For as good as the BYU defense was last football season, it never really generated much heat on opposing quarterbacks.
Sure, the Cougars led the nation in interceptions — which are usually the byproduct of an outstanding pass rush — but many of those 22 picks came on tipped passes and other unpredictable occurrences.
BYU had just 20 sacks in 13 games, ranking it tied for 108th in the country in team sacks out of 133 teams.
Naturally, BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill, edge rushers coach Kelly Poppinga and head coach Kalani Sitake hit the transfer portal last winter in hopes of bolstering one of the weaker positions on the team.
Their primary target became a player they had recruited before — former Skyridge High star Tausili Akana, a native of Laie, Hawaii, who was playing mostly on special teams for the Texas Longhorns. After the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Akana, a former four-star recruit on 247Sports.com entered the portal, the BYU coaches pounced.
“I heard from BYU pretty quickly,” Akana said Tuesday after practice. “I figured they would be interested.”
In June, Sitake said Akana “is probably one of the best pass rushers I’ve seen” and said the redshirt sophomore needed to gain some weight to stay at defensive end or could be used as an outside linebacker if the pounds didn’t come.
Akana said he’s been packing on some pounds, “which is a good thing,” but also maintaining his speed and agility.
“My speed and ability to bend are my strengths,” he said. “I got some good bend and some good reflexes.”
Sophomore Ephraim Asiata, listed at 6-3 and 210 pounds and a defensive end, is another of those tweener types who is trying to add weight and has been playing as much linebacker as edge rusher.
Akana is well aware that BYU brought him in to improve its pass rush, and knowing the Cougars needed help in that area is one of the reasons he returned to the county in which his family lives.
“I need to gain more weight to be able to play the run and not just the pass,” Akana said, “but I am really excited to get out there and show my pass rush moves.”
Hill praised the improved pass rush after Saturday’s closed scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium, and again on Friday after practice.
“Hunter Clegg, I notice a lot. Tausili Akana does some really good things,” Hill said. “… Obviously (Utah transfer) Keanu Tanuvasa stands out. Yeah, there’s probably 10 of them I could name, but those guys come to mind right now.”
With the additions of Akana and Clegg (a returned missionary who signed with Utah out of high school), Hill said the group of edge rushers makes BYU “more athletic in that spot than last year, especially with the defensive ends group so the pass rush has gotten better, but they still got to continue to improve physically.”
Of BYU’s three primary edge rushers last year, two have moved on to professional football (Tyler Batty and Isaiah Bagnah), while Logan Lutui is back for a final season of eligibility.
“Batty was a huge presence on the edge, just how physical and nasty he was,” Hill said of the Payson High product who is trying to make the Minnesota Vikings’ roster. “So we still got to get some guys to step up in that role, but I do like the pass rush. I’ve seen that progress, and I think just the overall knowledge of the scheme continues to get better.”
Other defensive ends vying for starting spots include redshirt junior Bodie Schoonover, sophomore Viliami Po’uha, sophomore Sani Tuala and redshirt freshman Kini Fonohema, among others.
“We got some dynamic guys off the edge, some of those young bucks that we recruited the first years I was here are starting to show up, and I can’t wait to watch them in the game, because the pass rush looks good right now,” Hill said after the scrimmage.
‘Lived life a little too fast out there’
Akana, 21, grew up in Hawaii, but moved to Utah in 2020 when COVID-19 shut down high school sports in the Islands. He was named 6A Player of the Year by the Deseret News in 2022, and had offers from dozens of schools before choosing Texas.
At Texas, he redshirted in 2023 and appeared in nine games in 2024.
Why did he enter the transfer portal and then pick BYU?
“I just wanted to experience some new stuff. I kind of lived life a little too fast out there, and I knew BYU was just the best place, environment-wise, for me,” Akana said. “I especially just wanted to get closer with God, so, like, this was the place where I needed to be.”
Akana is the cousin of Orem High receiver Kaue Akana, who committed to BYU on July 1. He said although BYU doesn’t have the “big names” that Texas does on defense, the talent level in Provo is similar.
“It’s unbelievable here, the talent we have,” he said. “I can’t wait to get on the field with these guys and just ball out.”
