Having coached NFL linebackers Bobby Wagner, Kyler Fackrell and Nick Vigil at Utah State, all-Pac-12 performer Manase Hungalu at Oregon State and FCS All-American linebackers Nick DiPadova and Marques Harris at Southern Utah, new BYU linebackers coach Kevin Clune knows a thing or two about producing outstanding linebackers.
“I am having a blast coaching these guys. This is a great crew that I just walked into coaching, a deep crew that works so, so hard. I would put them up there with anybody.” — BYU linebackers coach Kevin Clune
So when the veteran defensive coach with 28 years of experience at Power Five programs Utah and Oregon State and in the Mountain West, American Athletic and Big Sky conferences says the group of LBs he inherits with the Cougars is right up there with some of the best linebackers he’s ever coached, it is probably time to take notice.
“I couldn’t ask for more,” Clune told the Deseret News. “I inherited a very good group, and I couldn’t be happier with these guys. The depth and the experience and everything we have here is top-notch.”
That has to come as music to the ears of BYU fans, because a couple of the better linebackers to play the position at the school that routinely churns out outstanding backers — Isaiah Kaufusi and Kavika Fonua — graduated and are trying to make it in the NFL.
Also, BYU is trying to replace three defensive linemen — Khyiris Tonga, Zac Dawe and Bracken El-Bakri — starting cornerback Chris Wilcox and starting safeties Zayne Anderson and Troy Warner. The Cougars need the linebacker position to be a strength in 2021 against the likes of Utah, Arizona State, USC and Baylor.
“It is just a bunch tremendous kids, tremendous people off the field and great ballplayers and hustlers, everything you could ask for. I am pushing them as far as I can push them,” said Clune, who was a defensive consultant during the 11-1 season in 2020 and then hired on full time in February after a couple of offensive coaches — Jeff Grimes and Eric Mateos — left for Baylor.
“I am having a blast coaching these guys,” Clune continued. “This is a great crew that I just walked into coaching, a deep crew that works so, so hard. I would put them up there with anybody.”
Clune said it starts with veterans Payton Wilgar and Keenan Pili, a couple of guys who are entering their fourth seasons in the program, but could be classified as sophomores in eligibility due to the NCAA granting an extra season to student-athletes who participated last year during COVID-19.
Pili was the second-leading tackler in 2020 (behind only Kaufusi) with 72 takedowns, including two for loss and 35 solos.
“Keenan is just a tremendous all-around ballplayer,” Clune said. “I recruited him when he was at Timpview and I was at Utah State. He’s just a stellar inside backer who has gotten better and better, a smart kid and a hard worker.”
Wilgar was just behind Pili in tackles with 57 in 2020. He also showed the ability to drop into coverage — he had four pass breakups — and has three career interceptions.
“Payton Wilgar is the guy that every time we come up with a new defense or call a blitz or whatever, he is the first guy who will do the best at that job,” Clune said. “He is such a versatile player. He is so smart. You could go up to him 10 minutes before a game and tell him we need him to switch positions, and he will do a great job at that. He’s so unique.”
Another local product, former Bountiful High standout Max Tooley, will likely be the third starter at linebacker. Tooley is another player who has been in the program for four years, but could be classified as a sophomore because of the pandemic year and a redshirt year in 2018 after a church mission to London.
Tooley made 48 tackles in 2019 and 44 in 2020, with one interception. Ben Bywater, a redshirt freshman from Olympus High in Salt Lake City who has battled injuries since returning from a church mission to Guatemala, will push Tooley for playing time at the outside linebacker spot.
“Max and Ben are both are extremely fast, strong, dynamic, quick, can jump — just everything you could want athletically,” Clune said. “Again, local kids and tremendous ballplayers. I expect the world from them.”
Clune said previous LBs coach Ed Lamb did a good job developing other backers the past few seasons, guys such as Josh Wilson (Zach’s brother), Drew Jensen, Jackson Kaufusi and walk-ons Tevita Gagnier and Morgan Pyper, a converted running back.
“Those are guys that maybe you’ve never heard of, but who are coming on and have been pushing the (starting) guys,” Clune said.
Although Navy transfer Pepe Tanuvasa is listed as a linebacker on the roster, he’s more of a hybrid defensive end now. The same goes for Chaz Ah You, who is listed as an LB but is in the battle to replace Warner or Anderson at safety.
“Tevita Gagnier is a dude that has really stepped up,” Ah You said. “He was a safety last year and they moved him to backer this spring. He is still learning, but he has been doing his thing. It is a different transition from back-pedaling to moving up into the box. He is a much-improved linebacker for us.”
“We will need mental toughness, because we have a heckuva schedule. There are going to be a lot of emotional ups and downs, and we need to see who is going to be the key leader in each position group, and then for the overall defense and the overall team.” — Kevin Clune
Midyear enrollees who will join the group include former Lone Peak star Michael Daley, former Kearns star Isaac Matua and Faka’osi Nasilai, who was known as Oliver Nasilai when he signed out of Hot Springs, Arkansas, a few years ago.
Clune said there’s an emphasis on being more multiple and aggressive in 2021 — former safeties coach Preston Hadley has been moved to defensive ends coach in an effort to develop a better pass rush — and he hopes the linebackers can be part of that mentality.
“We will need mental toughness, because we have a heckuva schedule,” Clune said. “There are going to be a lot of emotional ups and downs, and we need to see who is going to be the key leader in each position group, and then for the overall defense and the overall team.
“I am hoping these linebackers lead the way as far as being the team leaders — fill the vacuum there,” he continued. “But we will see.”
Of course, a lot depends on whether the group can stay healthy. They will play a lot of smash-mouth football the first month, Clune notes.
“We’ve got some depth,” he said. “The question is, when injuries hit us, how are we going to react? A lot of question marks there. I look at the season, and I think it is going to be a brutal (schedule). To walk out of that unscathed is a little bit of a lofty goal, but just how we react throughout the season mentally as well as physically I think is going to be a big key.”