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Summer camps in June afforded BYU a great opportunity to bring recruits on campus, and while BYU lost a few players to Oklahoma, they protected their turf with others, including Uhila Wolfgramm.
This appears to be a new trend, getting high three- and four-star recruits to commit and doing it early in the year. In years past, if BYU did not get their top recruits to commit during the summer, it was difficult to close the door before signing day because of other visits and pressures.
This dynamic has changed because of the transfer portal. Many recruiters are telling high school recruits that they’d better lock up scholarships early because they are far more scarce than they used to be. Teams are signing immediate help from transfers who have already had division weight training, development and playing time beyond high school.
Question of the week
With the commitment this week of Orem High’s three-star defensive end Jag Ioane, Kalani Sitake’s staff has successfully held off Kyle Whittingham/Jay Hill and Utah’s staff for three top in-state players. Is it too early to think of this as a rare trend?
Jay Drew: When highly successful BYU defensive coaches Jay Hill and Jernaro Gilford headed east to join Kyle Whittingham at Michigan, I figured Kalani Sitake’s program would be ultimately damaged — on and off the field.
So far, however, it appears that the impact of Hill and Gilford packing up for Ann Arbor has been minimal, at best. Sure, that could change. As long as Whittingham and a slew of other coaches with Utah ties are at Michigan, the school will be a force on the recruiting scene in the state of Utah.
How did Sitake and company weather the storm? Mostly, it is due to the culture that has been established in Provo. Players seem to want to be a part of it, particularly players who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Of course, the latest in-state prospect to stay home was three-star edge rusher Jag Ioane of Orem. BYU was also able to fight off Michigan and Utah State for athlete Peyton Higginson of Salem Hills, and edge rusher Uhila Wolfgramm of Spanish Fork’s Maple Mountain High. A four-star prospect, Wolfgramm could ultimately be one of the best pass rushers BYU has ever landed, I’ve been told by some national recruiting experts familiar with his rise.
Honestly, I see the trend continuing for BYU — as long as the Cougars keep winning. When Whittingham was at Utah, he overtook BYU as the premier destination for in-state recruits because he was winning. That is the ultimate recruiting advantage.
Dick Harmon: BYU’s average composite recruit ranking by 247Sports is now third in the Big 12 after Texas Tech and Colorado, with just 16 commitments.
If you take that, plus the fact that 25% of the 2026 roster is composed of former four-star recruits plus additional high-ranking recruits due to returns from missions, one can see an uptick in the talent pool from BYU’s recruiting efforts of late. The 2026 class was the No. 16 class nationally, according to 247Sports.
What stands out about the last few classes is how Sitake has collected some very talented defensive and offensive linemen — the building blocks of any team. Plus, they’ve likely had some of the best success at recruiting corners than at any other time in school history.
The addition of Ioane, Wolfgramm and Higginson gives BYU six of some of the best recruits in the state during this cycle.
Credit goes to BYU’s membership in the Big 12 and some NIL money that has leveled the playing field in recruiting for many programs, including BYU. However, if you go by percentages of money spent per player, football could use even more resources when compared to what Young is being allotted for basketball.
Cougar tales
Kevin Young has landed his much-anticipated big man for the Cougar basketball program. His name is Jakub Urbaniak, according to DraftExpress. He is a 23-year-old mobile and athletic big man who has played in the EuroCup and PLK with plenty of veteran experience with Poland at the FIBA level.
Jon Rothstein postulates that BYU point guard Rob Wright should be the Big 12 Preseason Player of the year.
With preseason football stories trickling in from media days, here are some of our stories of the summer as we head to the opening of fall camp the first week of August:
- How a D-lineman became O-line star (Jay Drew)
- Bachmeier isn’t worried about receivers (Jay Drew)
- Big Orem D-lineman commits to BYU (Brandon Judd)
- BYU a hoops or football school? (Ryan McDonald)
- What is BYU’s biggest Big 12 win? (Dave McCann)
- National writers chime in on BYU, Sitake (Jay Drew)
From the archives
From X-verse
Extra points
- BYU fall camp features blue-chip talent (SI.com)
- Preseason polls matter for this reason (Deseret News)
- Who has toughest Big 12 grid schedule? (Deseret News)
Fanalysts
Comments from Deseret News readers:
This was good to see everyone’s schedule. Thanks! I read every word.
Y’all know I don’t give a hoot about little pink, but was intrigued by what was written. “The first half of Utah’s league schedule sets up well for the Utes to get things rolling for a program under first-year coach Morgan Scalley.”
You think Iowa State, Kansas, Colorado and Houston is a nice setup? I live a few hours from Iowa State. Yes, they lost their coach, QB, and others, but boy do they still have serious talent on that team. Why everyone is overlooking them tells me one person says something, and no one does their homework and just believes it. ISU is not out at all, and it will be competitive. They are NO pushover, especially at their place. KU had an odd bad year last year, but they are good and loaded too. CU ... OK, they seem like the wheels fell off. And Houston is better every year. They could play for the conference title this year.
Don’t underestimate these teams. Any and all are a threat. To just think ‘X team has an easy start...’ You’re setting yourself up to get beat and disappointed.
— RR
Ainge’s stats are even more remarkable when you consider he didn’t have the 3-point shot like Jimmer did. Had played in the era of 3-pointers, he would have scored hundreds more points and it would have opened up his driving game even more. There aren’t a lot of people who are still around who watched both Danny and Jimmer play. I did. It’s hard to pick one over the other. Danny had an incredible career. Jimmer had an incredible couple of years. Plus, Danny spent the offseasons playing for the Toronto Blue Jays. He didn’t even practice basketball during the summers.
— Keepinginformed
Up next
- Sept. 5 | 6 p.m. | Football | Utah Tech
- Sept. 12 | 1:30 p.m. | Football | Arizona