College football recruiting has become a mockery due to Malik “Behemoth” Mutumbo.

Many athletes aspire to be collegiate athletes. The process includes rigorous skill-specific training, extensive weight training, excelling in the classroom, and finally, having a mind to read the game better than most. All these skills have been twisted and laughed at by the fake X account known as Malik “Behemoth” Mutumbo.

“Behemoth” Mutumbo, the supposed 6’11 “400+ pound lineman from South Africa going to Tabor Academy, first created an account on X in November 2024. The fake account only recently gained popularity and garnered the attention of the college and high school football world.  The account has posted fake collegiate offers from schools such as Ohio State on March 23, Michigan on March 21, and Penn State on March 18, racking up well over one million views.

The account takes the image of “Big Bubba,” or Brione Ramsey-Brooks, a 6’5 455 lb. an offensive lineman who most recently played at TCU. Bubba also had quite an impressive high school highlight tape that attracted many other college programs. Mutumbo posts fake offers and commitments which are perceived to be real by college football programs across the country.

Dean Ruksnaitis, a three-star junior offensive lineman at Williston who is rated by Rivals and On3 Sports, believes that this account has put into perspective how exhausting the college recruitment process can be.

“I think it portrays college sports as a lot of BS because you have legitimate college coaches following a fake account,” Dean said. “These guys are supposed to be the best of the best when it comes to recruiting and [being able] to recruit the best guys and scout talent from a mile away. How do you have college coaches reaching out to this account and Coach Moore, believing that this account is a real person because all they have seen is size and supposed offers saying to themselves ‘we have to get on this kid’?”

Dean believes that these college coaches should invest more time in looking at their recruits instead of jumping on someone because of their height and weight. Often, this is how colleges receive a kid with bad character or skill such as Micah Hudson, a five-star receiver who was recently removed from Texas A&M’s football team for alleged character issues, or Ty Washington, a tight Eend for Arkansas being removed from the team for the same reason.  When an account gains more notoriety off metrics alone, it can leave some actual athletes questioning if they, as a high schooler looking to make the leap to college sports, have what it takes to reach the next level.

Even though the frustration continues to mount, Nate Ellis, a junior from Shrewsbury, Mass., believes that this type of social media attention has motivated him to put more time and effort into becoming a successful football player.

“It’s difficult mentally when you see a kid that does not even exist receive more college attention than you,” Nate said. “When I saw his height and weight, I wasn’t surprised about the attention that the posts gathered. Being a shorter player, I know that it’s more difficult to get recruited but that is something that has always pushed me. Seeing people receive offers just off metrics is something I’ve always used as motivation.”

Nate noted that simply because you are not a certain weight or a certain size doesn’t mean it makes things impossible. There are always the occasional underdog stories that we have come to know and love, of a player defying the odds and achieving their goals.

Coach Jerod Martino runs a recruiting service out of New England called “The Five Star Football Package” and has played at all levels of college football. He thinks the fake X account is ridiculous.

“I have been all around college football and this is one of the wildest football stories I have ever seen,” Martino said. “You have some of the most reputable recruiting sites in America believing this to then reach out to Jeff Moore, the head football coach at Tabor Academy to tell them he’s not real. Even the Boston Globe did not do their due diligence. The worst part of it all, it takes two seconds to scroll down and see that this kid’s a troll. If this doesn’t show you how much of a joke the recruiting game can be, I don’t know what will.”