BYU’s Jay Hill makes an impact on the Cougars recruiting and other early signing day thoughts

The majority of the high school recruiting work is done for Kalani Sitake’s staff.

BYU signed 20 high school players in a class that currently ranks 56th in the country, according to 247Sports’ Composite rankings. That is a bump up from 66th last year. But the Cougars’ average prospect rating still lands at the bottom of the Big 12.

Sitake added five transfers to this group, too. And the expectation is for the Cougars to add a few more recruits before February — mainly to the offense.

But as it stands, this is the bulk of the class.

Here are my five thoughts on BYU’s national signing day.

1. Jay Hill’s recruiting impact felt for the first time

BYU went after the defensive line as a priority this cycle.

With defensive coordinator Jay Hill still molding BYU’s line to his liking — using a more blitz-friendly scheme — this was his first chance to put his full imprint on a recruiting class. He went all in, bringing in six defensive ends and three defensive tackles.

The most notable was the state’s No. 6 rated composite player, Cedar Valley’s Devoux Tuataga. At 6-foot-4, 240 pounds, this is the prototype Hill wants more of at the position: length and athleticism.

“We should have monster, just athletic, nasty defensive lineman at BYU,” Hill said. “And I think this class is a great start to where we are headed. ... We need to be more disruptive on the D-line and we know that.”

Hill also flipped Texas Tech commit Danny Saili at defensive tackle. He got local pass rusher Ephraim Asiata to join the fold late on Tuesday night — the No. 13 composite player in Utah. And he won a recruiting battle to bring in Springville’s Kinilau Fonohema Wednesday evening (No. 12 player).

It gives Hill some late momentum on the recruiting trail, something BYU had been lacking.

On the flip side, whereas the defense is still building, tight end is again the most highly-rated position in this class.

The top prospect for BYU is four-star tight end Ryner Swanson from Laguna Beach, Calif. He committed to the Cougars over Texas and Oregon.

Last year, BYU reeled in four-star tight end Jackson Bowers. In back-to-back classes, the Cougars top prospect was a tight end. Swanson will enroll early this year and serve a mission after his freshman season.

2. Losing out on the state’s top ranked players

While BYU did have some in-state wins — like Asiata, Tuataga and Fonohema — it is still important to look at the overall body of work. And right now, the numbers still aren’t great for BYU winning in-state battles for Utah’s top players.

In this class, Utah got three of the top five players in the state. The only other committed player, Orem four-star Roger Saleapaga, went to Oregon.

The Cougars only hauled in three of the top 15 players in the state this year, per 247Sports’ Composite rankings (Tuataga, Asiata and Fonohema).

It would be one thing if this was a one-off year. But this is a trend where BYU isn’t landing the top players of late. Broadly speaking, BYU hasn’t received a commitment from a 247 Sports composite top-three player in Utah out of high school since 2017.

Now, there are some caveats. BYU was able to bring some of the top players back through the transfer portal. Puka Nacua (the No. 1 Utah prospect in 2019) and Kingsley Suamataia (the No. 1 prospect in 2020) ultimately returned after playing at Washington and Oregon respectively.

And this class had an uptick in recruits with other Power Five offers. Adney Reid, Siosefa Brown, Viliami Po’uha and more fall into that category. The Cougars hauled in the No. 16 through 21 composite players in the state.

“We got into some battles in recruiting,” Sitake said. “And I’m glad we were able to come out with a great result.”

But overall, BYU could bolster its in-state recruiting right out of high school for the top recruits. If you went back from 2019, Utah has secured commitments from 12, top-five composite prospects in the state. In that same time period, BYU has four.

Of course, there are individual reasons why players did not come to BYU (including varying interest from BYU). But on the whole, it’s something to monitor.

This is especially true when Utah has turned some of these top-five recruits into impact players. Look at Spencer Fano, Lander Barton, Nate Ritchie and more.

3. The Big 12 imprint in the state

Speaking of recruiting Utah, BYU might have another Big 12 competitor for in-state talent starting to emerge: Oklahoma State.

Intra-conference competition works two ways here: BYU will start to recruit Texas, Florida and Ohio, but those schools will come right back into Utah now.

Mike Gundy has quietly done that before. He had four Utah players on his roster this year. Multiple saw snaps in the Big 12 title game. It appears he continued the trend in this class.

West High School’s Nuku Mafi, the No. 11 composite prospect in Utah, committed to Gundy. Mafi had some BYU and Utah interest.

Notably, the only other Big 12 school to steal a top 15 player was Arizona State. The rest of the out-of-state commitments went to UCLA, Oregon, Illinois and Stanford.

4. Adding more quarterbacks, plus expect a portal QB

BYU went light on the high school quarterbacks the last two years. In 2022, it didn’t have one quarterback commit. Last year, it brought in Ryder Burton.

This time around, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick brought in two (with one expected to enroll early).

Roderick signed Noah Lugo, a three-star quarterback out of the D-FW metroplex in Texas. He also added Enoch Watson out of Arizona — coached by former BYU quarterback Ty Detmer. Notably, Carson Su’esu’e played quarterback in high school but is expected to play defense.

Watson will serve a mission and join the program in 2026. Lugo is coming to Provo next month.

Expect BYU to add one more quarterback, too — like a veteran transfer. But after that, the quarterback room should be set heading into spring camp.

5. Two other newcomers make a big jump, is BYU?

Last year it was understandable for BYU to be near the bottom of the recruiting rankings in the Big 12.

The Cougars finished 12th out of 14 teams. But so did most of the newcomers. UCF finished ninth. Houston finished 10th. Cincinnati finished 14th.

But in the second season, you would like to see some progress. This time, it looks like a few other newcomers are making a jump and BYU is mostly staying steady.

As it stands today, UCF hauled in the third-best class in the conference. It has eight, four-star recruits, thanks to going after Florida and Georgia hard.

Cincinnati bumped up to the seventh-best class as of today. It doesn’t have the top-end firepower (only one four-star), but is an overall step up.

Houston is in a difficult spot with a coaching change late in this cycle.

But BYU has the lowest average player rating of any team in the league (next to Iowa State). It is ranked around 10th overall.

There are reasons to be optimistic. The average prospect rating, for example, has increased year over year. But it is still not high enough in the Big 12. Remember, BYU hasn’t signed a top-50 high school recruiting class since 2016.