In celebrating Mokiao-Atimalala's commitment, Gabriel also lobbied for his preferred picks for those jobs: Scott Carr for AD, currently the interim, and Ole Miss offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby for head coach. Lebby was a UCF assistant under Heupel from 2018-19.

Despite being located nearly 5,000 miles away, Hawaii has shaped up to be an important pipeline for UCF. Quarterback McKenzie Milton started it all in the Class of 2016, which ultimately led to a pair of signings in the 2019 class, Gabriel and offensive lineman Lokahi Pauole.

Gabriel is Hawaii's career passing leader and Mokiao-Atimalala was poised to go down in the books with the state's career receiving yards record, but he'll end up 595 yards shy as Hawaii did not play high school football in 2020 due to COVID-19. He'll finish with 2,915 receiving yards on 170 receptions and 37 touchdowns.

Mokiao-Atimalala, who also excelled on defense as a safety, became Hawaii's first non-senior to win the Cover2 Marcus Mariota Award, given annually to the best player in the state.

With the pledge, UCF's 2021 recruiting class is now ranked No. 50 nationally by Rivals.com. Mokiao-Atimalala will officially sign next week.



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