Time Difference Allows Utah To Ink Aussie Rugby Star Early

Time Difference Allows Utah To Ink Aussie Rugby Star Early

Utah got a head start on National Signing Day, inking Australian rugby standout Thomas Yassmin once the calendar turned to Feb. 7 Down Under.

Feb 7, 2018 by Kolby Paxton
Time Difference Allows Utah To Ink Aussie Rugby Star Early

The earth is a sphere that spins around the sun. The humans that inhabit the earth have a demonstrated preference for daylight during the, um, day. With this in mind, the world is split into 24 15-degree slices known as time zones — each one, one hour different from the next.

Utah took advantage of this little factual nugget in getting a jump-start on the 2018 National Signing Day by inking Australian rugby star Thomas Yassmin to a national letter of intent once the calendar turned to Feb. 7 Down Under.


Yassmin is a 6-foot-4, 240-pound tight end who is rated three stars by 247Sports despite having never played American football — thanks, at least in part, to that size meshed with a reported 4.5-second 40-yard dash. The Utes beat out UCLA, Oregon, and Washington for his services.