Just saw this on Rivals: class of 24 4 star Fremont CA edge rusher Naki Tuakoi has committed to BYU. Had been verbally committed to Stanford and holds more than 15 P4 offers, including Notre Dame, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Oregon. Apparently as signing day arrived, he flipped to BYU. If this is true, and if it continues, we may have a Jay Hill statue outside LES sooner rather than later!
4 star prospects already signed: Swanson, Satuala, Tuataga. Tuakoi would be the 4th. Four 4 stars in one class, and 3 of them defenders? Add Tre Alexander, a high 3 star who projects as a multiple year starter. And don’t sleep on Sani Tuala, the 6’5"/260 edge rusher/rugger from Australia who runs a 4.5 forty. This kid is an athletic marvel similar to Ziggy. One one year of organized football so far. Tuala had offers from Washington and Oklahoma, and those two don’t waste offers. Talk about a potential diamond in the rough. And Jay Hill is just getting started. You know how BYU football can get back on top of Utah after 10 rough years? A good start is to beat the Utes in one year in about 20 head to head recruiting battles, including (if I’m not mistaken) going 14/14 with the Polynesian players.
Tom, you inspired me to explore Rivals.com a bit. Fun to see our recruiting class currently ranked 4th in the new Big 12 @ # 42, behind only TTU @23, UCF @ 32 & TCU @ 36. Warmed my heart just a little to see Utah12th in the conference @57!
Whatever happens on the offensive side, I can’t recall a great BYU team that didn’t have an All American caliber QB. I hope Bohannon is an All-American for BYU, but even that doesn’t address the elephant in the room: we have an OC whose recruiting in the last 6 years has produced nothing better than back-to-back one year rentals.
Jay Hill has just killed it in his first full year recruiting! I’m not going to do the research, but I can’t remember a class with so many signees on defense who picked BYU over multiple, and in some cases 5 or 10 or even more P4 offers. This defensive recruiting class is wild–offers don’t include BYU:
CB:
Jonathon Kabeya-1st team 6A all district in TEXAS. 1 SEC, 2 B12, 1 B10
Tre Alexander-1st team All Region 5A in GEORGIA. 2 SEC, 2 B12, 2 SEC
Faletau Satuala-1st team 5A all state UTAH. At least 10 P4 offers.
Those 3 are the type of recruits that can form a nucleus of DBs for years to come.
You will also note Hill’s emphasis on edge rushers:
Ephraim Asiata-multiple offers from HIGH PROFILE SEC and B10 teams (Tenn, Wisc, USC)
Siosefa Brown-4 other P4 offers
Kini Fonohema-3 other P4 offers
Viliami Po’uha-2 other P4 offers
Adney Reid-only 1 other P4, but it was Utah
Sani Tuala-5 other P4 offers, including Washington and Oklahoma
Devoux Tuataga-11 other P4 offers including Oregon, Washington, USC, Tennessee
So Jay Hill, in one class, signed SEVEN edge rushers, SIX of whom were HIGHLY recruited. And one more thing: EVERY ONE OF THEM was picked BYU over Utah!
Indeed. Bronco recruited a lot of good pros—especially on D. Those guys are good ambassadors for BYU, but KVN has been an all pro a few years now and until last year we were losing nearly every recruiting battle. Jay Hill.
THawk we have reason to be very encourages at least by what’s happening on the defensive side. When was the last time we won recruiting battles for over 10 recruits IN THE SAME YEAR against Washington, Oregon, Oklahoma, USC, Utah, Tennessee, Mississippi, Miss State, Ga Tech, UCLA, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Notre Dame? My guess is NEVER BEFORE. My hope is that Kalani realizes Hill is setting a new standard for recruiting and will hold ARod accountable–meaning he keeps up with Hill or is fired.
and What did my little birdie say last year?
Hill holds players accountable, Sitake and ARod, not so much. Players see this.
Give it 2024 and we will see if the birdie was right
