If this were a horse race, the television announcer would be getting ready to shout, “Down the stretch they come” as the furious effort to sign five-star quarterback Ryder Lyons nears the finish line — and BYU is running strong as a contender.
“I think there are three schools that all think they have got him. If I am Ryder Lyons, that is exactly where you want to be,” Jeff Hansen of 247Sports.com and CougarInsider.com, told the “Y’s Guys” podcast this week. “Oregon, USC and BYU all feel like they are No. 1. I think BYU is in it as much as anybody.”
Lyons is 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds from Folsom, California. BYU senior quarterback Jake Retzlaff is 6-1 and 205 pounds from Corona, California, and the comparisons don’t end there.
“I think the way (Jake) Retzlaff developed this last season has spoken loudly to Lyons. A year ago, BYU was an afterthought.”
— college football recruiting guru Jeff Hansen
“They aren’t too different. I think Lyons has an extremely high upside, but the way they see the game, the way they evade pressure and use their legs to extend plays, there are a lot of similarities there,” Hansen said. “I think Ryder has seen Jake and thought, ‘OK, plug me into that system and I can be really, really good.’ I think that has played a role.”
Retzlaff took a team that was picked to finish 13th in the Big 12 and went 11-2, won the Alamo Bowl and finished ranked No. 13 in the final AP Top 25. Along the way, he threw for 2,947 yards and 20 touchdowns. He also ran for 417 yards and six touchdowns.
“I think the way Retzlaff developed this last season has spoken loudly to Lyons,” Hansen said. “A year ago, BYU was an afterthought.”
Lyons is expected to start his official campus visits in the coming weeks with BYU booked in mid-June. A final decision on where he will play after his church mission could come in July.
“I don’t know if BYU is No. 1. I think if anybody says they have this done is probably premature,” Hansen said. “But they are not No. 2 to anybody. They are neck-and-neck with Oregon and USC.”
Signing Terrance Saryon
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake picked up another receiver this week when Terrance Saryon flipped his commitment from Washington to BYU. The 5-10, 160-pound multipurpose athlete further bolsters the 2026 recruiting class.
“When we look at the 2026 class, we always knew this was a big opportunity for BYU. The instate class is probably the best it has ever been. There are 30 to 40 Division I guys in Utah and there is plenty of Latter-day Saint talent,” Hansen said. “But this is a big deal for outside of that.
“Saryon (is) from out of state. He is not a member of the church. He was committed to Washington and BYU comes in and flips him. That’s kind of a message to the recruiting world that BYU has grown up a little bit. They can get outside of their backyard and go and get guys to come play.”
Independence challenges
Gone are the days when, as a football independent, BYU struggled to recruit against power conference programs. Recent wins show the Cougars are holding their own as a member of the Big 12. Hansen believes beating the likes of Georgia, Miami and Michigan for Pine View’s four-star tight end Brock Harris and edging Oregon for Clovis, California four-star running back McKay Madsen are signs of changing times.
“I think if you gave Kalani and the coaches truth serum, they would tell you that recruiting got really tough and it was really hard to invest and go all-in on some of these big dawgs when you knew there were bigger-named schools that were going to come in late,” Hansen said. “To me, it feels like they are reinvigorated, and they are competing with anybody.
“They don’t care who else is chasing these guys. They feel confident in their abilities to establish a relationship. They feel confident in BYU’s ability to support from a financial, football and education component. I think they are having fun. These are coaches that are now able to recruit with a full deck of cards and that feels really good for them.”
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com