BYU and Utah recruited Weston Port during his high school days before he ultimately signed with UCLA.
Will the Cougars and Utes do so again now that Port, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has said he will re-open his recruitment once he returns home from his two-year church mission?
Port, a San Juan Capistrano, California, native who signed with UCLA in the 2025 recruiting class prior to his mission, is currently serving in Spain. In a statement shared on social media Thursday, Port said he will seek a new college once he’s home in six and a half months.
Who is Weston Port?
Port is a 6-foot-1, 225-pound linebacker who prepped at San Juan Hills High in southern Orange County.
He was rated a three-star recruit and the No. 69 linebacker nationally in the Class of 2025 in 247 Sports’ composite rankings. Rivals had Port ranked as a four-star recruit.
Port held more than two dozen scholarship offers from Power Four conference schools, according to 247 Sports, before committing to UCLA.
Since Port signed with the Bruins, though, the program has undergone a head coaching change, with Bob Chesney replacing DeShaun Foster (Tim Skipper served as interim coach for nine games during the 2025 season after Foster’s dismissal).
Could BYU and Utah recruit Port again?
During his high school recruitment, both the Cougars and Utes offered a scholarship to Port.
Utah is also under a new head coach, Morgan Scalley, though he was the defensive coordinator under Kyle Whittingham when the program originally recruited Port.
In fall 2023 during his junior year, Port shared with 247 Sports that he has familial ties to BYU.
“BYU is the church school for me and I have two sisters who go there and like it a lot,” Port told the outlet. “They recently changed their defensive staff, so I’m trying to reconnect with those guys and build a relationship. But it’s a very special place, for sure.
“I’ve been a few times before and have a really strong comfort level there. My dad went there, too, so I have a lot of strong ties to the school and football program.”
Since Port’s recruitment, BYU has also undergone changes on its staff. When Whittingham took over as Michigan’s head coach, he took former Cougar defensive coordinator Jay Hill with him to Ann Arbor.
BYU responded by elevating Kelly Poppinga, previously the Cougars’ special teams coordinator and defensive ends coach, to its defensive coordinator position this offseason.