BYU’s defense has a tall task ahead in 2025: An encore performance.
Jay Hill’s unit stole the show last season, ranking as the top defense in the Big 12 — and among the national leaders — in terms of scoring (19.6 points per game), yardage (308.8 yards allowed per game), turnovers (22) and passing efficiency (105.9). Such an effort proved essential to the Cougars’ 11-2 finish, culminating in a 36-14 defensive masterclass against Colorado in the Alamo Bowl.
But with uncertainty at the quarterback position, BYU could need to lean even further on its defense in the coming campaign.
“We changed drastically from Year 1 to Year 2 on what we were, and I see us this year being different than we were last year.”
— BYU DC Jay Hill
Hill, now in his third season with the program, not only believes that his group can take another leap in 2025, but also that it can add new wrinkles and abilities to distinguish itself from past iterations.
“We changed drastically from Year 1 to Year 2 on what we were, and I see us this year being different than we were last year,” Hill told reporters Friday. “So I think that’s good for teams that are trying to scout us, not knowing exactly what’s going to come and how we’re going to be. But we have to play to our personnel and we have to play to our strengths.”
New faces up front
If there was a bone to pick with BYU’s 2024 defense, it was its underwhelming pass rush production, as the Cougars generated just 20 sacks across 13 games.
Last year’s four primary defensive line starters — Tyler Batty, John Nelson, Blake Mangelson and Isaiah Bagnah — have all graduated, opening the door for Big 12 transfers Keanu Tanuvasa and Justin Kirkland to take over on the interior, while holdovers Logan Lutui and Bodie Schoonover lead a younger, new-look crop of edge options such as Tausili Akana, Hunter Clegg and Ephraim Asiata.
Kirkland has yet to take the field in fall camp as he works his way back from a knee injury, and while Hill acknowledged that the defensive tackle depth might be “a little thin” without him, he still expressed optimism for the line’s potential ceiling.
“Well, Keanu looks great right now, (John Taumoepeau) looks really good right now,” Hill said. “I like the defensive ends. Logan Lutui’s played great. So bottom line, that group is super deep. There’s a lot of youth in that group, but a lot of really talented youth.”
“We’ve got some great pass-rushers, we’ve got a great scheme with confusing blitzes and creative looks, so I’m really excited to see that,” added safety Tanner Wall.
Battles within the secondary
BYU led the Big 12 with 22 interceptions a season ago, but if you only counted the Cougars’ 14 picks from defensive backs, the Cougars would have tied for the third most of any team in the conference.
The secondary should be a major strength for Hill yet again in 2025, even while breaking in a number of younger corners on the depth chart.
“I really like the competition right now in the cornerback room, Jernaro (Gilford) has done a great job with those guys having them ready to go,” Hill said. “I like Mory Bamba a lot, Tre Alexander, Evan Johnson and Jonathan Kabeya, those guys have played really well. Marcus McKenzie’s done some great things. The group looks deeper right now and I like the progression. There’s a lot of talent in that group.”
Johnson and Bamba each started multiple games in 2024, while Alexander, Kabeya and McKenzie are all competing for more substantial roles in 2025.
“I’ve been really impressed so far with Tre Alexander, I think he’s made some huge strides this offseason, getting bigger and getting stronger, and his knowledge of the playbook is in a really good spot,” Wall said. “He’s already made some great plays and has been pretty sticky in coverage. I think Evan Johnson, as well, has played extremely well.
“He was a guy who got a lot of game time last year. Jonathan Kabeya, we saw him a little bit last year as well, a lot more in the bowl game when we were playing some of our dime stuff. But he’s a great young player and expect to see him make some great plays for us this year.”
Back at safety, Wall and Raider Damuni are the likely current projected starters, with Talan Alfrey, Tommy Prassas and Faletau Satuala all holding plenty of game experience as well.
Hill calls the safety room dynamic “an absolute dogfight,” with the aforementioned five all gunning for meaningful reps.
“It’s super hard, because you want to be fair to the veteran guys, but the only thing that’s fair is to play the best guy, and so you’ve got to give them opportunities to show who the best guy is,” Hill said. “I think you’ll see all those guys on the field this fall, but who plays the most is going to be predicated based on how the next couple weeks go.”
High expectations for the linebackers
It’s no secret that BYU’s linebacking corps may be its greatest defensive strength.
“You look at the linebacker group and we’re ahead of where we were last year, by light years,” Hill said.
Jack Kelly and Isaiah Glasker combined for 120 total tackles with 8.5 sacks, four interceptions and three forced fumbles in 2024, with the duo each boasting All-Big 12 and NFL draft potential for the coming year.
Siale Esera, Choé Bryant-Strother, Ace Kaufusi and Miles Hall are all in play for time at linebacker, with a healthy Esera potentially being the current favorite for the third linebacker spot.
“I like Siale a lot right now. He’s physical, he’s big, he’s fast,” Hill said. “Choé has looked really good right now. So I think that group, bottom line, looks good. I think we’re progressing in the right way. Coach (Justin) Ena does such a good job with them, I really like where the backers are at.”
Finding success on earlier downs — and continuing the ‘chaos’
As for specific goals for 2025, Wall said the defense is focused on improving its first- and second-down performance along with stopping the run.
While the Cougars did rank in the top 30 nationally by allowing 3.9 yards per carry last year, they also allowed opponents to convert on 42% of their third-down attempts — ranking No. 86 out of 134 FBS schools.
“We had a team meeting earlier this week where we talked about that,” Wall said. “Coach Hill, kind of the mastermind that he is, was talking about how we’ve got to improve on how we play on third down, right? Our third-down percentage needs to be better, and in order to do that, we’ve got to be better on first and second down. So stopping the run is a huge part of our identity as a defense, and we want to be better at that this year.”
But an even bigger part of that defensive identity, at least last year, was BYU’s knack for turnovers, which the Cougars are eager to continue in 2025.
“I’m just excited to see how many turnovers and how much chaos we can cause, right?“ he said. ”That was one of the things that led to so much success that we had last season, our ability to take the ball away. We had interceptions across all position groups — D-line, linebackers, defensive backs — so everyone was able to go get the ball and take it away."
Hill attributed BYU’s 2024 leap in turnover production to the players’ increased familiarity within his scheme — and with even more familiarity and momentum in 2025, he believes even more takeaways are on the way.
“I think from Year 1 to Year 2 you saw that our players just looked like they were a little more aggressive and knew when to be aggressive, when to jump things, when not to jump things. I thought we did a better job (in 2024) with disguises in trying to get quarterbacks off their mark and just throwing off time or throwing the guys they shouldn’t throw to,” Hill said. “I really believe we’re only going to get better at that, as the defense is more comfortable and they’re more used to it, they should just get better and better at that.”
“Obviously last year we had 22 picks collectively as a team,” Wall said. “We want to beat that, right? We set that last year, and it’s like, ‘OK, we can exceed that.’ So we’re going to be gunning for that.”
