'God-given talent': Mt. Whitney's Israel Briggs is Visalia's top college football recruit

When Israel Briggs was a freshman, he saw a future major NCAA Division I football player terrorize his Mt. Whitney Pioneers in person.

That player was Jaeden Moore — then a 6-foot-4, 230-pound senior for the Central Valley Christian Cavaliers.

Moore, a two-way starter at defensive end and tight end, lit up the Pioneers with two catches for 65 yards. Both receptions went for touchdowns, including a 50-yard bomb to give CVC an early 6-0 lead in the first quarter. The Cavaliers won that game 44-0 with Moore also racking up two tackles for losses and 1.5 sacks.

Moore is currently an outside linebacker at the University of Oregon. In high school, Moore had scholarship offers from nearly 20 Division I programs, including Notre Dame.

"I just remember looking at him, 'I just want to be just like him,'" Briggs said. "Just to have that, like, that feeling of other people knowing how hard I've worked. Now, it's the time for me. I got two years left. The job's not finished."

Briggs enters his junior year as one of the state's top recruits for the Class of 2026.

A four-star prospect by the recruiting website 247sports.com , he is ranked as the state's 28th-best college recruit in his class. Briggs is projected as a tight end at the next level.

Briggs' rise as one of the Central Section's premier players has been nothing short of remarkable.

He was pulled up midway through his freshman football season and earned All-East Yosemite League first-team honors in his first semester in high school.

Briggs followed that with another All-EYL first-team selection last season, playing a starring role in the Pioneers' run to EYL, Sid Hosking Trophy and Cowhide championships.

During his sophomore year, he had 44 catches for 571 yards and eight touchdowns.

"At this point, I can say confidently, unstoppable," Mt. Whitney tight end Skylar Padgett said of Briggs. "He's a great athlete. There's nothing he can't do. He can throw the ball. He can catch. His routes are great, and as young as he is, his mentality is great. It's nice to have him on the team."

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His production coupled with his natural talent and size have college scouts expressing serious interest in Briggs' future.

The Mt. Whitney junior has 11 reported scholarship offers from Auburn, Cal, Colorado State, Florida, Florida State, Fresno State, Kentucky, SMU, Texas A&M, UCF and UNLV.

Auburn, Florida, Kentucky and Texas A&M are members of the prestigious SEC. Fifty-nine former SEC players were selected in this year's NFL Draft.

What's it like to be courted by SEC teams?

"It's a really surreal feeling," Briggs said. "You know we don't really get nothing like that out here. It's like, I'm just blessed to be in the position that I'm in. I've just had to really put my head down and work hard for everything that I've had."

This past spring, Briggs sent his highlight video to Colorado State.

He heard back in May and the Rams were the first college football program to offer a scholarship.

That created a ripple effect and the rest is history.

"It's like what they say, 'Once one offer comes, then boom, everything comes," Briggs said.

UNLV was the second school to offer Briggs, and then Florida State.

Once Florida State reached out to Mt. Whitney head coach Chamberlain, more offers started rolling in and the interest from the SEC programs grew.

"He is a young, gonna be a junior, 6-5, just a natural athlete," Chamberlain said of Briggs. "God-given talent. The beauty of Israel Briggs is that every single year, he's matured more, and he works hard and he understands. Now going into his third year on varsity, he understands what he can accomplish, and so it's really cool seeing him come from a young buck, a little boy, to a young man. He's starting to see what that talent brings."

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Briggs' role on the team is set to expand this season.

Chamberlain plans to line up his star player all over the field.

"He will be in every position this year," Chamberlain said. "Very talented athlete."

Coming off an EYL championship, Mt. Whitney is no longer the prey.

That is something Briggs and his teammates have embraced.

"Mt. Whitney has always kind of been the underdogs," Briggs said. "When we got that feeling, that taste of winning, winning something, and everyone is targeting you now, it's a good feeling. At the same time, you have a target on your back so you have to work really hard. People don't see how much we work. It's crazy how much we work."

Briggs plays for his mom, Lemasani , who died when he was in the eighth grade.

Before every game, he says a prayer to keep the memory of his mother alive. Mom still serves as his inspiration.

"Everything goes back to my mom," Briggs said. "My mom's always talking to me I feel like."

Briggs is the first four-star recruit from Visalia in recent memory.

Moore was ranked as a three-star prospect.

Washington Commanders receiver Kazmeir Allen is the last four-star recruit from Tulare County. The former record-setting Tulare Union running back played college football at UCLA after setting the national single-season record with 72 touchdowns in 2017.

"I just feel so grateful to even be in the position that I'm in," Briggs said. "Just having football, it's a gift."

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: 'God-given talent': Mt. Whitney's Israel Briggs is Visalia's top college football recruit