Six days after losing one highly regarded four-star prospect to Oklahoma, receiver/safety Bode Sparrow, BYU football coaches bounced back in a big way Thursday by persuading another possible difference-maker to pick them over the SEC’s Sooners.
In a decision that was razor-close and literally came down to the final hours, by most accounts, highly regarded edge rusher Uhila Wolfgramm of Spanish Fork and Maple Mountain High — the same school that produced former BYU quarterback Jaren Hall — committed to Kalani Sitake and company.
“I will be staying home, and I am not leaving anywhere,” the 6-foot-3, 255-pound Wolfgramm said on a video distributed by the NIL collective CougConnect. “I will be committing to BYU. … Let’s do something special. Go Cougs.”
Last Friday, Sparrow chose OU over BYU, deciding to join another four-star defender in Norman, Orem’s Krew Jones. So Oklahoma can say it went 2-1 in the state of Utah, which is somewhat new recruiting territory for the former Big 12 program.
Oklahoma coach Brett Venables laid the groundwork to get Sparrow and Jones by landing three-star offensive lineman Darius Afalava of Lehi’s Skyridge High last year. Three-star quarterback Jett Niu of Lehi also joined the Sooners in 2025 and redshirted last year.
Wolfgramm was so close to making it a clean sweep for the Sooners that several highly respected national recruiting experts projected him going to OU early Thursday morning just hours before his 11 a.m. MDT announcement that he was going to be a Cougar.
Wolfgramm is one of the most important recruits of the Sitake era, let alone during the 2027 cycle, along with four-star receiver Blake Wong of Norco, California. Wong picked the Cougars over finalists UCLA, Ohio State, Oregon and Utah last Saturday.
The difference-maker was me wanting to build my legacy here at home.
— Uhila Wolfgramm, who picked BYU over OU on Thursday
But Thursday wasn’t totally positive for the BYU staff, as three-star edge rusher and offensive lineman Manase “Moa” Brown of Corner Canyon High committed to Fresno State. Brown picked the Bulldogs of the Group of Five over offers from BYU, Oregon, Arizona and other power conference programs.
Still, Wolfgramm’s commitment is absolutely huge for the Cougars, who have been closer to the bottom half of the Big 12 team recruiting rankings than the top for the 2027 signing class, a year after their 2026 class was No. 2 in the Big 12 and No. 18 in the nation.
That momentum should again be rekindled, as the additions of Wong and Wolfgramm rescues a class that was always going to be on the underwhelming side due to BYU coaches having to be more selective than ever before with redshirts and greyshirts going away because of the NCAA’s new age-based eligibility rule.
Wolfgramm is the 10th member of the 2027 recruiting class to commit to BYU — 11th if you count Virginia punter/kicker James Thorley — but almost certainly won’t be the last this week or next.
He’s the No. 105 overall player in the 2027 class, according to the 247Sports rankings, and No. 13 among edge rushers. He’s ranked No. 2 in Utah by most services, behind only Sparrow.
Wolfgramm, who has been picked to play in the 2027 adidas Polynesian Bowl, made nine sacks and 20 tackles for loss in eight games last year for the Golden Eagles.
“BYU has just been consistent,” he told Cougar Sports Insider of the 247Sports network. “They offered me early, kept in contact when I was nobody and making a name for myself, and when I made a name for myself my relationship with the staff was years ahead.”
Jones and Sparrow reached out to Wolfgramm in recent days to try to get him to join them in Norman, while BYU tapped into past stars such as Fred Warner and Kyle Van Noy.
“Oklahoma is a great place and it was the hardest decision in my life so far; coaches (were) supportive of me even after I told them,” Wolfgramm told Cougar Sports Insider. “But for me, the difference-maker was me wanting to build my legacy here at home.”
What’s next for BYU football recruiting?
Most college football coaching staffs head out on family and personal vacations in early July — many in the Big 12 will be at media days next Tuesday and Wednesday in Frisco, Texas — so there’s a big push this week to get undecided prospects to commit.
With the aforementioned Brown off the board for BYU, and Wolfgramm and Wong on board and commanding some sizable revenue-sharing and NIL paychecks, BYU will narrow in on Tennessee offensive lineman Kyle Nabrotzky, Orem edge rusher Jag Ioane, Bountiful athlete Lakepa “Gepa” Satuala (Faletau’s brother), Ridgeline receiver/linebacker Owen Leishman, and Peyton Higginson, an athlete the Deseret News profiled earlier this week.
Higginson told this outlet that he has narrowed his choices to BYU, Utah State and Michigan and could be committing this week or early next week.
None of the prospects on the board are as important for BYU to land as Wolfgramm, but they are all three-star recruits and would move the Cougars up the team rankings and keep the momentum going into the 2026 season.
