5 freshmen who could make immediate impacts for the Cougars in 2026 season

BYU safety Kennan Pula participates in spring camp in Provo on March 31, 2026. | Aaron Cornia, BYU Photo College football recruiting experts are calling the class that BYU added last December the best in school history. It was led, of course, by four-star quarterback Ryder Lyons of Folsom, California, and f our-star tight end Brock Harris , from St.

George’s Pine View High in southern Utah. Those highly regarded players are currently on missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Orlando, Florida (Lyons), and Spokane, Washington (Harris), and both have said that they will return in time to join the BYU football program before the 2027 season. “I loved the way the team worked, and we had some new faces come in … who are going to be great contributors to our team.

… Even some true freshmen will play. They are good enough to play. ” BYU coach Kalani Sitake Other signees from that 2026 class that 247Sports ranked as the 18th best in the country , and second best in the Big 12, are also on church missions or will be serving shortly, most notably Olympus High three-star linebacker Adam Bywater, brother of former BYU standout linebacker Ben Bywater.

However, a large number of those signees have already enrolled at BYU and participated in the recently completed 15 spring football practices. The only player in that group who has yet to join the team is Antonio Johnson, a 6-foot-4, 170-pound cornerback from Fort Worth, Texas. One of the signs that this truly is an extraordinary signing class for head coach Kalani Sitake is that several of the prospects who signed last December could end up playing right away, Sitake and coordinators Kelly Poppinga and Aaron Roderick said when camp wrapped up on April 2.