New BYU tight end Walker Lyons was one of the most highly recruited prep football players in the class of 2023, served a church mission to Norway, and played for one of the most storied programs in college football history for two seasons before hitting the transfer portal last December.
“I am super impressed with Walker. He is a really complete player. He’s a good blocker. He’s an excellent receiver. He’s smart. You can just tell he’s been well-coached and played a lot of good football, and he’s going to be a big part of our offense.”
— BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick on Walker Lyons
Still, the 6-foot-4, 235-pound junior from Folsom, California, by way of USC isn’t the most famous person in his family, let alone his own current romantic relationship.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Lyons said with a laugh last week when he was informed of that fact after the Cougars’ 11th practice of spring camp. “But I love it.”
Lyons, of course, is the older brother of quarterback Ryder Lyons, the four-star recruit (247Sports) who signed with BYU last December and is currently serving a Spanish-speaking mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Orlando, Florida. Ryder Lyons was the California Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior, the No. 35 recruit in the country in ESPN’s Top 300 last fall, and the highest-rated recruit in the Kalani Sitake era.
Ryder Lyons has 293,000 followers on Instagram (Walker Lyons has 102K followers), but that’s nothing compared to Walker’s girlfriend since 2024, Rylee Arnold, who has 1.4 million followers on that social media website. She has 1.7 million followers on TikTok.
Why?
Arnold, from Provo, is a professional ballroom dancer who has been a mainstay on the television series “Dancing with the Stars” the past few seasons. The couple met in Los Angeles when Walker was playing for the Trojans and Arnold was working for the show in Hollywood.
Arnold announced their relationship publicly in October 2024 when Lyons was in his freshman year at USC after an 18-month mission to Norway, Lyons said.
“Her dad actually played football for BYU, which is funny,” he said. “We were in the same YSA (Young Single Adult) ward there. We just started hanging out, and we got along really well, and we’ve been dating ever since, and it is awesome. She’s amazing. She’s a great girl.”
Bringing a bit of Hollywood to Provo
Actually, Walker Lyons has been around stars his whole life; his grandfather, Kieth W. Merrill, has been a writer, director, producer and filmmaker since 1967 and received an Academy Award for “The Great American Cowboy” documentary in 1973 and a nomination for “Amazon” in 1997.
Walker Lyons said his grandfather’s middle name is Walker, which is where he got his unique first name. He has even had a cameo in one of Merrill’s films, “The 12 Dogs of Christmas — Great Puppy Rescue.”
Lyons is already one of the best players on the team
Walker Lyons’ time in Provo is also going well, said BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick last week as the USC transfer goes about trying to fill the shoes of 2025 standout tight end Carsen Ryan, a candidate for April’s NFL draft.
“Yeah, great fit,” Roderick said. “I am super impressed with Walker. He is a really complete player. He’s a good blocker. He’s an excellent receiver. He’s smart. You can just tell he’s been well-coached and played a lot of good football, and he’s going to be a big part of our offense.”
Lyons wasn’t the only tight end from a Big Ten school to transfer to BYU in January. Oregon’s Roger Saleapaga, who prepped at Orem High, is also having a tremendous camp.
“Both of those guys are two of the best players on our team, for sure,” Roderick said. Suddenly, BYU’s tight ends group is as deep as it has been in years, with senior Keayen Nead and redshirt sophomore Noah Moeaki also in the mix for serious playing time this fall.
“The tight ends stand out quite a bit to me, with Roger and Walker leading the way,” head coach Kalani Sitake said the first week of spring camp. “Then you have some guys there that have played a lot, too, Keayen and Noah.”
Tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride said Lyons and Saleapaga have picked up the offense fairly quickly because they both are smart and have professional approaches to their craft.
“They’re ahead of where I’ve seen other transfers coming in, other than Carsen (a UCLA and Utah transfer),” Gilbride said. “Carsen was right with there with them.”
Assistant tight ends coach Tyson McDaniel and offensive analyst Al Pupunu, a former TE in the NFL, have also jumped in to make the transitions as seamless as possible, Gilbride said.
Does Lyons regret the journey he’s taken?
Lyons said he’s surprised himself by how quickly he has picked up Roderick’s offense and learned the plays. He’s also already building “solid chemistry” with sophomore quarterback Bear Bachmeier. Seeing Bachmeier emerge as a standout QB in 2025 and BYU utilize Ryan as much as it did were reasons why he chose the Cougars after deciding to leave USC, he said.
“I think deep down, I knew I wanted to come here, but I definitely did my due diligence, did my research to make sure it was the right fit for me,” he said. “After kind of looking at a lot of different places, I felt like this was the place I wanted to be.”
Lyons said that Bachmeier “put the whole nation on notice” last year that he was a legitimate Power Four quarterback and acknowledged that BYU having an experienced QB returning was “absolutely” a key factor in his decision.
“I really watched Bear a lot last season,” Lyons said. “I am excited that we will have a full offseason together. It has been great so far and we are going to continue to build that good chemistry and hopefully just carry the momentum from last year into the season coming up.”
Lyons appeared in 11 games for USC last year, and caught 20 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns. He had six catches for 36 yards in 2024. While USC is loaded with five- and four-star recruits, Lyons said the talent level isn’t all that different in Provo.
“I am happy with how it’s all played out. I’ve learned a lot along the way. From my mission, to going to USC, to now being here, I think everything has been for a reason.”
— BYU tight end Walker Lyons on his football journey
“With college football in general, you have athletes everywhere,” he said. “We have some impressive guys over here as well. I really don’t think there’s a big drop-off at all.”
Lyons said his expectations for this year are to help BYU compete for a Big 12 and national championship and to be the best tight end he can be.
“That’s the expectation that they had for me when they were recruiting me here, and that is the expectation that I wanted,” he said. “I just want to maximize my potential, whatever that is, and eventually be an All-American and get drafted into the NFL.”
Lyons has two seasons of eligibility left, but won’t definitively say that he will be around in 2027 when his brother returns from his mission so they can play together for at least one season.
“I am just taking it one day at a time, seeing how it goes, seeing where that takes us,” he said. “I’m just focusing on making this season the best it can be.”
When Lyons chose USC over BYU and others in 2023, there was considerable angst in Provo, as it appeared another high-profile recruit who was a member of the faith had gotten away. Does he have any regrets?
“Not really,” he said. “I am happy with how it’s all played out. I’ve learned a lot along the way. From my mission, to going to USC, to now being here, I think everything has been for a reason.
“Every single step of the journey has brought me to where I am today, which is amazing,” he continued.
And he’s got a great dance partner, to boot.
