Somewhere between agreeing to a contract extension last week and leading BYU into their first Big 12 championship game, Kalani Sitake signed the highest-rated recruiting class in program history.
“When you think of really good recruiting classes in BYU history, you go back to 2010 with Jake Heaps, Ross Apo and Bronson Kaufusi — it was a fantastic recruiting class and this one is better,” Jeff Hansen of CougarInsider.com and 247Sports told the “Y’s Guys” livestream show this week.
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“This one has twice as many four-star prosects in it. Everybody on the list has Power Four offers that BYU was competing against. All the credit goes to the coaching staff. They absolutely delivered and hit a home run with this recruiting class.”
Among the headliners in the No. 21 ranked haul are four-star prospects Ryder Lyons (quarterback), Brock Harris (tight end), Ty Goettsche (tight end), Bott Mulitalo (offensive line), Adam Bywater (linebacker), Lopeti Moala (defensive line), and Jaron (receiver) and Kennan Pula (receiver/defensive back).
“There are a lot of pieces to be really excited about, and they have to stay healthy and develop, but it’s the clay,” Hansen said. “You want good clay to work with and then you can make a vase. BYU has a lot of good clay in the pipeline right now.”
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According to Hansen, flipping the Pula twins from Utah to BYU on the final day of the signing period was the surprise of the class.
“That’s a really big addition. If you are a high school fan in the state of Utah, you know who the Pulas are,” Hansen said of the Lone Peak stars. “If you are Utah and you see what they did at Rice-Eccles Stadium in the state playoffs and then to have them go to your rival down south, that hurts a little bit more for Utah. Anytime you steal a recruit from Utah, that’s great for BYU, but when you steal a couple of guys that are four-star guys that can play early in their careers, that makes it a little sweeter.”
Gaps to fill
According to Hansen, BYU’s debut in the Big 12 championship game was both rewarding and revealing. Rewarding because it came in just the third year as a Power Four program. Revealing because it showed how far the Cougars still need to go, with recruiting being the focus.
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“When you play Texas Tech, especially when you go up against that defensive line, they are arguably the best in the country,” he said. “BYU’s offensive line has made a lot of strides, but there are some gaps there. It was tough to contain that pass rush with just five guys. BYU had to play a lot of max-protect and bring in extra guys to help block four. That limits the receivers downfield when you have three-man routes going into seven-man secondaries. That’s going to be tough for any offense. The offensive line still has another gear to get to.”
Hansen believes the Red Raiders can also teach BYU’s defense a thing or two.
“I don’t think BYU’s defensive line has been poor by any stretch of the imagination, but when you see what a defensive line can do, like Texas Tech, that is the ultimate cheat code if you are a defensive coordinator to just line up four and win one-on-one battles, you can disrupt any offensive game plan,” he said. “To me, it’s the trenches. I think BYU has made a lot of progress the last several years and there is still another gear or two that they can find.”
Extending Sitake
According to Hansen, extending Sitake’s contract to not only keep him in Provo, but to also increase BYU’s ability to retain and sign players, will fuel recruiting for years.
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“I think the biggest thing is that NIL pool and the biggest thing with that is the stars on this team that are young, the Bear Bachmeiers and Faletau Satualas — guys like that, you (can) feel confident you are going to keep them,” Hansen said. “That’s the nature of the beast in 2025.
“If there is a really good young player, you have to expect they are getting offers to go somewhere else. So, if BYU has that increased NIL pool, that’s the biggest signal to me that there is continuity on the coaching staff and they can pay the guys that they know are really good and they want to keep around. That’s huge.”
Hansen also sees BYU getting busy in the transfer portal.
“You look at what Texas Tech did, so much of that was because of their success in the portal. This allows BYU to play that game a little bit,” he said. “BYU is never going to be Texas Tech (who) is out being the highest bidder for anybody they want, but they have to be competitive and so they have that at their disposal more than they did before Kalani’s extension. That’s a big win for the Cougars.”
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.
