Decision day is here for one of the top-rated recruits BYU football has ever pursued.
Five-star quarterback Ryder Lyons, whose first offer came from the Cougars, will announce his commitment Tuesday morning.
Lyons is rumored to be making his announcement on “The Pat McAfee Show,” which begins at 10 a.m. MDT.
If Lyons chooses BYU, he would be the third-highest rated recruit in school history and highest-rated since the early 2000s, when the Cougars landed five-star quarterback Ben Olson and five-star offensive lineman Ofa Mohetau.
Who is Ryder Lyons?
The 6-foot-2, 220-pound dual-threat signal caller hails from Folsom, California, and plays for Folsom High.
Lyons is a consensus five-star quarterback, according to all the major recruiting services, and is the highest-rated uncommitted quarterback in the 2026 recruiting class.
In 247 Sports’ composite rankings, Lyons has a 0.9901 rating and is rated the 19th-best prospect nationally and fifth among quarterbacks.
“Lyons is an exceptional talent and has been one of the top quarterbacks in the region since his sophomore year. Has rare combination of arm talent and movement ability and can shred a defense with his arm and his legs,” 247 Sports’ Greg Biggins wrote in evaluating Lyons.
“A pure thrower with a live arm and understands how to change speeds and throw with anticipation. Accurate to all three levels of the field and throws the deep ball with touch and can rip fastballs in to tight windows.”
Lyons is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is expected to go on a church mission next January as an early high school graduate, before beginning his college football career.
His brother, tight end Walker Lyons, served a mission before arriving at USC last offseason.
Which teams is Ryder Lyons considering?
Ryder Lyons has been recruited by many of the best FBS programs in the country — his list of more than 30 scholarship offers includes schools like Alabama, USC, Ohio State, Ole Miss and Michigan, according to 247 Sports.
While USC has long been viewed as one of the top finalists, it’s believed that Lyons will choose between BYU and Oregon.
He took official visits to both schools in the past two weeks — to Oregon on June 13 and BYU on June 19 — and On3’s Hayes Fawcett, who first reported he would announce his commitment Tuesday, said Monday that his decision will come down to the Cougars and Ducks.
When did Ryder Lyons visit BYU?
Lyons arrived on BYU’s campus last Thursday for his official visit.
It was a busy recruiting weekend for the Cougars that also included visits from tight end Brock Harris, a four-star BYU commit out of St. George, as well as former Syracuse cornerback commit Jaxson Gates, edge rusher Prince Williams, Olympus High linebacker Adam Bywater and offensive lineman Jax Tanner, among others.
So far, BYU has received one commitment from the group that was on the official visit — that came from Ridgeline High wide receiver Graham Livingston.
On Monday, Lyons shared a social media post that included pictures from his official visit to the Provo school.
What are recruiting experts predicting?
Lyons’ recruitment has gone through a roller coaster of predictions in recent months.
At one point, many recruiting experts were predicting that Lyons would end up at USC with his brother.
Then, for several weeks, Oregon appeared to have the advantage.
Beginning with his visit to BYU this past weekend, though, the recruiting experts have shifted their projections in favor of the Cougars.
As of Tuesday morning, the majority of On3’s experts have swung their predictions to BYU, giving the Cougars the best chance of landing Lyons, followed by USC and Oregon. That has included recruiting experts Steve Wilfong and Steve Nakos flipping their predictions to BYU.
“The recruitment of Ryder Lyons has seen different programs emerge at different times, with USC and Oregon both previously trending for the five-star. BYU has remained a player in Lyons’ recruitment, too, and coming out of an official visit to Provo over the weekend, the Big 12 program looks to be in a good spot,” Nakos said, according to On3 writer Hunter Shelton.
Last week, on the same day that Lyons arrived in Provo, a 247 Sports staff projection came out in favor of BYU, with a confidence level of 5 out of 10. That has stayed the same since then.
“While a final announcement is 24 hours away, the Cougars still look to be in the pole position for the nation’s top uncommitted quarterback,” 247 Sports’ Brandon Huffman said Monday.
Rivals, which ranks Lyons as the third-best prospect nationally in the 2026 class, also is predicting that the quarterback will choose BYU.