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PROVO — The NCAA's early signing period for college football is even earlier, but head coach Kalani Sitake and his staff were keeping an eye on the upcoming year when they powered up the fax machines Wednesday morning.
Like each program across the country, BYU will finalize signatures on this week's early recruiting class of 2025, and then begin shifting attention toward next fall.
That's when teams will have to trim their rosters from 120 players to 105 as part of the House v. NCAA settlement that will also bring revenue sharing of around $20 million to college athletic departments.
Sitake said the number of scholarships likely won't change at BYU; 85 scholarships will still be the working number moving forward. But ...
"I think the recruiting classes are going to have to change because of that," Sitake said. "You can't just sign a bunch of guys."
Cutting the end of the roster will have plenty of impact, with offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick noting that each position group is likely to lose 1-2 spots to spread across the roster.
That will make the NCAA transfer portal even busier than usual in the coming weeks, and in the following window next April, as well.
"I imagine there is going to be an enormous amount of young men who are going to have to find a home, and that's a struggle," said Sitake, who noted players that have come off the end of his roster recently include safeties Tanner Wall and Crew Wakley and running back Tyler Allgeier, among others. "But from my perspective, it changes even planning for spring ball and the preseason. The numbers dwindle, and your scout team is going to be down a bit. It's going to change the game."
But for now, Wednesday was about welcoming a new group of signed athletes to the program.
The 18-player list of signees includes 10 offensive players, seven defensive players and one specialist, with eight of them planning to first serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and six of them likely to be mid-year enrollees and participate in spring football. The full list includes:
- Lamason Waller, ATH, Oak Hills HS (Hesperia, Calif.)
- Austin Pay, OT, Lone Peak HS (Highland, Utah)
- Siosiua Finau, OT, Oakland HS (Oakland, Calif.)
- Andrew Williams, OT, Kirksville HS (Kirksville, Mo.)
- Tyler Payne, LB, Weber HS (Ogden, Utah)
- Taani Makasini, LB, Timpview HS (Provo, Utah)
- Vincent Tautau, EDGE, St. Louis HS (Honolulu, Hawaii)
- Jackson Doman, TE, Canby HS (Canby, Ore.)
- Nolan Keeney, QB, Tualatin HS (Tualatin, Ore.)
- Blake Bryce, TE, Newbury Park HS (Newbury Park, Calif.)
- Cale Breslin, RB, Faith Lutheran HS (Las Vegas)
- Kendal Wall, EDGE, Mountain Ridge HS (Herriman, Utah)
- Ulavai Fetuli, EDGE, La Habra HS (La Habra, Calif.)
- Kelepi Vete, OT, Oakland HS (Oakland, Calif.)
- Kingston Keanaaina, RB, St. Francis HS (Mountain View, Calif.)
- Sale Fano, DE, Westlake HS (Saratoga Springs, Utah)
- Will Walker, P, Riverton HS (Riverton, Utah)
- Tucker Kelleher, TE, Alpharetta HS (Alpharetta, Ga.)
The Cougars signed one quarterback in Keeney, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound dual-threat signal caller from Tualatin, Oregon, with the athleticism to play multiple positions — including power forward, where he was a two-time second-team all-league selection while also throwing for 6,207 yards and 76 touchdowns on the gridiron.
"Nolan's a good quarterback, a big-time passer and an overall athlete," Roderick said of the mission-bound athlete. "He is the type of guy who could play a lot of different positions — he can just do a lot of different things; He's a very good basketball player, too. We're really excited."
For defensive coordinator Jay Hill, the focus was on defensive lineman and linebacker after the Cougars went heavy on safety and defensive backs a year ago in Hill's first full signing class since arriving from Weber State.
Legacy recruits played a key role in that group, including Weber High standout Tyler Payne — the son of former BYU kicker/punter Matt Payne who Hill said "plays the game at linebacker a lot like his dad did at punter, knocking the heck out of people."
"I think he brings something to our linebacker room that is going to make the whole group better," Hill added.
But most importantly, he was an in-state prospect with an ear toward BYU that the Cougars locked down "in their own backyard."
"Our backyard is a high priority for us," Hill said.
The same could be said of Lone Peak offensive lineman Austin Pay, who committed to the same school as his dad Garry and older brothers Connor and Trevor over heavy pursuit from programs like Oklahoma, Oregon, North Carolina State and Arkansas, among others.
But family lineage wasn't the only reason Pay committed to the Cougars after building a relationship with first-year offensive line coach TJ Woods.
"You don't just recruit guys because their dad played here. You recruits guys because they can help us win in the Big 12," Roderick said.
"These guys were recruited because they're very good players, they can help us win, and we're excited about them," he added. "It's always based on the merits of what the kid does on the field, not just because their dad was a good player here. We want to give credit to these kids for doing their part to prove that they belong at this level."
