For most, it’s a reunion with friends. For some, it’s a chance to join a whole new social network. For all, it’s a time to challenge themselves.

That’s true for the first day of NHL training camps, too.

“Contrary to what guys may say, I kind of love the first day,” Utah Mammoth veteran defenseman Nate Schmidt said Thursday with his signature smile beaming out from under his mustache.

“You kind of feel like you went through (the offseason) together, you got through it.”

Here’s what stood out on the first day of Mammoth training camp.

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Pace, pace, pace

Four and a half months’ worth of pent up energy released itself at the Mammoth Ice Center on Thursday. It was one of the highest-paced practiced in recent memory — and Utah is a notoriously quick team.

Head coach André Tourigny gave his thoughts.

“(Playing fast) has nothing to do with the way you skate. Playing fast is not playing with more speed. Everything has to be extremely fast,” he said.

“You go from one action to the other one without hesitation. It has to be a flow. It’s the way I press, the way my partner reads off my pressure and reacts. It has to be already in motion before the play happened because he reads it.”

Tourigny brought up the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes as an example.

They aren’t the fastest team in terms of skating speed, “but they think fast and they play fast and they’re on you one after the other one. They bring you in deep water and you cannot breathe because they stay on, they stay on, they stay on,” he said.

“That’s, I think, a strength of our team.”

First look at lines

On Wednesday, Tourigny warned the public not to read into Thursday’s lines too much. He has a few new players and he’s experimenting to figure out where they and others fit best.

Forward lines for today (reminder that Tourigny said these will change):

Keller - Schmaltz - But
Crouse - Trocheck - Yamamoto
McBain - Hayton - Tanev
Lee - Cooley - Guenther
Carcone - O’Brien - Jones
Roy - McCartney - Rooney

Zac Jones is filling in as a forward. The D pairings…

— Brogan Houston (@houston_brogan) September 17, 2026

That said, the usual pairs remain the same, as they will throughout the rest of camp: Clayton Keller with Nick Schmaltz, Dylan Guenther with Logan Cooley and Jack McBain with Barrett Hayton.

Tourigny thought it would be wise to start Vincent Trocheck at center, his natural position. Trocheck will remain there for Friday as well, but the coach said the newcomer will skate on the wing on Saturday.

The defense pairings were like snowflakes: There were never two of the same. They switched with every repetition of each drill.

Sore, not injured

Schmidt and youngsters Tij Iginla and Caleb Desnoyers all sported blue non-contact jerseys Thursday, which serve as safety vests to prevent egregious contact.

“It looked good. It matches my eyes,” Schmidt joked when asked about it after practice. “You know, I just wanted to exercise some of my veteran (influence), you know, I don’t want to get hit the first few days.”

He followed it up with a more serious answer.

“No, it’s just a little little precautionary, just something that happened last week. Just being careful, just being smart,” he said before joking that he could use it to get out of his physical exam.

Youngsters Iginla and Desnoyers, meanwhile, both said after practice that they felt good and that their injuries won’t preclude them from competing in preseason games.

Max Pšenička left the first Rookie Faceoff game after taking a high stick in the first few minutes. He missed the second game but played in the third one. On Thursday, he skated in the second group with a full face shield.

Clayton Keller just let out a loud “wooooh!” after feeding Dylan Guenther for a one-timer goal on a 3v3 rush drill.

Safe to say the captain is in mid-season form, ready to go.#TusksUp

— Brogan Houston (@houston_brogan) September 17, 2026

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An impressive newcomer

Despite the fact that Joshua Roy grew up four hours from Montreal, he wanted the Canadiens to trade him this summer. He wasn’t going to get the opportunity there that he needed to thrive as a full-time NHL player.

The Mammoth acquired him this summer in exchange for Maksymilian Szuber, a young defenseman in a similar situation. Both guys just want the chance to succeed.

Utah doesn’t exactly have roster spots to hand out in its forward group, so Roy will need to steal a spot from someone who might otherwise get it — and he made an excellent case for himself on the first day of camp.

The 23-year-old showcased incredibly high-level puck handling and passing skills in seemingly every drill. His head was on a swivel and he always seemed to know where to put the puck.

In one instance, for example, Roy carried the puck through the neutral zone on a rush drill. Shortly after crossing the blue line, the opposing defenseman stepped up to poke check him.

Without hesitation, Roy feathered a backhand saucer pass over the outstretched stick and perfectly onto the tape of line mate Ben McCartney, who immediately fired and scored.

As is the case with some of the prospects trying to make the team, there’s not necessarily a roster spot reserved with Roy’s name on it. If he doesn’t make it, the Mammoth risk losing him because he has to clear waivers before playing in the AHL. With that level of skill at his age, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a Vancouver Canucks type of team claim him.

Although this is undoubtedly reading into the situation too much, Roy should be encouraged by the fact that Tourigny mentioned his name alongside those of a few bona fide NHLers after practice on Thursday.

Young spoke at the hearing about his extensive civic and academic experience, including in the area of religious liberty.

Young was also president of the University of Washington and Texas A&M University. His work in government includes an appointment as ambassador for trade and environmental affairs under President George H.W. Bush and two-time chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

In his introduction of Young, Utah Sen. Mike Lee said the Brigham Young University graduate was “so qualified, it’s going to be hard to get through his qualifications and have you not think that I’m severely exaggerating.”

Young would be stepping into a challenging assignment. The U.S. State Department has classified Serbia as a key player at the social, political and economic crossroads of Eastern and Western Europe.

“There is great potential for U.S. companies in Serbia, and deeper economic ties with the United States that are very much in our and Serbia’s interests,” Young said during his confirmation hearing on Thursday.

Asked by Lee about his experience with religious freedom issues, Young spoke about the importance of encouraging religious liberty in Serbia. He recognized that while Serbia is predominantly Serbian Orthodox, Islam and other Christian faiths are also practiced within the country.

“If confirmed, I would strongly urge the Serbian government to ensure that everybody (can worship freely) … to preserve freedom of thought, conscience and belief in all of its manifestations,” Young said.

More than three decades ago, Young helped negotiate the reunification of Germany at the close of the Cold War. If confirmed by the Senate, he will return to diplomacy in the Western Balkans, one of modern-day Europe’s most contested regions.

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Serbia has been the subject of recent international attention with the launch of the inaugural U.S.-Serbia Strategic Dialogue in July, which consists of high-level meetings between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Ðurić.

“Russia and China have footholds in Serbia, particularly in the energy and tech sectors,” Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at the beginning of the hearing. “If Belgrade wants to improve relations with the United States, it won’t do so by continuing to work with our adversaries.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., asked Young how he plans to encourage Serbia to engage more with the West.

“Help (ing) them reduce energy dependence on Russia, work(ing) to urge Serbians to create an environment that allows American companies to compete fairly and deepen(ing) our conversations over military cooperation are all things that need to be done,” Young said.

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Growing trade between Serbia and China is of particular concern to the United States given that Serbia holds one of Europe’s largest lithium reserves.

Young said he is aware of these issues, and plans to help Serbia increase economic engagement with the West if confirmed as ambassador.

“I will encourage Serbia to embrace a political and economic future that benefits the United States, not competitors such as Russia and China,” Young said. “This means strengthening our bilateral engagement and deepening our business and economic ties.”

But it may not come as soon as they want.

Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy secured $10 million to create a new Great Salt Lake Watershed Recovery Program in June, but said she doubts the $1 billion will come speedily.

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“I don’t think we’re going to get a billion dollars in one year. We’re going to get a billion dollars over a series of years,” she said in a previous interview with the Deseret News.

Nevertheless, Utah leaders look ahead with optimism. Before conducting a airboat tour of areas of the lake around Farmington Bay with state lawmakers and others, Great Salt Lake Commissioner Hannah Freeze on Thursday shared five areas of priority with the Deseret News — areas she hopes will receive the federal funding the state needs.

1. Water infrastructure

Freeze first mentioned revamping old infrastructure to serve new purposes.

During a high-water period in the 1980s, water flowed around the Newfoundland Basin and became trapped in dikes and berms (raised areas to trap water in an effort to avoid flooding). Freeze said recent aerial surveys show water still pools in those areas today — which evaporates, leading to more water loss.

Freeze plans to implement engineering solutions to the Newfoundland Basin to capture the trapped water and channel it back to the lake.

“Some of the estimates for the Newfoundland Basin could (add) 30,000 to 60,000 additional acre-feet every year depending on the hydrology,” she said. “That would be a big chunk of water.”

Another water infrastructure project would include Stansbury Bay — a similar issue with pooled water.

“We also have been working with Rep. (Blake) Moore,” explained Freeze. “He — in a congressional directed funding pool — got us $4.5 million potentially to look at Stansbury Bay, which is a similar project to a new basin.”

2. Agricultural optimization

Although agricultural water use accounts for over 60% of all water use in Utah, Rep. Jill Koford, R-Ogden, argued that isn’t something Utahns should be most concerned about — including the highly controversial alfalfa crop, which uses over half of Utah’s annual water use.

“Alfalfa is a highly resilient crop,” she said in an interview with the Deseret News, explaining how it can withstand not being watered for long periods of time.

Alfalfa has deep taproots — over 15 feet deep — that can reach groundwater other crops can’t. This allows the plant to withstand drought-induced dormancy rather than dying when the water is cut.

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However, the same resilience Koford pointed to is exactly why critics say the crop should be first in line for cuts: because it survives reduced watering.

Ben Stireman, deputy commissioner of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, also argued the agriculture industry is actually quite effective.

“Nobody’s just like dumping extra water on their fields,” he said. “We are dumping extra water on lawns.”

3. Municipal conservation

Freeze said the state was actively looking at multiple municipal conservation opportunities.

“That’s an ongoing opportunity for us to not just ask our homeowners to save water, but to accumulate that water and show a dedication to the lake,” she said.

Announced April 6, Sandy and Salt Lake City struck a first-of-a-kind agreement. The two are paid by a conservation trust to redirect 2,500 acre-feet of water annually to the Great Salt Lake for up to a decade — something built on residential conservation rather than agricultural water leasing programs.

“We’ve been telling people to flush twice for the lake,” said Stireman. “All that indoor water use goes through treatment — and we’ve regulated that. They reuse it, and it goes back to the lake.”

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But one thing that cannot be reused are the resources spent watering lawns.

“People are probably watering their lawns four times as much as they should, and they don’t really have the resources to be able to tell,” said Stireman.

Koford said Utahns should understand if their grass dies in July, “it’s OK” — as long as precious resources aren’t wasted.

“I don’t want a heavy-handed government, but I fear we might have to have one (if residential efforts aren’t realized),” she said.

4. Habitat and wildlife

One of Utah leaders’ largest concerns was phragmites: an invasive reed that grows 12 to 15 feet tall.

Standing on the banks of the lake, one can see the tall, brown reeds line the water for as far as the eye can see — there are an estimated 55,000 acres around the lake. Phragmites choke open water and native vegetation, leaving birds unable to nest in affected areas.

The reed even consumes more water than alfalfa, according to Freeze.

Just recently, over Memorial Day weekend, the state treated thousands of acres of phragmites with controlled fires.

“We’ve seen over an 80% reduction of phragmites based on the work we’ve been doing over the last five years,” said Stireman. “So, it’s possible to get rid of — it just takes time and money.”

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5. Dust management

Another effort that requires massive funds, leaders have found, is dust management.

“Protecting the Great Salt Lake is about more than the lake itself,” said Senate Majority Whip Chris Wilson, R-Logan. “Its health affects Utah’s air quality.”

As the Great Salt Lake has declined, more than 800 square miles of lakebed have been exposed to potential wind erosion, according to the University of Utah. Researchers identified approximately 70 square miles as active dust hotspots, with that area potentially expanding to as much as 187 square miles if protective surface crusts continue to degrade or groundwater levels decline.

The Great Salt Lake dust can cost Utah up to $116 million in annual health costs, can cause 6.34 premature deaths, and 17,748 school absences each year.

“We just want better information on where the dust is coming from, what’s in the dust, and then people can make accurate decisions about that,” said Freeze.

Head coach Mauricio Pochettino released his 28-player roster for the team’s upcoming four matches in September and October on Thursday. Notably, the roster did not include Christian Pulisic and 12 other players who made the World Cup roster.

“I think the 28 players that are going to be involved in this four games for different circumstance are the best player that or the player that we want to see and we want to play, we want to work,” Pochettino said in a U.S. Soccer press conference Thursday.

Thirteen players on the roster, including Gozo, have never played for the national team before. Pochettino said this camp and these four games are an opportunity for those players to “show their quality and start to build their career for the next generation of that country.”

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This is the first camp since the U.S.’s Round of 16 exit in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Gozo was in contention for a World Cup roster spot, despite never playing for the senior national team, but ultimately didn’t make the final roster. In August, Gozo transferred from Real Salt Lake to Crystal Palace in the Premier League for a club record transfer fee of $15 million.

“From now, if these guys are here and perform in the way that we expect, they are going to have the opportunity maybe to keep playing,” Pochettino said.

Pochettino described the U.S. team as “an open system” and brought up Spain’s young star Lamine Yamal as an example of skill being a more important factor than age.

“Now is a great opportunity for everyone that is going to be involved in to keep their place, and that is the mentality that we want to build in this process in this four years” he said.

Pochettino continued by saying that past performances for the team are not enough to make a roster because “soccer is about today” as the team builds toward the 2028 Olympics and 2030 FIFA World Cup.

“Now is a fresh start, is a new start,” he said. “Of course, all have the door open. But now is not what I did in the past.”

Players on the Olympic roster must be born on or after Jan. 1, 2005, with the exception of three players per team. Gozo meets that criteria. The goal for that team is to win gold, according to Pochettino.

“When we were talking about to extend (my) contract, also the federation also asked (me) to help a little bit to build, to arrive at the 2028 Olympic Games working very closely with Steve (Cherundolo), with the under 23s, with all the youth … to try to build that experience to arrive at the Olympic Games with the possibility to have that experience that can provide a gold medal,” Pochettino said.

Who made the USMNT’s September/October roster?

The following 28 players were called up to the September and October U.S. men’s national team camp:

Goalkeepers

• Chris Brady
• Matt Freese
• Diego Kochen
• Brian Schwake

Defenders

• George Campbell
• Sergiño Dest
• Alex Freeman
• Peyton Miller
• Neil Pierre
• Chris Richards
• Antonee Robinson
• Miles Robinson
• Auston Trusty
• Frankie Westfield

Midfielders

• Tyler Adams
• Mathis Albert
• Sebastian Berhalter
• Zavier Gozo
• Adri Mehmeti
• Yunus Musah
• Brooklyn Raines
• Gio Reyna
• Malik Tillman

Forwards

• Cole Campbell
• Justin Ellis
• Julian Hall
• Ricardo Pepi
• Cavan Sullivan

When and where is the USMNT playing next?

In this next camp, the U.S. men’s national team will play in four games across the country on the following dates:

• Sept. 26: U.S. vs. Peru in Orlando, Florida.
• Sept. 29: U.S. vs. Chile in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Oct. 3: U.S. vs. Mexico in Glendale, Arizona.
• Oct. 6: U.S. vs. Canada in St. Paul, Minnesota.

They also encouraged church members to “voice their opposition” to the proposed law in a letter that will be read from the pulpit during worship services for the next two Sundays, according to a letter the leaders sent to the faith’s 1,300 congregations in the state.

“We join with other like-minded individuals and organizations working against this initiative,” the letter states, “and encourage our members to voice their opposition to it in a respectful manner consistent with prophetic direction of always demonstrating Christlike love and civility in political discourse.”

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The letter was signed by the church’s U.S. Central Area Presidency — Elders José A. Teixeira, Ricardo P. Giménez, Karl Hirst and James Fantone.

The Idaho Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act is on the Nov. 3 ballot. It would amend current law to establish a state right to abortion four years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there is no federal right to abortion.

Since then, 11 states have established rights to abortion — Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, New York and Vermont, according to Ballotpedia.

Latter-day Saint opposition follows that of other faith groups and organizations in the state. Roman Catholics have been holding special pro-life masses in the state for months after the Most Reverend Peter F. Christensen, the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, sent a letter in July.

The Catholic effort has included special prayer and fasting on Fridays.

The Catholic leader called the ballot initiative “radically pro-abortion” and stated it would legalize late-term abortions into the third trimester.

“If passed, this initiative will entirely dismantle Idaho’s current protections for unborn children and weaken important safeguards for women, minors and parents,” he wrote. “This ballot initiative presents a serious moral and cultural challenge for our communities.”

The Latter-day Saint leaders said the church’s position on abortion “remains clear and unchanged.”

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in the sanctity of human life,” according to a statement on its official website. “Therefore, the church opposes elective abortion for personal or social convenience and counsels its members not to submit to, perform, encourage, pay for or arrange for such abortions.”

The church maintains a political neutrality policy in individual races for office but regularly states that it reserves the right to weigh in on matters of morality.

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“As states work to enact laws related to abortion,” the church states on its official website, “church members may appropriately choose to participate in efforts to protect life and to preserve religious liberty.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opposes abortion with possible exceptions for when:

• Pregnancy results from rape or incest, or
• A competent physician determines that the life or health of the mother is in serious jeopardy, or
• A competent physician determines that the fetus has severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth.

“Abortion is a most serious matter,” the church website states. “It should be considered only after the persons responsible have received confirmation through prayer. Members may counsel with their bishops as part of this process.”

Numerous outlets reported Thursday that he apologized for what appeared to be rude exchanges between him and ESPN sideline reporters Laura Rutledge and Holly Rowe last Saturday.

The first came during a halftime interview with Rutledge as technical difficulties arose for Rutledge and the second came with Rowe postgame after fourth-ranked Texas stormed back from a 20-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat No. 1 Ohio State by a point (Texas is now ranked No. 1).

“Obviously, we have a ton of respect for ESPN and Holly,” Sarkisian said. “Holly and I go way back to even to my days of playing at BYU, and we’ve got a great relationship. ESPN is a great partner of ours.

“We know we’re going to have more opportunities with that crew covering us, and we’re looking forward to those opportunities. So, could have definitely handled that situation better with a little bit more patience in the moment.”

Second, Sarkisian apologized for an interaction his starting quarterback, Arch Manning, had with reporters on Monday about an AI-generated video that showed Sarkisian slapping Rowe. During the interaction, both Manning and a number of reporters were seen or heard laughing about the video, with Manning calling it “hilarious.”

Said Sarkisian: “Arch recognizes he made a mistake, and it’s an unfortunate one. Nowhere do we condone domestic violence or violence against women. Nothing in our program says that, nor Arch individually. I think if he could take it back, he would.

“He has since apologized to Holly. He’s made a public apology, and you know our goal is that we can move forward with him being the guy that we all know he is and what he represents.”

Manning wrote on his Instagram story Tuesday, “In my press conference yesterday, I made an insensitive comment about an AI video. There is nothing funny about it. It’s easy to say I didn’t mean it, but I know my words and actions were hurtful to a lot of people. I do not take that lightly and am deeply sorry for that.

pic.twitter.com/6ZVqJmIP2v

— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) September 15, 2026

“I specifically want to apologize to Holly Rowe for what she has personally had to deal with because of my comments. I have a ton of respect for her and appreciate her showing me grace in this moment. I need to do better and will be more thoughtful going forward.”

Rowe publicly responded to Manning on Instagram, writing, “Thank you Arch. I appreciate our conversation about this-which will remain private. Apology accepted. We move forward with respect and kindness for one another.”

Rowe had posted on social media that her mother died on Aug. 30, and she posted that the burial was on Wednesday.

The university confirmed it had dismissed the charges of potential rule violations on Thursday amid a social media uproar that drew the attention of the Trump administration and Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, who retained legal counsel to assist both students.

The university canceled meetings with the students to discuss the reports on Wednesday, but had promised to proceed with its review of the accusations consistent with school policies. The misconduct hearings were rescheduled for Thursday before being scrapped.

In a statement on Thursday, the university announced the University of Utah’s Dean of Students Office had dismissed “accountability” inquiries into Utah Federation of College Republicans chair Riley Beesley and University of Utah College Republicans vice president Rylie Barnes.

“Neither student faced expulsion for their social media posts,” the university clarified in a statement.

Typically, the university does not discuss cases. However, the students have publicized each step of the process. The Dean of Students Office is obligated to investigate every complaint it receives. The office has already managed more than 500 cases this school year.

University initially said students may have violated standard

On Tuesday, the university notified Barnes and Beesley that they may have violated the campus’ “Threatening or Endangering Behavior” standard. These were “routine notifications” based on anonymous claims sent to the Dean of Students Office.

Violations of this student behavior standard can result in a student’s admission to the university being rescinded. It covers true threats, intimidation and coercion, regardless of whether it is done in person, or digitally, via text message, email or social media.

The email referred to events surrounding an incident the week before, on Sept. 10, when University of Utah student Sara Larsen approached a College Republicans table where Barnes was advertising the anniversary memorial for Kirk that day at Utah Valley University.

The booth featured a whiteboard asking students whether Kirk deserved to be killed.

Larsen held up a white cake with a red inscription that said “Happy Kirkiversary,” according to Barnes, and appeared to pose as Barnes took a picture which she uploaded to the platform X. The post rapidly accumulated more than 6 million views.

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“If they want to joke about Charlie getting assassinated, what’s next?” Barnes told the Deseret News. “We’re on campus every Tuesday and Thursday doing the exact same thing that Charlie did. So if we get murdered, are we going to be the same joke?”

A later post by an anonymous account, showing alleged LinkedIn pages for Larsen and someone who appears to be her family member, hit nearly 20 million views, with conservative influencers sharing the post as an example of young people mocking political violence.

Larsen reportedly received threats after she was identified online.

The next day, Larsen issued an apology, saying “upon reflection” she had concluded it was wrong to make light of Kirk’s death. Her expression of regret came alongside a campaign from students to penalize Barnes and Beesley for their social media activity.

Complaints also stemmed from Beesley exposing a College Democrat, Mason McCann, on Sept. 12 for justifying the murder of Kirk in a now-deleted post.

A petition was created to hold College Republicans “accountable” by reporting Barnes and Beesley to the dean of students. A few dozen members of progressive student groups attended a protest on Wednesday where they called on the school to decharter College Republicans as an official club.

“If the university realizes that its funding and resources are being used by an individual/organization to enable and, once again, promote like hate speech/doxxing, then in that case it should take disciplinary action,” Shaiban Khan, a student who participated in the protest, told the Deseret News.

While College Democrats at the University of Utah have not taken a position on what that disciplinary action should look like, they believe College Republicans flouted Larsen’s right to privacy by publishing her photo to their extensive online network.

The College Democrats want their GOP counterparts to remain on campus to foster civil dialogue, according to Ian Jacobson, the College Democrats external communications director. But he told the Deseret News that the group must condemn doxxing.

After reviewing both cases, Dean of Students Jason Ramirez concluded there was insufficient evidence to move forward. The university said in a statement it will do more to ensure office staff understand the “boundaries between freedom of speech and actionable misconduct.”

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Upon receiving notice of the university’s review, Beesley and Barnes labeled it a step toward expulsion. The emails did not mention expelling them, but the perception that College Republicans would be disciplined instead of Larsen ignited a firestorm.

Harmeet Dhillon, who serves as the U.S. assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, targeting discriminatory policies in higher education, responded with a post from her personal account on X that said, “Utah ... wth is going on over there.”

Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet and TPUSA contributor Jack Posobiec said they were following the news closely, while Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer promised to push donors to divest from the school if it did not reverse course.

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“I think the reactions from those online are really justified,” Beesley told the Deseret News. “You have a university that’s punishing individuals for calling out Democrat students who are celebrating murder. That’s messed up ... there’s no other way to look at it.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, a public interest law firm focused on free speech on college campuses, said on Wednesday they were looking into whether the university would take punitive action against College Republican leaders for their posts.

Neither Larsen nor Barnes crossed the line when it comes to free speech on campus, according to Robert Shibley, FIRE’s special counsel for campus advocacy. Nothing about the interaction warrants university involvement in terms of discipline, he said.

Reprehensible speech in support of violence, like Larsen’s cake, and photos that lead to criticism from third parties fall within the bounds of protected speech at universities, Shibley said, adding that what Barnes did could be considered photo journalism.

“You’re going to be much more reluctant to take advantage of those rights ... if every time you do so you have to fear being dragged in front of the person who’s in charge of student discipline,” he told the Deseret News. “That’s the message that I think is really dangerous to send.”

By documenting their experience on X, Beesley and Barnes have rallied the support of powerful conservatives. Utah Sen. Mike Lee weighed in to call the review “unbelievably absurd,” and the family of Charlie Kirk reached out directly to help.

When Turning Point USA learned on Tuesday night about the meeting that the university had scheduled, Kirk’s widow, Erika, paid for attorneys to work into the night to represent Beesley and Barnes, according to Beesley, “The Charlie Kirk Show” and one of the attorneys.

Jake Lee, an associate attorney at Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar, was one of lawyers hired by Kirk’s team to help the students. He had previous experience working with Erika Kirk, including by supporting Turning Point USA staff on the day her husband was killed.

Lee credited the university with prioritizing the due process of Barnes and Beesley. But, ultimately, the protection of political speech was never in question.

“This started the way political engagement is supposed to start on a college campus,” Lee told the Deseret News. “To me, it’s clearly speech reacting to speech. To me, that’s the marketplace of ideas doing what it’s supposed to do.”

A social media generation

The viral situation that unfolded at the University of Utah put a spotlight on how social media has ratcheted up “the power of speech” for every individual, according to Clifford Rosky, a professor at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law.

But the First Amendment remains extremely rigorous. It provides firm protection for nearly all speech beside “true threats” — directly telling someone you intend to hurt them — and “incitement” — persuading someone else to commit a crime," Rosky told the Deseret News.

It would be “very difficult” to categorize College Republicans posting a photo of Sara Larsen as either of those things, Rosky said, especially since it would be extremely hard to prove the students intended for Larsen to get hurt because of their post.

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But even when activity is covered by the First Amendment, that does not mean society should not set the bar higher.

“It’s one thing to have a freedom, and it’s another thing to exercise it,” Rosky said.

The College Republicans have doubled down in their use of free speech. It was important to draw the attention of Utahns to the toxic political climate on campus, Barnes said. But she opposes those online who are doxxing, or threatening, Larsen, she said.

Barnes, who has also been the subject of death threats since her post went viral, said she has not reported Larsen to the dean of students. She believes Larsen’s “disgusting and vile” cake was protected by free speech and does not warrant disciplinary action.

The Cougars’ slate of 2026-27 conference contests was revealed Tuesday, as Kevin Young prepares for his third season with the program in search of another NCAA Tournament run.

BYU’s 2026-27 Big 12 schedule

• Jan. 2 — at Arizona State
• Jan. 6 — vs. Cincinnati
• Jan. 9 — vs. Kansas
• Jan. 12 — at Arizona
• Jan. 16 — vs. Utah
• Jan. 20 — at Iowa State
• Jan. 23 — vs. West Virginia
• Jan. 27 — at TCU
• Jan. 30 — at Houston
• Feb. 2 — vs. Baylor
• Feb. 6 — at Utah
• Feb. 13 — vs. Kansas State
• Feb. 17 — at Colorado
• Feb. 20 —vs. TCU
• Feb. 22 — vs. Arizona
• Feb. 27 — at UCF
• March 2 — vs. Oklahoma State
• March 5 — at Texas Tech
• March 10-14 — Big 12 Conference Tournament in Kansas City

2026-27 BIG 12 SCHEDULE pic.twitter.com/Dy6J5hDpvc

— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) September 17, 2026

Highlights from BYU’s 2026-27 Big 12 schedule

The Cougars will play three conference opponents at both home and away this season:

• Arizona is coming off of a Big 12 championship and Final Four appearance, with Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats remaining a trendy title contender for 2027. BYU lost twice to Arizona in 2026, coming just three points shy of upsetting the No. 1-ranked Wildcats in Provo.
• TCU, a former Mountain West Conference rival for the Cougars, has reached the NCAA Tournament in four of the past five seasons under Jamie Dixon and won its first round matchup as a No. 9 seed last year. BYU defeated the Horned Frogs 76-70 at the Marriott Center in their lone 2026 meeting.
• Utah and BYU will continue their historic rivalry with showdowns in Provo (Jan. 16) and Salt Lake City (Feb. 6), as Alex Jensen’s Runnin’ Utes look to take a step forward as a program and avenge last season’s pair of losses to the Cougars.

BYU will also travel to Arizona State, Iowa State, Houston, Colorado and UCF for the first time since 2025, with Cincinnati, Kansas, West Virginia, Baylor, Kansas State and Oklahoma State each making their return to Provo as well.

Six of the Cougars’ nine Big 12 road games will be against NCAA Tournament teams from 2026, while only three reigning tournament squads will come to the Marriott Center.

Additionally, BYU will host four teams it lost to last season — Cincinnati, West Virginia, Arizona and Oklahoma State — for a new opportunity to obtain some revenge, and the Cougars’ newest attempt to earn their first conference win over Houston will come on the road.

After matching up twice last season, BYU and Texas Tech will only meet once in conference play this year: a standalone, primetime Friday night battle in Lubbock on March 5.

BYU women’s basketball 2026-27 schedule

The full 2026-27 schedule for BYU women’s basketball was released Thursday.

Here’s a look at the full schedule for the BYU women’s team.

Nonconference schedule

• Oct. 27 — vs. Western Colorado (exhibition)
• Nov. 3 — vs. Idaho State
• Nov. 5 — vs. Portland
• Nov. 7 — vs. Montana
• Nov. 11 — vs. Bethune-Cookman
• Nov. 14 — vs. New Mexico
• Nov. 18 — vs. Utah State
• Nov. 21 — vs. Northern Colorado
• Nov. 24 — at Utah Valley
• Nov. 27 — St. Pete Showcase against Fairfield
• Nov. 28 — St. Pete Showcase against Boston College
• Dec. 5 — at Oregon State
• Dec. 9 — vs. Southern Utah
• Dec. 12 — vs. Cal Baptist
• Dec. 15 — vs. Weber State

Big 12 schedule

• Dec. 19 — at Arizona
• Dec. 30 — vs. Kansas State
• Jan. 2 — vs. Houston
• Jan. 6 — at Baylor
• Jan. 9 — vs. Arizona State
• Jan. 13 — at Colorado
• Jan. 16 — vs. Oklahoma State
• Jan. 23 — at TCU
• Jan. 27 — vs. UCF
• Jan. 30 — at Texas Tech
• Feb. 3 — at Utah
• Feb. 6 — vs. Kansas
• Feb. 10 — vs. Arizona
• Feb. 13 — at Iowa State
• Feb. 16 — vs. Colorado
• Feb. 20 —at Cincinnati
• Feb. 23 — at West Virginia
• Feb. 27 — vs. Utah
• March 3-7 — Big 12 Conference Tournament in Kansas City

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔-𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟕 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝟏𝟐 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 pic.twitter.com/ODTRVj0LRA

— BYU Women's Hoops (@byuwbb) September 17, 2026

The order was extended indefinitely because, according to Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan, there is a “risk of immediate and irreparable injury should the list be made available to the public at this time,” the filing said, CBS News reported.

However, the order does not prohibit jurors from publicly speaking out themselves, and a few have.

After the Massachusetts case ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury, three female jurors spoke to the media about what they said occurred behind closed doors in the deliberation room.

Clancy, who admitted to killing her three children, ended in a mistrial on Sept. 4 after a hung jury ended 11-1 in Clancy’s favor of not finding her guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not publicly decided whether to retry her.

In a separate interview, one juror, Paula Devin, told CBS News’ Gayle King that the holdout juror was a Black man, and the only person of color on the jury.

“Whoa,” King said. “I have to sit with that for just a second.”

Holdout juror is identified

More information about the holdout juror seemed to come out each time an interview with fellow jurors was released online.

And though the man has not spoken publicly, YouTuber Ray Marcel, who hosts a show called “Fugitive TV,” said on Wednesday that he has been in constant contact with the holdout juror and that he would be speaking out soon.

Exclusive hear everything the Juror Michael told me, He did not lie on the Questionnaire and other details of what happened in the Jury room. Plus he revelas why he feels he is getting attacked https://t.co/vv1RXYUgcG@EdPaltzik

— Fugitive TV (@FugitiveTV_Live) September 16, 2026

“If you agree with him or not, guilty or not guilty, his name shouldn’t have been put out there like that, and no juror should be, you know, put to the forefront like that because it’s their civic duty to do that, and they should be protected,” Marcel told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo.

“When I had my conversation with him, he said that based off all the evidence that he’s seen, everything that he heard, he felt that she was guilty,” Marcel added. “He felt that she was sane when she did it, and that’s exactly what he told me.”

He also said that the juror and another woman believed Clancy was guilty, but in the end, and he apparently didn’t know why, the female juror changed her mind.

This is the Lindsay Clancy juror Michael. He sent me these photos. Do not send anyone any money that is not him. pic.twitter.com/H6DYEUxmpV

— Fugitive TV (@FugitiveTV_Live) September 16, 2026

In the interview with NBC Boston, Roni Carlson, the jury foreperson said the holdout juror “admitted he had reasonable doubt,” but added that he said he’s “still not going to say that she’s not guilty by reason of insanity.”

Marcel said the holdout juror denied that:

“He said from day one that he always felt that she was guilty, and he never displayed or said anything about reasonable doubt.”

The New York Post interviewed the juror’s brother, who said his family had no idea his brother was even on the jury, yet their lives have been turned upside down.

“My family cannot leave the house,” the brother said. “They are leaving notes at my mother’s house. They won’t leave us alone and we don’t know anything.”

His brother added that though the holdout juror is a devout Catholic, “I don’t think religion had anything to do with it. ... He looked at the case, and he made the call,” the brother said. “For me, that’s how I would do it. I would just listen to the case with all the evidence, and go from there.”

Will this affect juries in the future?

Before news outlets like NBC Boston released the juror’s name, they conducted background checks and reported what they found — including domestic violence disputes from 2021 that he was never convicted of and an active restraining order that expired during the trial — while withholding his identity.

“I don’t know if they tried to give the full story, or they just didn’t have the full story. But it wasn’t the full story,” Marcel said during his Tuesday show.

Katherine Loftus, a Boston attorney who has closely followed the Clancy case, told CBS News that this level of attention directed at jurors could undermine the importance of jury service as a civic duty.

If put on a high-profile case, “Your entire life is going to be subjected to scrutiny,” she said.

“I think that’s going to have a chilling effect for jurors moving forward,” Loftus added.

After speaking with the holdout juror, Marcel shared a similar concern.

“Now, in the future, people are going to be scared to even serve on a jury, and if they do, they’re going to be scared to maybe give in to pressure because they don’t want to be that one person that votes either guilty or not guilty,” he said.

He continued, “Is this how we’re supposed to treat our jurors, no matter if you agree with them or you disagree with them?”

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But one forecaster decided to look back at how the snowpack finished during the 1997-1998 winter season — one of the four strongest El Niño episodes on record — at each ski region across the western U.S.

OpenSnow meteorologist Sam Collentine said there are two major sources of uncertainty in long-range forecasts predicting weather months in advance.

The first is how accurately forecasters can predict El Niño or La Niña. El Niño is expected to continue, and there’s a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event during the Northern Hemisphere fall and winter of 2026-27, he said.

The second is the atmospheric response to El Niño or La Niña, Collentine said. That is, if El Niño occurs, does it always affect the weather in North America in the same way?

The short answer is no.

‘Super El Niño’ is coming. What does that mean for Utah ski resorts?

Looking at the past to predict the future

“To determine how El Niño impacts weather in North America, we can look at snowfall records during past El Niño events and compare them to a typical year,” Collentine wrote.

Here’s are the western snowpack levels during the four strongest El Niño episodes on record:

• 1982-1983: 139%
• 1991-1992: 73%
• 1997-1998: 104%
• 2015-2016: 98%

So, only two of the four resulted in higher-than-average snowpacks.

“The effects of El Niño appear to show a mixed bag for much of the western United States, with the strongest signal being average to above-average snowfall for the Southwest. Again, though, the pattern doesn’t hold 100% of the time,” Collentine wrote.

Collentine then, “to have a little fun,” looked specifically at how the snowpack finished during the 1997-1998 winter season at each ski region across the western United States:

• California: 156%
• Colorado: 101%
• Utah: 128%
• Southwest: 138%
• Pacific Northwest: 102%
• Northern Rockies: 96%
• All Regions: 104%

While the 1997-1998 ski season is interesting to look at as a potential comparison for an El Niño episode, keep in mind that no matter how deep or light a winter is overall, when it comes to skiing, it’s all about timing, he said.

Collentine said booking a trip seven to 10 days in advance and for a general area that looks stormy will increase the chances of scoring the best conditions.

Super El Niño: Coming this winter to a climate near you

What is a ‘Super El Niño?’

El Niño is a naturally occurring climate pattern in the tropical Pacific Ocean in which sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific become warmer than average. When the sea surface temperature there runs at least 0.5 degrees Celsius above average for a sustained period, meteorologists call it El Niño. When it runs cold, it’s called La Niña.

Meteorologists typically use the term Super El Niño when temperatures climb 2 degrees Celsius above normal. Meteorologists will compare specific Pacific temperatures to the average temperatures in the area and compared to the rest of the tropical oceans to determine that 2-degree threshold.

“It sounds small. A patch of the Pacific being a degree or two warmer than usual doesn’t seem like it should matter to anyone who isn’t a fish. But that warm water reshapes the jet stream, which reshapes where storms go, which is the only part of this article that actually matters to skiers,” forecaster Evan Thayer wrote for Ski Utah.

So what’s going to happen to mortgage rates now that the Fed just hiked the benchmark interest rate 0.25% to a range of 3.75% to 4%?

Here’s how the Fed’s rate hike will impact your household budget

Thursday, the weekly average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the U.S. jumped for a fourth straight week, to 6.95%, a stunning 0.19 percentage point increase from the previous week, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac.

It’s the highest weekly average since January 2025, and the largest weekly increase in 16 months.

Mortgage rates have been above 7% all week at Mortgage News Daily for the first time since May 2025, with Thursday’s daily index dipping from a 19-month high of 7.24% to 7.19%. U.S. News and World Report posted a slight increase Thursday, to 7.257%, citing data provided by Zillow.

“Mortgage markets anticipated the move and began pushing rates higher well before the Fed’s announcement,” said Dejan Eskic, senior research fellow and lead housing expert at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.

What is the state of housing in Utah?

Eskic said the Fed’s expected rate hike “reflects mounting inflationary pressures fueled by international conflict and economic uncertainty” as the war launched by the U.S. and Israel against Iran continues.

Just before the war began at the end of February, mortgage rates had slipped below 6%. The last time rates were that low was in 2022, as

Now, with global energy prices climbing and the cost of gas heading towards $5 a gallon or more, Eskic said inflation concerns have intensified. Those concerns are pushing up the yield on long-term U.S. government bonds that’s tied to mortgage rates.

“Of course, we’re not in love with that move by the Fed, but understand they were worried about inflation,” Salt Lake Board of Realtors President Scott Colemere said. “It’s not great for our recovering real estate market but it’s also one chess piece on the board.”

Rate increases do sap consumer confidence, Colemere said. “Buyers are jittery.”

There’s currently plenty for sale in Utah with nearly 15,000 properties on the market statewide, he said, about three times past housing inventories. It’s getting close to a six-month supply, where buyers clearly have an advantage over sellers.

As mortgage rates go up, he said “sellers become generally more soft and offer more discounts,” Colemere said. A few individual home sellers are even buying down interest rates to help close a deal, he said, something many new home builders have been doing for a while.

There’s plenty of predictions that around a 7% mortgage rate may be the “new normal,” especially since an additional interest rate increase is anticipated from the Fed by the end of year with the chance of more in 2027.

Mortgage rates topping 7%

“Mortgage Rates Are Likely to Stay High,” declared the headline a Redfin post Wednesday that warned, “until the underlying economic fundamentals—everything from oil prices to AI–that are keeping rates high change, mortgage rates are unlikely to fall significantly.”

Whether mortgage rates continue to go up is “anybody’s guess,” Colemere said.

“I hope we don’t see 8%,” he said when asked if that was a possibility. “I don’t have any reason to believe that we are (heading) one way or the other. It’s just too difficult to try to peg what’s going to happen in the next five or six months. Definitely there’s uncertainty in this market.”

Utah’s offensive line went into this season with the right mentality.

The Utes had to replace all five starters from an offensive line that graded out as one of the best in the country last season, set school rushing records and had two starters — Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu — selected in the first round of the NFL draft.

Heading into the 2026 season with five new starters on the offensive line and a new position coach in Jordan Gross, the smartest thing the Utes’ front could do was not compare themselves to the 2025 starters and use the outside doubt as fuel during spring and fall camp.

“It’s really fun for us because if you look, I can’t remember who it was, was it Phil Steele or one of the social media traps you get into, I don’t think we were in the top 50 O-lines in the country. It’s one of those things where it’s like, great,” center Alex Harrison said prior to the season.

“I love the fact that nobody believes in us. I love the fact that everyone doubts us. Bring it on. I just can’t wait because I think we’ll show a lot of people this year.”

The truth is that Utah’s new-look offensive line doesn’t have to reach those lofty heights set last year for the Utes to be successful, as they’ve proved through two games.

Making the transition easier for Gross and the offensive line is the fact that many of the key contributors had already played extensive snaps at Utah, especially last season in many of the Utes’ blowout victories.

Zereoue Williams (156 snaps last year), Alex Harrison (143 snaps), Solatoa Moea’i (336 snaps) and Roger Alderman (134 snaps) all have been around the program for a while, then Utah added Cedric Jefferson, who started at tackle for Montana State, and five-star freshman Kelvin Obot, whom Gross coached while at Fruitland High.

The big question entering the season was how the offensive line would perform. Through two games, Gross’ group looks ahead of schedule, especially in pass blocking and playing without penalties.

Thus far, Utah has allowed just seven pressures and one sack, keeping quarterback Devon Dampier protected. Williams, who plays one of the most important positions on the field at left tackle, has been Utah’s best pass blocker so far. Pro Football Focus ranks him as the fourth-best tackle in pass protection nationally with a grade of 89.5.

“I thought they did tremendous,” Dampier said. “... I thought those guys were dialed in. Arkansas did a lot of different stuff with their fronts and pressures and, man, I didn’t feel it.”

The entire offensive line has been penalty-free, which is impressive for a group of new starters.

“I love the fact that nobody believes in us. I love the fact that everyone doubts us. Bring it on. I just can’t wait because I think we’ll show a lot of people this year.”

Utah center center Alex Harrison

“You look over the first two games, I think we’re one of the fewest in penalties and particularly at the offensive line,” coach Morgan Scalley said. “You’ve had one holding penalty, it was on a tight end, and really no false starts from offensive linemen. So I’m really pleased with the discipline there.”

Even though the Utes got a bit of bad health news with projected starter Keith Olson working his way back from a fall camp injury, it hasn’t fazed the group. Utah inserted Roger Alderman at right guard during the last two games, and he has fared well, grading out as the second-best offensive lineman in the Utes’ win over Arkansas, per PFF. Alderman’s play has perhaps made that right guard spot a competition after Olson was cleared to return last week.

Utah’s starting group of Williams, Moea’i, Harrison, Alderman and Jefferson has played well enough to ease some of the preseason concerns about the group. Utah’s offense has been wildly effective, ranking No. 6 in the country in points per game (54.5) and No. 12 in the country in yards per game (537). That doesn’t happen without a decent offensive line.

“I think it’s been great. I think as a whole unit, we’re all doing really well playing together,” Jefferson said. “I think we all mesh really well, all have a great relationship off the field, so that just only makes it better on the field. It’s an honor to be out here with these guys playing for this team, and we want to improve each week.”

The group passed their first challenge against the size of Arkansas’ defensive front in a 43-10 win.

“From what I’ve seen, every time we’ve challenged them, they show up. And coach Gross and Alex Gerke have done such a great job bringing those guys along,” Scalley said. “They are a cohesive unit. They hang together all the time.

“They had a chip on their shoulder ever since the offseason when people talked about that may be a weak link for the University of Utah. Obviously tonight it did not prove to be that.”

While Utah’s offensive line has exceeded early expectations, they still have progress to make, especially in the run game.

The Utes graded out at 61.2 in Week 1 and 63.1 in Week 2 in run blocking, per PFF. There’s definitely room for this group to grow in getting better and more consistent push for Wayshawn Parker, Dampier and the rest of the group and increasing the run success rate, which sits at 52.4%.

Overall, Utah’s offensive line looks to be ahead of schedule, but the group is not buying into the hype and is looking to continually improve throughout the season.

“I think as a new unit, we’re off to a good start. We have a lot of things to improve on. Just every day we’re trying to get better and continue making our best better. Never have the mindset that you made it, just always wanting to improve,” Jefferson said.

In case you missed it

As now-former defensive coordinator, Morgan Scalley is well aware of what constitutes a great offense. He shares his perspective and thoughts on Utah’s offense through two games.

From the archives

‘They’re all amazing people’: Bronco Mendenhall previews matchup vs. Utah that features familiar names

‘Our analytics said that he was the best in the pool’: Why Utah nabbed DT Jireh Moe when other teams ‘shied away’

Big 12 power rankings: BYU, Utah have risen to the top while another vital conference game looms

Extra points

• Analysis: Utah’s fun — and effective — offense steals the show in big win vs. Arkansas
• Video: What you may have missed from Utah’s domination of an SEC opponent at Rice-Eccles Stadium
• ‘Never in my wildest dreams would I think I’d be in this moment right now’: Eric Weddle gets enshrined in Utah’s Ring of Honor

These new tools — including a new playlist feature — were designed to help Latter-day Saints discover and incorporate sacred music into their daily worship and gospel learning, according to a press release published on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Latest songs added to growing Latter-day Saint hymnbook

Multiple tools were also designed to help members “participate more fully and joyfully in worship,” as church leaders have encouraged.

“Let the singing be transformed,” Elder Patrick Kearon of the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in a recent video about enhancing Sunday worship.

“Let us have a tempo that encourages us to sing energetically, (and) let us pray and remember our Savior Jesus Christ.”

Below is a roundup of the new music features on Gospel Library and how to access them. Additional tips and information on how to navigate the app are available here.

Access and create playlists on Gospel Library

Gospel Library users can now access a series of “Featured” playlists by clicking on the home screen icon (located at the bottom left on a phone screen) and scrolling down to “Playlists.”

There, users will find several preexisting playlists with titles such as “Hymns Reimagined” and “Acoustic Hymns.”

By sliding to the right, users will then see options to view all playlists or create their own.

Users may add hymns and other inspiring music to their personal playlists. They may also choose to include general conference addresses, chapters from scripture or other Gospel Library content with audio available.

Search hymns by topic

Users can now find hymns related to specific topics or themes by opening the app’s library screen, selecting “Music” and then selecting “Topics” in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Users wanting to create playlists on specific topics can open individual hymns within a topic, select the three dots in the top-right corner and then select “Add to Playlist.”

Watch Elder Caussé play, speak of this newly added Easter hymn

Select audio types

When selecting songs to listen to, users will find they are now prompted to select an audio type.

Previously, the app would default to vocal recordings for all music. Now, users have the option to listen to sacred music with:

• Accompaniment only
• Guitar accompaniment
• Vocal recordings

All new songs in the church’s growing hymnbook, “Hymns for Home and Church,” have all audio types available.

Use a virtual hymn board for stake conference

The virtual hymn board tool, which has been available to local church congregations, is now available for use at stake conferences.

Stake presidency members and stake-level music coordinators, executive secretaries and clerks may now program songs for stake conferences using the tool and make programs available to members in advance so they can prepare.

Users must be signed into the app with their church account to access the hymn board feature. A video with more information about the new feature is available here.

Use the metronome tool for ‘joyful’ worship

A new metronome tool is also available for ward music leaders and accompanists to help “keep music at a joyful tempo,” according to a church press release.

To use the tool, ward music leaders and accompanists should reference a hymn’s tempo range (available at the top of a hymn’s sheet music) and then choose a tempo on the metronome that matches the range.

Tempo cues can be set as visible or audible beats. This feature is only available in accompanist mode to users signed into the app with their church account.

Switch guitar chord notation on or off

Guitar chord notation is available for each of the new songs in the church’s collection “Hymns — For Home and Church.”

To see chord notations in the sheet music, users must select the top three dots in the top-right corner, select “Display Options” and switch “Show Guitar Chords” on.

Latter-day Saints are encouraged to incorporate sacred music in their daily worship and grow familiar with the church’s growing collection of hymns. The latest batch of hymns released by the church is available here.

The origin story of this treasured Latter-day Saint youth medley

Speaking beneath the cathedral’s vaulted ceiling to a capacity audience of 4,000 people, the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints delivered the historic address on the Eve of Constitution Day, as the nation marks 250th anniversary since its founding.

“The Constitution requires us to deal constantly with people who disagree with us. It compels a divided people to build coalitions that allow them to act together for the common good,” said President Oaks. He described the Constitution as a “model for a diverse people to achieve self-government.”

President Oaks spoke as part of the cathedral’s “A Better Way” series, an effort to convene bipartisan leaders with the goal of deepening understanding and promoting civil discourse.

A constitutional scholar and former Utah Supreme Court justice, President Oaks has spoken over the years about the importance of listening to opposing views and balancing competing rights in a pluralistic democracy. In a 2021 address at the University of Virginia, he argued that differences should be solved through “mutual respect, shared understanding and good faith negotiations.”

In his National Cathedral address, President Oaks brought the focus to the Constitution’s essential charge to seek common ground.

“‘Compels’ is a strong word, but it is exactly what the Constitution does,” President Oaks said. “It puts what we now call ‘peacemaking’ at the heart of the Constitution’s process for achieving freedom and unity, and fairness for all.”

Peacemakers by necessity

President Oaks drew on the history of the Latter-day Saints to illustrate how a religious minority learned to live amid disagreement. He described the early church members as “refugees,” driven from Missouri in the 1830s and then pushed out westward to build a new community.

When Brigham Young became both president of the church and governor of the Utah Territory, Latter-day Saints lived under what President Oaks called “a theocracy and a democracy.” That changed after a non-Latter-day Saint became Utah’s new governor and people had to learn how to live within a new order.

“We gradually learned to live with dual authorities,” President Oaks said.

More recently, Latter-day Saints have faced rejection from those who don’t recognize them as Christian, he said.

“You might say, we have become peacemakers and advocates of freedom and unity by necessity,” President Oaks said. “At the same time, we have preserved the freedom required for us to continue with our most important doctrines and practices.”

The faith’s leader clarified that he wasn’t speaking on behalf of any political party or group. “I speak for the United States Constitution, which I have studied for 70 years,” said President Oaks.

He began the study of the document as a clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. He continued his study of the Constitution as a law professor and a justice on the Utah Supreme Court. In his role as an Apostle for four decades, he’d studied what the “the divinely inspired principles” of the Constitution meant for the work of the church.

The church holds a theological teaching that the Constitution is divinely inspired, but “this does not mean that every word is inspired, but that it is based on inspired principles,” President Oaks said.

Religious freedom undergirds the very existence of America

He highlighted the principles at the heart of the founding document: that people are a source of government authority; the separation of power between federal and state governments and among three branches; protection of individual rights and that everyone is governed by law rather than a person.

“Our loyalty is based on the Constitution and its principles and processes, not to particular office-holders,” he said.

President Oaks acknowledged that he’s come to better understand why some people might think religious liberty infringes on their rights.

“More recently, I have come to understand better the distress of other minorities who feel that some of us are invoking constitutional rights like free exercise of religion and freedom of speech to deny or challenge their own core beliefs and their basic constitutional rights.”

Legislation over litigation

Unity is rooted in the understanding that “we are fellow citizens who need each other,” and that means that to live peacefully, all citizens will sometimes have to obey laws they don’t like, President Oaks said.

In these situations, he suggested making a genuine effort to understand the concerns of others, “especially when they differ from our own.”

He also cautioned against “total dominance” in one’s views and emphasized that in a pluralistic society, the rights to exercise religious beliefs should be balanced with the interests of others. “The government must sometimes limit the right of some to act upon some of their beliefs when it is necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of all,” he said.

Despite his work in the courts, President Oaks said he preferred resolving conflict through legislation — “the less contentious route” — rather than litigation. He cited Harvard Law School professor Martha Minow, who has defended the effectiveness of “accommodation and negotiation” in her work.

The Utah Compromise is an exemplary case of this kind of negotiation, according to the church’s leader. In 2015, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and LGBTQ nondiscrimination advocates came together to negotiate a Utah law that balanced protections against discrimination in housing and employment with safeguards for religious freedom.

Neither side got everything it wanted, but their willingness to come together resulted in meaningful protections for both. “This win-win outcome could not have been obtained without the balancing of interests made possible by the dynamics of a legislative process.”

What is in a new book by President Dallin H. Oaks

A conflict is an opportunity to listen and find “common moral instincts” to then begin building coalitions, President Oaks said. One example of this kind of coalition building is the church’s Helping Hands volunteer program, which provides community service and disaster relief.

The “people-to-people” model allows for relationships across differences, something that institutions can’t replicate on their own.

Reflecting on President Oaks’s address

Following the address, a panel of legal and religious leaders reflected on ideas discussed by President Oaks.

The polarization is fueled partly by how Americans are conditioned to perceive each other, said Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

“We have been encouraged to constantly see one another in the worst possible light,” she said. “Particularly those with whom we disagree.”

In Rome, President Oaks champions religious liberty worldwide

The change of posture requires curiosity and openness, she said. The religious teaching of treating everyone with inherent human dignity offers an antidote to the adversarial rhetoric, she said.

In 2025, Budde’s speech at the Inauguration Prayer Service, also held at the National Cathedral, went viral when she directly appealed to President Donald Trump in the audience to have mercy on people “who are scared now,” including immigrants and LGBTQ people.

Budde echoed President Oaks’s call to learn through conflict. Diversity is more than allowing people to co-exist, but it’s also about learning “how to be human together.”

Melody Barnes, the executive director of Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia, likened efforts to resolve conflict through legislative process to building a muscle. Historically, she said, there’s been a “push and pull” between the courts and legislature until a window opens up for legislative activity.

She offered another example of successful coalition-building, when in 1993, over 60 different faith traditions – from the National Evangelical Association to the ACLU — joined forces to pass The Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

She also noted the partnership between late senators Lindsey Graham and Senator Ted Kennedy, who partnered on bipartisan immigration reform.

Productive disagreement, she said, depends not only on laws, but on norms. “It is about a set of habits that we have to have as citizens, as legislators, as representatives in a constitutional republic,” Barnes said.

Barnes echoed President Oaks’s point about volunteerism — it’s “ a foundation that allows people to have more difficult conversations,” she said.

Amid debates about the role of government and religion, America remains the country of vibrant religious dialogue and partnerships, said Rabbi David Saperstein, former United States ambassador-at-large for religious freedom. The separation of church and state has helped religion to flourish, he went on, even while the religious affiliation rates have plummeted. “So we have both narratives out there, and the question is, which will prevail?,” said Saperstein.

At the end of his address, President Oaks drew attention to the elements at the heart of peacemaking.

“People of goodwill, compassion, and a desire to understand and help one another are at the core of peacemaking and fairness for all in the constitutional process of achieving freedom and unity, as difficult and slow as it is,” he said. “It is all about trying to understand the deep needs, the deep commitments, on both sides and then to forge solutions that yield peace and fairness for all.”

The ninth book in “The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion” series will be released Feb. 23, 2027. Its release comes a bit later than anticipated, Brower acknowledged, as she chose to spend a bit of extra time polishing off her characters.

“I know I’d planned to release Vol. 9 this year, and Penguin was poised and ready to do the work required so that could be the case. (They have your back.),” Brower shared in her Thursday Substack newsletter. “But I needed just a handful of extra weeks to make certain that I had done right by the characters. Volume 9 is a riot, there are a lot of moving parts, and the terrain of the book requires me bringing my ‘A’ game to the endeavor.”

“I knew a handful of additional weeks would give me the amount of time needed to send the book into the world with excitement and peace rather than a feeling that I’d moved a sliver too fast,” she continued. “So thank you, thank you for this last final show of patience. It will soon be in your hands.”

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The first two books in “The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion” series landed quietly in November 2019, drawing modest attention.

Now, seven years and eight volumes later, Brower is regularly recognized in Orem, Utah, where she lives, she recently told The New York Times. After a recent exchange while out with her husband, Brower gave him a lighthearted apology.

“I’m afraid,” she recalled in the interview with the Times, “we’re going to spend the rest of our lives talking about Emma.”

Readers have been drawn to the series’ charming, epistolary style. Set in 1883 in the fictional neighborhood of St. Crispian’s in London — where Brower had only been once before beginning the series — the novels follow Emma, a witty 20-year-old, as she navigates her quirky neighborhood, eccentric family members and tries to reclaim her family home.

Brower writes the series with a similar format to a television series. There will be four seasons of “Emma,” each season including five to six volumes, with each volume comprising two months. Her plan is for 25 books, spanning the years 1883 through 1887.

From Orem, Utah, to readers around the world: The unlikely rise of ‘Emma M. Lion’

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Beth Brower announces Penguin Books deal

In what Brower described as one of the “wildest” months of her professional life, she has signed a publishing deal with Penguin after years of turning down offers from other “incredible publishers.”

“As lovely as everyone has been, I knew it wasn’t the right door and the right time,” Brower said. “I wasn’t certain what the Right Door and the Right Time would look like, but I have a solid instinct and was leaning on that.”

The decision was guided by a desire to find a publisher that could offer improved distribution options, maintain printing quality and consistency and, most importantly, providing Brower with independence in her writing.

“My number one priority is to protect my characters and books; my number two priority is to take care of my readers,” Brower said.

“Penguin fully understood this,” she continued. “They listened to every concern, and in the back and forth that followed they showed by their actions (not only their words) that they were willing to be partners in this endeavor, to take the weight of printing and distributing off my shoulders, while leaving my writing process untouched, preserving the soul and spirit of Emma M. Lion.”

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Brower, who has self-published 13 novels since launching her writing career in 2016, previously signed publishing deals with Bloomsbury UK and HarperCollins Canada, which will work in tandem with Penguin.

During the past decade, Brower said she has “been running a full-scale business,” including managing the bulk of publishing work, formatting the book layouts, making cover art decisions, handling marketing work, and managing her website and social media pages.

The new publishing deal lightens much of the burden that comes with independent publishing, freeing up significantly more time for Brower to focus on writing.

“So you see how utterly THRILLED I am to have the full force of Penguin behind me,” Brower said. “Now there will be more time to write the forthcoming ‘Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion’ while knowing that the printing, distributing, and protecting of my books is with Penguin — a trusted legacy publisher.”

ESPN baseball insider Jeff Passan recently noted the Utah capital has by far the most advanced potential bid and is the closest scenario to a turnkey operation. Despite a smaller media market than its main competitors, he noted the city has three other significant factors going for it: a strong ownership group, locked-in stadium funding and a site to build the stadium.

And if Utahns had their druthers, they would take a big league baseball team over any other pro sport, including football.

A new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll found 43% of registered voters in the state would most like to see MLB join the state’s pro sports landscape, followed by the NFL at 35%. The state is already home to two of the country’s Big Four sports leagues with the NBA’s Utah Jazz and NHL’s Utah Mammoth.

The survey found a significant drop-off after that with the WNBA at 14%; NASCAR or a motorsports event at 13% and an additional college bowl or playoff game at 12%. Nearly one-fifth don’t want to see any of those sports in Utah. Poll respondents were asked to select up to two choices.

Is Salt Lake City a lock for a big league baseball team?

A coalition of prominent Utahns led by the Larry H. Miller Company launched Big League Utah in 2023 to pitch Salt Lake City as a place for baseball. The company has a shovel-ready stadium site on the city’s west side and a $900 million commitment from the state through a rental car tax increase to fund half the construction cost.

“For generations, Utahns have embraced baseball — cheering on the Salt Lake Bees at home and traveling to iconic ballparks to see their favorite major league teams. We are energized by the national buzz and local excitement for MLB. This enthusiasm is more evidence that Utah is ready for a home game,” Miller Company CEO Steve Starks told the Deseret News in a statement.

The new survey found more than half of baby boomers and nearly half of millennials would most like to see major league baseball in Salt Lake City. Only a third of Gen Xers and Gen Zers prefer pro baseball. Retired folks were higher on baseball than any other demographic in the survey at 57%.

A March 2026 Deseret News/Hinckley Institute poll showed nearly 7 in 10 Utahns would welcome a big league team to the Beehive State.

Perhaps because of the work being done to get an expansion team, baseball turned the tables on football in the latest Deseret News/Hinckley Institute poll. In a 2023 survey, the NFL edged out MLB as the pro sport Utahns most wanted to see. Interestingly, the NHL finished a distant third in that poll taken the year before what is now the Mammoth arrived.

Could Salt Lake City support an NFL team?

Salt Lake City checks several boxes — growth trajectory, fan passion, location and increasingly sophisticated sports infrastructure. But it falls short on the two things the NFL highly values: a deep corporate base to fill luxury revenue and a credible path to a 65,000-seat stadium.

A pro football team in Utah has been a pie-in-the-sky idea going back several decades. Unlike baseball, there has been no organized campaign to bring the NFL to town.

In 2005, now-retired Deseret New columnist Brad Rock wrote about Brownsville, Texas, posturing for an NFL team. He noted that a story in the Brownsville Herald named Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, San Antonio, Toronto and Los Angeles as other possible sites. (Los Angeles now has the Rams and Chargers but didn’t have an NFL team at the time.)

A decade later, amid talk of moving the Utah State Prison from the Point of Mountain, former 2002 Salt Lake Olympics bid leader Tom Welch suggested replacing it with an NFL and/or MLB stadium.

“Well, when I think of Seattle I think about their football team. When I think about Denver, I think about the Broncos. When I think about Phoenix, it’s the Cardinals. And I think about their baseball teams. These are the major cities we compete against in attracting new businesses to Utah. They all have professional football and baseball. We don’t. And, you know, we ought to be looking for major league football and baseball to be a part of our future,” he told Deseret News columnist Lee Benson.

An NFL team in Utah? Gov. Spencer Cox says ‘no limit’ on how hard he’d push for that

In 2021, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox went all in on the notion of pro football in the state.

“I don’t know if there’s a limit on how hard I would push to get an NFL team here in Utah,” Cox said in response to a question about the league during a news conference.

“I know a lot of people are excited to have the Raiders in Vegas. We’ve been working closely with the Raiders to help them expand and do more with Utah, so there’s a natural connection there,” the governor said.

“If there’s an opportunity for an NFL franchise here in the state of Utah, we would be all over that,” Cox said. “We are the state of sport.”

And just last year, Touchdown Wire ranked Salt Lake City third behind St. Louis and Toronto among five cities that “deserve the NFL’s next expansion team.”

According to the new poll, nearly half of Gen Zers want to see an NFL team in Utah, while less than a quarter of baby boomers expressed a desire for pro football.

Women’s basketball, auto racing and bowl games

Utahns over the years have experienced some of the other sports listed in the survey.

Salt Lake City was home to one of the eight original WNBA franchises. The Utah Starzz played at the Delta Center from 1997 to 2002. The team had a losing record in its first three seasons, but made the playoffs its last two years, reaching the Western Conference Finals in 2002.

Larry H. Miller sold the club and it moved to San Antonio ahead of the 2003 season. It relocated to Las Vegas in 2018.

Utah has never hosted a NASCAR Cup Series race but has had a presence with lower-tier regional and developmental series races.

The Utah Motorsports Campus, originally the Miller Motorsports Park, is scheduled to reopen the racetrack after $5 million in upgrades Friday under a new brand. It will introduce plans for a multi-million-dollar project designed to position the 511-acre campus as a destination for motorsports, racing, high-performance innovation and entertainment.

As for a college football bowl game, the state was home to the Top of Mountains Bowl featuring junior college teams, often Snow College, for eight years, ending in 2011.

In 2008, an proposal to create the Rocky Mountain Bowl at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium had local support and Mountain West Conference backing but didn’t gain enough traction to get off the ground.

For much of the past century, parents in America were given an extraordinary gift: the expectation that their children would grow up, grow old and very likely outlive them.

The near-conquest of childhood mortality

In “A Good Time to Be Born,” pediatrician and author Perri Klass describes the remarkable transformation that made this expectation possible. Not long ago, childhood was shadowed by the possibility of death from diseases that we now rarely think about: cholera, measles, diphtheria, meningitis, diarrhea and pneumonia. Clean water, sanitation, antibiotics, vaccines and other advances in public health changed that world. The near-conquest of childhood mortality, Klass argues, may be one of humanity’s greatest achievements.

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Divine discovery

We sometimes forget just how extraordinary that achievement was.

Our parents and grandparents did not defeat childhood disease through wishful thinking. They did it by learning. They observed, tested, argued, measured and tested again. They built institutions whose purpose was to accumulate knowledge and apply it for the benefit of everyone. And when science discovered that something could make children safer, we generally celebrated the discovery.

Vaccines are perhaps the clearest example. Diseases that once filled children’s hospitals and cemeteries became rare. Parents stopped routinely worrying about whether their child would survive measles, polio, meningitis or whooping cough.

That should be a story of triumph.

Instead, we are watching an erosion of confidence in the very system that produced those triumphs.

The rise of distrust in vaccines

There have always been people who distrusted doctors, government or vaccines. There have always been friends, neighbors and relatives with strongly held opinions that were unsupported by good evidence. That is nothing new.

What is new is the megaphone.

Social media can place an uninformed opinion beside the considered conclusions of thousands of scientists and make the two appear to have equal weight. Algorithms learn what frightens us, angers us or confirms what we already believe, and then feed us more of it. We increasingly choose our news from boutique sources designed for people who already share our assumptions.

Medical groups issue ‘science-based’ respiratory vaccine guidance

The result is not simply disagreement. It is the disappearance of a shared information environment.

There was a time when a parent could reasonably turn to a pediatrician, a public health department, a medical journal or a major newspaper and assume that someone had done the difficult work of sorting evidence from anecdote. Those sources were not infallible. Science is never infallible; the essence of science is continual reexamination of what has been accepted as fact. Experts sometimes make mistakes, institutions sometimes fail and recommendations should change when evidence changes.

But there was a shared understanding that evidence mattered.

That understanding is now under extraordinary pressure.

The federal government’s recent actions surrounding childhood immunization are particularly painful because they come from institutions that were created to protect the public’s health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has historically relied on scientific review and expert committees to develop recommendations intended to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Yet, we are now witnessing federal intervention in the childhood immunization system that has left many physicians and parents questioning whether scientific expertise will continue to be the primary basis for those recommendations.

The difference between questioning science and abandoning expertise

This is not an argument that vaccines should never be questioned.

They should be questioned. Every medical intervention should be. Scientists should continue to study vaccine effectiveness and safety. Physicians should listen carefully when parents have concerns. And recommendations should change when good evidence tells us they should change.

That is precisely what science is supposed to do.

But there is an enormous difference between questioning science and abandoning expertise.

And there is another loss that deserves our attention.

Public health has always depended upon a bargain between the individual and the community. We vaccinate our children partly to protect them, but also to protect the newborn too young to be fully vaccinated, the child receiving chemotherapy, the pregnant woman, the elderly neighbor and the person whose immune system cannot respond normally to infection.

We used to understand that these responsibilities were not in conflict.

Protecting my child and protecting your child were part of the same moral obligation.

That sense of common purpose seems increasingly fragile.

The debate over vaccines and why it’s still so contentious

We shouldn’t throw away the valuable things we inherited

Perhaps that is why the current moment feels less like a political dispute than a tragedy. We inherited a world made dramatically safer by people who believed that knowledge could improve human lives. We inherited clean water, antibiotics, vaccines, safer cars, safer workplaces and public-health systems built through generations of accumulated experience.

We inherited something less tangible but equally important: trust in the idea that we could learn enough to make tomorrow safer than today.

We should not surrender that inheritance so easily.

Our children deserve better than a world in which the loudest voice is mistaken for the most knowledgeable one, in which fear is amplified because it generates clicks, or in which expertise is dismissed simply because it is inconvenient.

They deserve the benefits of everything previous generations learned.

And perhaps, most of all, they deserve what earlier generations of parents finally came to expect: not merely that their children will survive childhood, but that we will do everything reasonably within our power to give them a longer, safer and healthier life than our own.

That was one of the great achievements of modern society.

It would be heartbreaking to forget how we got here.

Gunning Bedford, a delegate from Delaware, was determined to not let the smaller states like his get trampled by the larger ones. He even went so far as to threaten that if the large states didn’t relent, the small states would find “some foreign ally of more honor and good faith” to protect them. When he said that, the room erupted. Delegates accused him of treason.

Wounds from the Revolutionary War were still fresh, and no one wanted to hear phrases like “foreign ally” spoken as a threat.

In the end, cooler heads prevailed. Bedford actually helped negotiate the Great Compromise, which struck a balance of power between the small and large states. That compromise resulted in a bicameral legislature — two bodies — one where each state would get two senators, and one where population would determine how many seats each state gets.

Bedford never altered his fundamental beliefs about how power should be allocated. However, he did learn to work better with the other delegates to find solutions.

These aren’t the stories we usually tell about our founders. But in an age of deepening polarization, the stories of how they routinely passionately disagreed without walking away from each other may be exactly what we need to hear. That isn’t to say that early American history was a polite, gentle, scholarly debate. Quite the contrary — it has always been tumultuous.

Most Americans reject the idea that political violence is ever justified. But 20% to 30%, depending on the survey, believe it may now be necessary. Most also agree that political rhetoric has gone too far, but most are also more likely to blame the other party than their own. More than a third of Americans have lost a relationship with a friend or family member over politics.

We all agree there’s a problem. We just tend to think that the problem is someone else.

That, of course, is human nature, and it’s worth remembering how our founding generation handled that same instinct.

Inside Independence Hall, episodes like Bedford’s threat were not uncommon. Debates ran hot, but when the day ended, the delegates didn’t scatter and go to their own corners. They didn’t just huddle up with their “side.” They actually gathered at taverns or at dinners hosted by Benjamin Franklin, where they argued the same questions in a lower key and, wisely, built the relationships that let them argue again the next morning.

Our founders didn’t build this country by agreeing with each other. They built it by disagreeing fiercely and refusing to give up on one another anyway.

Nothing about those dinners made the disagreements disappear. In fact, they did not. The delegates returned day after day to fight over questions about what America should look like on paper. Some disagreements and disputes were never fully resolved. Others demanded compromise that no delegate fully liked. But at the end of the day, men who had spent hours tearing into each other’s arguments could still sit down at the same table, as friends, notwithstanding their differences.

And, perhaps that’s the real difference. The world of our founders was no less divided than ours. But they were better at remembering what they still had in common: they had come to Philadelphia to protect the Union for which they had already bled.

That resolve was most clear on Sept. 17, 1787, the day of the final vote. Franklin rose to speak, but he was too frail to deliver his own remarks, so he handed them to James Wilson to read aloud. In it, Franklin admitted that he did not approve of every part of the Constitution. He had lived long enough, he said, to distrust his own certainty and to expect he might change his mind. But he still urged the delegates with reservations like his to vote yes.

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And they did. More than two centuries later, we still live under the agreement that they signed on that day.

Our founders didn’t build this country by agreeing with each other. They built it by disagreeing fiercely and refusing to give up on one another anyway. As we embark upon America’s next 250 years, that is worth remembering.

Rarely have the Cougars had two great tight ends at the same time, however.

Not since Pitta and Andrew George combined for more than 3,700 receiving yards and 32 touchdowns from 2007-09 has BYU been absolutely loaded at the position.

That may be changing this season. The sample size is small — only six quarters, basically — but USC transfer Walker Lyons and Oregon transfer Roger Saleapaga II have shown the potential to become one of the top tight end tandems in BYU history. Lyons has five catches for 44 yards and Saleapaga has three catches for 28 yards.

Their blocking and execution in the run game has also been noteworthy, coaches say.

Neither tight end played in the second half of BYU’s 63-7 thumping of Utah Tech. BYU has played a lot of 12 personnel — one running back, two tight ends — to take advantage of the strengths of each and get as many of their best players on the field as possible.

“I think it’s a lot of fun to play alongside Roger because we just make each other better,” Lyons said on Tuesday. “Actually, it is just fun to be part of this entire offense. There’s a lot we can do with (12 personnel) so it’s exciting.”

Saleapaga said before the Utah Tech game that the two tight ends were still trying to find the best ways to co-exist, but that their progress was encouraging.

“Obviously, it’s college football, and I feel like me and Walker have the same goal, and that’s just to win,” Saleapaga said. “We truly believe that with team success comes individual success. So it’s been fun playing alongside Walker.”

Lyons and Saleapaga are both listed at 6-foot-4, with Lyons weighing 245 and Saleapaga hitting the scales at 235.

When the second week of fall camp began, BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick called the 2026 tight end room the best tight end group of his tenure, having arrived at BYU in 2018 when Dallin Holker and Matt Bushman were doing their thing and just before Rex (2020-23) would catch more touchdown passes than any tight end in school history.

BYU's secondary has been as good as expected in 2026

BYU starting linebacker Siale Esera won't play against Colorado State

“This is the best tight end group we’ve had since I’ve been here, as a group, and Roger and Walker are two of our best players,” Roderick said. “They will play in the game together a lot. They are a big part of what we are doing.”

Coincidentally, Holker left BYU in 2022 for Colorado State and led all tight ends in the country in receptions (64) in 2023 to earn second-team All-America honors. The Rams host No. 11 BYU on Saturday (5:30 p.m. MDT, CBS) at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins.

Both Lyons and Saleapaga in recent interviews have pointed out that their backups are talented as well, guys such as Noah Moeaki, Keayen Nead and Will Zundel.

“I love being in a room with a ton of guys who play a lot of minutes. I feel like it kind of takes a lot of stress off each other,” Saleapaga said. “There’s Walker, there’s Keayen, there’s Noah, and one person that doesn’t get talked about enough is Will Zundel.”

Coaches and starters are also excited about redshirt freshman Jacob Nye, who has been sidelined by an injury.

Walker Lyons enjoying ‘surreal’ first year in Provo

Before entering the transfer portal, Lyons played in 23 games at USC over the course of two seasons. In 2025, he caught 20 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns. As a freshman, after serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Norway, Lyons appeared in 11 games, making three starts.

Lyons was a four-star recruit out of Folsom High in Northern California and was rated as the No. 2 tight end in the country by ESPN, No. 4 by Rivals.com and No. 9 by 247Sports.

Having turned down BYU, Utah, Georgia and others in 2023 and signing with USC before his mission, Lyons said it has been “surreal” to finally run out on the field at LaVell Edwards Stadium as a BYU Cougar. His father, Tim, played defensive back for BYU in 1996 and 1997 and he grew up a BYU fan.

“It was a moment I had always envisioned at some point in my life. It was cool just to be able to have that and to feel that,” he said, noting that the feeling was similar to the first time he ran out of the tunnel at the Coliseum in Los Angeles before his first USC home game.

“They’re both super iconic venues. They’re both fun, but the energy at LES is pretty electric,” he said.

Lyons said tight ends do a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score, so he’s content with how the season has started for him.

“I feel like I’ve been good at just doing my job, doing what has been asked of me, whether that’s run blocking, pass blocking, running a route,” he said. “Whatever it is, I feel like I have executed pretty well.”

The Runnin’ Utes’ slate of 2026-27 conference contests was revealed Tuesday, as Alex Jensen prepares for his second season leading the program.

Utah’s 2026-27 Big 12 schedule

• Jan. 2 — at UCF
• Jan. 6 — vs. Kansas
• Jan. 9 — vs. Cincinnati
• Jan. 12 — at Oklahoma State
• Jan. 16 — at BYU
• Jan. 20 — vs. West Virginia
• Jan. 26 — at Arizona
• Jan. 30 — vs. Baylor
• Feb. 2 — at Iowa State
• Feb. 6 — vs. BYU
• Feb. 10 — vs. Kansas State
• Feb. 13 — at Houston
• Feb. 16 — at TCU
• Feb. 20 —vs. Colorado
• Feb. 23 — at Arizona State
• Feb. 27 — vs. Oklahoma State
• March 2 — vs. Texas Tech
• March 6 — at Colorado
• March 10-14 — Big 12 Conference Tournament in Kansas City

📰 | Big 12 schedule unveiled for Runnin' Utes

🛒🎟️ https://t.co/iIC2Vv8nOO#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/mxFlBbTdSV

— Utah Basketball (@UtahMBB) September 17, 2026

Highlights from Utah’s 2026-27 Big 12 schedule

The Runnin’ Utes will play three conference opponents at both home and away this season:

• Former Pac-12 foe Colorado enters its 16th season under Tad Boyle, with the Buffaloes looking to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2024. Utah faced Colorado twice in 2026 and suffered a pair of double-digit losses.
• Oklahoma State, riding a five year stretch of finishing in the bottom half of the Big 12, will visit Salt Lake City (Feb. 27) and welcome the Runnin’ Utes to Stillwater (Jan. 12). The Cowboys defeated Utah 81-69 last season at the Huntsman Center.
• BYU and Utah will continue their historic rivalry with matchups in Salt Lake City (Feb. 6) and Provo (Jan. 16) after Kevin Young’s Cougars won each of their 2026 meetings with the Runnin’ Utes.

Utah women’s basketball 2026-27 schedule

The full 2026-27 schedule for Utah women’s basketball was released Thursday.

Here’s a look at the full schedule for the Utah women’s team.

Nonconference schedule

• Oct. 18 — vs. Idaho (exhibition)
• Nov. 3 — vs. Eastern Washington
• Nov. 6 — vs. Colorado State
• Nov. 9 — vs. Bethune-Cookman
• Nov. 13 — at Boise State
• Nov. 16 — vs. Houston Christian
• Nov. 20 — vs. Utah Valley
• Nov. 23 — Baha Mar Hoops Tournament in Bahamas against Iowa
• Nov. 25 — Baha Mar Hoops Tournament in Bahamas against Miami
• Dec. 1 — vs. Utah State
• Dec. 6 — vs. Denver
• Dec. 12 — vs. Green Bay
• Dec. 15 — vs. Montana

Big 12 schedule

• Dec. 21 — at Arizona State
• Dec. 30 — vs. Houston 
• Jan. 2 — vs. Kansas State
• Jan. 6 — at TCU
• Jan. 9 — at Texas Tech 
• Jan. 16 — vs. Kansas
• Jan. 19 — vs. Oklahoma State
• Jan. 23 — at Baylor 
• Jan. 27 — at Arizona
• Jan. 30 — vs. UCF 
• Feb. 3 — vs. BYU 
• Feb. 6 — at Cincinnati
• Feb. 9 — at West Virginia
• Feb. 13 — vs. Colorado 
• Feb. 17 — at Iowa State 
• Feb. 20 — vs. Arizona State
• Feb. 24 — vs. Arizona 
• Feb. 27 — at BYU 
• March 3-7 — Big 12 Conference Tournament in Kansas City