Lander Barton (born December 30, 2003) is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

for the

Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans in the Unite ...

. He was named the 2022

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

Defensive Freshman of the Year. He is the younger brother of NFL players

Cody Barton Cody Likeke Barton (born November 13, 1996) is an American professional football linebacker for the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Utah Utes and was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in ...

and Jackson Barton.

Early life

Barton was born in

Cottonwood Heights, Utah Cottonwood Heights is a city located in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, along the east bench of the Salt Lake Valley. It lies south of the cities of Holladay and Murray, east of Midvale, and north of Sandy within the Salt Lake City, ...

, later attending Brighton High School. He comes from a family of athletes; his father, Paul, played baseball and football for the

; his mother, Mikki-Kane, was an honorable mention

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

basketball player for Utah as well as an athlete competing in volleyball; his sister,

Dani Drews Danielle Drews (; born February 2, 1999) is an American professional volleyball player who plays as an outside hitter for the United States women's national volleyball team and LOVB Pro team LOVB Salt Lake. Personal life Drews is from Sandy, ...

, was an All-American volleyball player for the Utes and is a professional volleyball player overseas, in the United States, and for the United States Women’s National Team; and both of his brothers, Cody and

Jackson Jackson may refer to: Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson South, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson oil field in Durham, ...

, each have played for Utah and in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). Barton attended Brighton High School and played basketball and football: in football, he was twice first-team all-state, twice first-team all-region and was the 2020 Region 6

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

; and in basketball he was a second-team all-state choice. He played

and

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

in football, totaling 122

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position) A tackle is a playing position in American football. Historically, in the one-platoon system prevalent ...

in addition to two

interception In Ball game, ball-playing Competitive sport, competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for ...

s as a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

while also having a career total of 16 receiving

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s. Barton was highly recruited, being ranked a four-star prospect, the second-best player in the state and the 17th-best linebacker nationally. He committed to play

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the Utah Utes, following in the steps of several of his family members.

College career

As a true

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

at Utah in 2022, Barton appeared in 14 games, three as a starter, and posted 46 tackles, eight , 4.5 sacks, a forced

fumble A fumble in gridiron football occurs when a player who has possession and control of the ball loses it before being downed (tackled), scoring, or going out of bounds. By rule, it is any act other than passing, kicking, punting, or successful h ...

and fumble recovery. He was selected by ''

College Football News ''College Football News'' (''CFN'') is a magazine and website published by College Football News, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. News coverage includes scores, statistics, rankings, and reports on college football games. Analysis incl ...

'' as a second-team

Freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

and was named the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

Freshman Defensive Player of the Year. He entered the 2023 season as a starter at linebacker.

References

External links

Utah Utes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, Lander 2003 births Living people Players of American football from Utah American football linebackers Utah Utes football players