Provo • For two days last spring, Kody Epps wasn’t sure he’d be a Cougar.
The wide receiver’s whirlwind stint in the transfer portal in May left Epps’ teammates and coaches in limbo, started a reshaping of BYU’s roster and, when he decided after two days to return to Provo, left Epps with lots of questions to answer.
“The biggest thing that I was thinking a little bit about was just how I would be embraced by Cougar Nation and my teammates,” Epps said recently.
The sophomore wideout said now he knows: He was just voted a team co-captain. And he’s hoping to return the love this season.
“I mean I’m with the best fan base you could ask for,” he said.
But Epps’ warm welcome back wasn’t a sure thing.
On the day it all went down, BYU quarterback Kedon Slovis received a phone call from the man he thought would be his No. 1 wide receiver. Epps wanted to explain his move.
“He told me he was entering [the portal],” Slovis remembered. “I told him I loved him and wanted the best for him. But obviously it [was] kind of scary.”
Part of what made Epps’ flirtation with the portal so shocking was his relationships on the roster. His teammates joked that he was the mayor of Provo because he had helped recruit many of BYU’s transfers to the team, including Slovis.
So when he said he would be leaving, people wondered what it all meant.
“It was kind of sad, you know?” Slovis said.
Epps’ fellow wide receiver Chase Roberts felt the same.
“I mean I love Kody, no matter what he did,” Roberts said. “If he did leave then, I would have kept in touch and wished him the best. Hopefully he would have had a great year.”
But even if they wanted to wish him well, there was also the reality. Epps’ departure meant BYU was down another receiver. It was already a position of need for offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick before spring started and the Big 12 was looming.
“We knew we needed two guys and then we lost Kody. Like, ‘Oh we need three,’” Slovis said. “You just gotta trust the process. I’ve always trusted A-Rod. Always trusted [wide receivers] coach Fesi [Sitake] and all the staff. We knew we would get guys in here that could play.”
Roberts’ mind also went to survival mode. Epps was considered one of BYU’s biggest weapons, a man who could take some of the pressure off of Roberts.
“With how college is right now with the transfer portal, you can’t get too involved,” Roberts said. “You can’t get too affected by it. You just gotta go play. You just got to be yourself. You can’t think too much about situations and ask, ‘What is going to happen if this guy leaves? What is going to happen if this guy transfers?’ Just do your thing, go do your best.”
At the time, Epps said, he didn’t know he was coming back to the program.
“You never make a decision like that saying you are not looking to move forward,” Epps said.
But he understood the gravity of what was happening within the football program as he made his decision. He saw his announced departure caused a stir among his teammates both on a personal level and a football level. He saw the social media outpouring of questions and his teammates having to answer for him.
“No, I did not know it was going to blow up this way. I had no idea,” Epps said. “... I know it was high-strung emotionally. And I definitely impacted my teammates and Cougar Nation not in the best way I wanted to with that.”
Less than two days later, Epps withdrew his name from the portal and returned to the team. Within that time frame, Sitake brought in receiver Darrius Lassister from Eastern Michigan to help fill the void. BYU went from needing three receivers back down to just one.
“It was like you go from one spectrum to the other,” Slovis said. “You want a guy like that to stay and I’m glad he did. But when that happens you just got to trust the process.”
From the outside, it was crisis avoided. BYU’s receivers room went from a concern to a strength. But internally, Epps had to mend the relationships. It was his chief concern through the summer. He said spent time golfing with teammates and moving past last spring’s uncertainty.
“[I’m with] people who love me, the person of Kody not just the football player,” Epps said. “Teammates that love me. It has been seamless coming back and it has been a great time.”
Roberts was among those who went golfing with him.
“We are really becoming closer together,” Roberts said of Epps. “I think this wide receiver room is so close already, even with some transfers and some drama that happened.”
The process is not over. But Epps was just voted a captain in 2023. And he is ready to look forward again.
“In my eyes, it never happened in a sense. It did, but like I’m so blessed to be in the position that I am in and be a leader. Be somebody people can count on on and off the field,” Epps said. “... I’m just happy to get over that.”
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