BYU Football Offers Productive Running Back Filisi Filipe

BYU Football Offers Productive Running Back Filisi Filipe

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BYU Football Offers Productive Running Back Filisi Filipe
BYU running backs coach Harvey Unga at Fall Camp
BYU running backs coach Harvey Unga at Fall Camp | BYU Photo

The first three weeks of the Utah high school football season are in the books. Herriman High School running back Filisi Filipe has been one of the most dominant players in the state. After three games, Filipe is averaging 228 rushing yards and more than 4 rushing touchdowns per game.

Filipe has been, in a word, unstoppable, and it made an impression on the BYU coaching staff. BYU running backs coach Harvey Unga offered Filipe a scholarship on Saturday.

While the scholarship offer to BYU is new, Filipe's relationship with BYU's staff is not. "I've been in touch with BYU ever since they invited me to their elite camp in the summer," Filipe told BYU On SI.

On the conversation with Coach Unga, Filipe said, "It was a great conversation we had. I would love to play under Coach Unga. But i'm going to play this season out."

Filipe's recruitment got started back in June when he received an offer from Utah Tech. He picked up other competing offers from Weber State, SUU, and Idaho State over the summer as well. BYU was the first FBS school to pull the trigger and offer him a scholarship.

Filipe tells BYU On SI that he has plans to visit "a lot of BYU games this fall." Other FBS schools could enter the mix as well, especially if he continues to produce at the level he has in the first three weeks of the season.

Filisi Filipe Scouting Report

Filisi has put almost a year's worth of highlights on tape in just three weeks. In the season opener against Bountiful, he tallied 276 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns.

To get an expert's opinion on what has made Filipe so productive in 2026, we caught up with one of the coaches that hosts prominent showcase camps in Utah: Nate Rees. Rees is the owner of Utah Ballers, and he has seen Filisi up close.

"Filisi is a running back who has exceptional balance, vision, and burst," Rees said. "He does a phenomenal job of finding a seam and hitting it as good as anybody I've seen. His contact balance at the line of scrimmage and in the second level is elite. It takes multiple defenders to bring him down, and he always falls forward."

You can see those traits in Filisi's film. He breaks through arm tackles and maintains balance through contact. He fits the mold of the big, no-nonsense runners that have had success under Harvey Unga at BYU. His ability to accelerate through the hole and separate from defenders stands out for a running back his size. Filipe isn't a burner, but he is certainly fast enough to create chunk-yardage plays.

Filipe's film looks like a player that should have more offers. Considering he went from 123 rushing yards per game in 2025 to 228 rushing yards per game, more offers could be coming. On Friday against West Jordan, Filipe ran for 168 yards and 6 touchdowns on just 11 carries, meaning he averaged 15.3 yards per carry and he scored on more than half of his touches.

Rees believes Filipe is a Power Four talent and BYU was just the first school to notice. "Overall, I've been saying that he has Power Four talent for a while, and BYU was the first to notice," Rees said.

The Cougars already have one running back committed in the 2027 class: Las Vegas native Ezra Sanelivi. Still, the BYU staff liked Filipe enough to want multiple running backs in this class. In terms of the 2027 class, most of the hay is in the barn at this point of the recruiting calendar. BYU's top targets either committed to the Cougars already or committed to other schools. Therefore, Filipe will be one of a few uncommitted targets to watch over the next few months.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/byu as BYU Football Offers Productive Running Back Filisi Filipe.

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