Isaac Rex is carving his way into the Mount Rushmore of tight ends at BYU. The junior tight end is sitting on 21 career touchdown receptions — tied with Cougars legend Dennis Pitta and one shy of the all-time leader Gordon Hudson’s 22.
“I didn’t know we are already tied. He just needs one to beat me? He’s going to do that against Sam Houston.” — former BYU tight end Dennis Pitta on the prospect of Isaac Rex breaking his TD record
With Rex’s ankle healthy after an arduous 18-month rehabilitation, the 6-foot-6, 255-pound San Clemente, California, product is primed to take his place in history as early as next week and Pitta is ready to see it happen.
“I didn’t know we are already tied. He just needs one to beat me?” Pitta told the “Y’s Guys” podcast. “He’s going to do that against Sam Houston.”
Pitta worked with Rex over the summer in San Clemente. They focused on route running and getting off jams at the line of scrimmage.
“He’s a great kid. It was so much fun to work with him this offseason. It’s been fun for me,” Pitta said. “He’s probably going to catch a ton of touchdowns this year. I’m proud of him.”
Rex exploded onto the scene in 2020 after senior Matt Bushman suffered a season-ending injury at the end of fall camp. He responded with 12 touchdowns and earned honors as a freshman All-American.
During 2021, Rex caught three touchdowns before an ankle injury at USC on Thanksgiving weekend threatened to end his career.
“The doctor told me, ‘It’s gonna be hard for you to walk normally again and I don’t know if you will ever play football again,’” said Rex after Saturday’s final team scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium. “Getting back — that was my goal. I want to be out there for my team.”
Rex hobbled through most of last season and still managed to catch six more touchdowns to give him 21.
“Last year I was struggling practice to practice. I was taking a lot of practices off also and I had a sleeve on (the ankle) to keep the swelling down. It was a whole situation,” Rex said. “Right now, I’m feeling good. This is probably the best I’ve felt since that freshman year, so I’m excited.”
Pitta is excited to see him on the field as well, even if it means surrendering his notch on the touchdown list.
“The guy is a touchdown machine,” Pitta said. “He has a huge catch radius and is a massive weapon in the red zone.”
Dynamic duo
Pitta and Hudson are just two in a wide collection of exceptional tight ends at BYU, but their stories and productivity have them perched together at the top.
Hudson played his first year mostly at linebacker on BYU’s junior varsity squad in 1980 before moving full time to tight end, where quarterbacks Jim McMahon and Steve Young fed him the football. By the end of his senior year, the 6-foot-4, 231-pound weapon from Everett, Washington, held the all-time NCAA record for most receiving yards by a tight end with 2,484.
To this day, Hudson holds NCAA all-time marks for a tight end in catches per game (5.4), receiving yards per game (75.3) and his 259-yard performance against Utah in 1981 remains the record for most yards in a game by a tight end.
A knee injury eight games into Hudson’s senior season derailed a promising NFL career.
“I didn’t have the luxury of watching Hudson,” Pitta said. “But the things that guy did are unrivaled in my opinion. He was unbelievable.”
Pitta arrived on the Provo campus 21 years later as a walk-on receiver who converted to tight end during his 2004 freshman season. During his Cougars career, which included a two-year church mission, Pitta passed Hudson as the NCAA’s all-time tight ends leader with 2,901 receiving yards.
In addition, the 6-foot-5, 247-pound target from Moorpark, California, set the BYU tight ends record with 221 receptions — which still stands today.
A trio of hip injuries cut short Pitta’s NFL career, but not before he caught 224 passes for 2,098 yards and 13 touchdowns for Baltimore, including a touchdown grab in the Ravens 34-31 victory against San Francisco in Super Bowl XLVII in 2013.
Both Hudson, a one-time junior varsity linebacker, and Pitta, a walk-on, finished their BYU careers as consensus All-Americans. Hudson, who died of natural causes in 2021, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2009. Pitta was enshrined in the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.
Back to school
While Rex works on passing Pitta on BYU’s touchdown list, Pitta is back at where Rex attended high school in San Clemente, trying to shape the next generation of pass catchers.
Pitta is one of four former Cougars coaching at San Clemente High. He has the receivers, Byron Rex, Isaac’s father, is the tight ends coach, John Beck coaches the quarterbacks and Matt Redden coaches the defensive line.
“I’m always stepping on Byron’s toes,” Pitta said with a laugh. “I always tell our tight ends that the game has passed Byron by, and they need to listen to me!”
Pitta joined Beck, Rex and Redden after working as the receivers/special teams coach with former Cougars Ty Detmer and Max Hall at ALA-Queen Creek in Arizona.
“That staff could only take me so far. I realized I had to jump ship and find something that will challenge me a little bit more,” Pitta joked. “So, I came to California. We have a pretty strong BYU contingent down here in San Clemente.”
That group, and former BYU Hall of Fame receiver Austin Collie, worked with a number of Cougars over the summer.
“Kedon (Slovis) was here training with John, so we used the opportunity to get a bunch of the tight ends and receivers down here for some extra work,” Pitta said.
The two groups worked out separately and were then combined to run routes together over a three-week period following spring practice. “Those guys were out there grinding together and getting on the same page, and I think that’s going to transition to success this fall.”
Pitta is also in a transition. He moved to Ladera Ranch, California, where he replaced former Cougars receiver Jonathan Ord on the Tritons staff after Ord and his family left last month to be a mission president in Dallas.
The Tritons opened the season last week with a 20-10 victory against Chaparral from nearby Temecula. Pitta, Beck, Rex, Redden and their boys take on Torrey Pines Friday night. Detmer and Hall’s team in Arizona kicks off its season Friday against Saguaro.
“It’s an exciting time of year,” Pitta said. “I love when football rolls around.”
Dave McCann is a contributor to the Deseret News and is the studio host for “BYU Sports Nation Game Day,” “The Post Game Show,” “After Further Review,” and play-by-play announcer for BYUtv. He is also co-host of “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com.