BYU’s July recruiting begins with a bang

BYU’s July recruiting begins with a bang

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BYU’s July recruiting begins with a bang
BYU football head coach Kalani Sitake high-fives fans as he makes his way through Cougar Canyon before a game between the Brigham Young University Cougars and the University of Arizona Wildcats held at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024.
BYU football head coach Kalani Sitake high-fives fans as he makes his way through Cougar Canyon before a game between the Brigham Young University Cougars and the University of Arizona Wildcats held at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024.
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Isaac Hale

This article was first published in the Cougar Insiders newsletter Tuesday. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each week.

BYU’s 2027 recruiting class is small, but deep in talent. However, there are 22 players slated to join the football program from missionary service in the next few months.

With the addition of athletes Peyton Higginson, Lakepa Satuala, offensive lineman Kyle Nabrotzky and talented Uhila Wolfgramm, head coach Kalani Sitake enjoyed a real recruiting boost to start the month of July.

Here are our stories on these announced July commitments:

The other commitments for the class of ’27 include WR Blake Wong, DL Jeremiah Williams, CB Ryan Wooten, CB Kamoni Adams, DL Maa’imoa “Moa” Havili, CB Demichael Burks, RB Erza Sanelivi, athletes Jaxson Rex and Tytan DeJong, and kicker James Thorley.

In this analysis by College Football Report, BYU ranks high nationally when it comes to doing more with less (ranked recruiting talent).

Question of the week

BYU football got commitments late in June and early July. What stands out about the class of 2027 so far?

Jay Drew: The thing that stands out about this BYU recruiting class is that it is loaded with quality players. It might not have the quantity yet — BYU has commitments from “just” 13 players, at last count — but it is loaded with players with three-star or better ratings.

The headliners, of course, are receiver Blake Wong and lineman Uhila Wolfgramm. BYU beat some of the top programs in the country for those guys.

This has got to be the best defensive line signing class in recent memory, with Wolfgramm joining Jeremiah Williams and Moa Havili. Kalani Sitake is finally getting a Utah-type defensive line at BYU, it appears. By that, I mean Utah’s defensive lines that were known as Sack Lake City.

I also like the fact that BYU has been able to get commitments from three three-star cornerbacks without Jernaro Gilford in the fold. Ryan Wooten, Kamoni Adams and Demichael Burks, who flipped from Fresno State, could represent the best trio of cornerback signings in BYU history.

Dick Harmon: What stands out to me is that in the span of a week, while Kalani Sitake and other staff members were in Tonga, BYU got commitments from four prospects who had offers from Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt and Utah. I’d have to rack my brain to remember when that last happened. If ever.

The commitments of Uhila Wolfgramm, Lakepa Satuala, Peyton Higginson and Kyle Nabrotzky in July give the Cougars 14 commitments, still a small class so far, but their additions to the list elevated BYU’s composite recruiting rankings on 247sports to No. 2 in the Big 12 behind Texas Tech.

It is obvious that BYU’s NIL game is in full gear, especially when it came to being competitive with Oklahoma for Wolfgramm.

Along with Jay, I am impressed with BYU’s ability to sign quality cornerbacks in this class when Jay Hill and Jernaro Gilford are in Ann Arbor working for Kyle Whittingham. BYU’s staff is doing a very good job without Hill’s recruiting acumen.

Cougar tales

Egor Dëmin is turning heads in the NBA summer league. In two games the former Cougar has scored 46 points with 15 rebounds and six assists in 50 minutes, shooting 15 of 27 from the field and 4 of 15 from beyond the arc.

In this piece by Dave McCann, Taylor Lovell reflects on her NCAA steeplechase victory.

From the archives

From X-verse

Extra points

Fanalysts

Comments from Deseret News readers:

Wait. Wait. You’re telling me that with his size, this young man Uhila is on the track team? A sprinter and on the relay team? Holy schneikies. And I saw the practice footage, where he blows past some unfortunate “blocker” in drills. So when he’s on the team will be the first time Coach Brady, aka BPopp, has ever been tempted to put on the field this youngster and a few cornerbacks. Looks like that’s all he’d need. — Mowgli54

Kalani wins more than his fair share of recruiting battles, but as this article points out — you can’t win ‘em all. To win 33% against a school like Oklahoma is respectable. But because of Kalani’s exceptional relationship building skills, many that commit to other schools as freshmen come back to BYU in later years. If I were a betting man, I’d bet that one of the two Oklahoma commits will end up at BYU before their playing days are over.

However, even more important that competing against schools like Oklahoma and Michigan, is BYU’s able to compete against UU (and other Big 12 schools). I don’t know the stats so I’m going to make them up. In the days of independence, it felt like BYU lost 70% of the recruiting battles to UU. Now that we’re back on level playing field, it feels like BYU is winning 70% of the recruiting battles vs. UU. Go Cougs! — CougFaninTx

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