Fit over flash.
That was BYU football coach Kalani Sitake's emphasis as he built his 2025 football signing class , which for now includes 18 high school recruits as of Wednesday. The early signing period continues through Friday.
"We are excited about the group, excited about their families and where they come from. They are a great fit for our program, and not just on the field."
"We are excited about the group, excited about their families and where they come from. They are a great fit for our program, and not just on the field," Sitake said. "They do some wonderful things on the field, but it is off the field and what they are about that made them good fits. Their vision and their goals are in alignment with what we are as a program and definitely with what we are as an institution."
Sitake said eight of the prospects who signed Wednesday plan to serve two-year missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before enrolling. A half-dozen or so of the others will be "midyear enrollees," meaning they will graduate high school early and join the program in January.
"These young men have done an amazing job on the field, and representing themselves in the classroom, and they are going to be great ambassadors for our program," Sitake said. "I am excited to get them on board."
As of midday Wednesday, it was ranked as the No. 55 recruiting class in the country in the 247Sports Composite rankings, and No. 12 in the 16-team Big 12. That ranking will change a bit as more signings come in; last year BYU was in the mid-50s in December and in the 40s after landing some top recruits in February.
All 18 of the signees are three-star prospects , according to 247sports.com . Nevada offensive lineman Alai Kalaniuvalu, a four-star prospect who said in November he was flipping from Oregon to BYU, had not signed as of Wednesday afternoon.
Sitake, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick and defensive coordinator Jay Hill praised all the signees specifically on Wednesday in a news conference via Zoom, but the overriding theme was that the coaches valued fit as much as talent, perhaps even more.
"Recruiting for us is a filtering process. We want to see if they are going to fit our program in a lot of different ways, and if they have the potential … to accomplish a lot of different things as a person and as a football player," Sitake said. "The staff has done a great job of finding these young men that want to be at BYU for the right reasons and we look forward to mentoring them and coaching them to achieve a lot of their goals on and off the field."
A year after the priority was on defensive players, and safeties and defensive linemen in particular, the emphasis this time around was on offensive linemen as much as anything else.
The list includes 10 offensive players, seven defensive players, and a specialist — Riverton High kicker Will Walker. Six of the 18 signees are from Utah, while five are from California , two are from Hawaii . The states of Oregon, Nevada, Georgia and Missouri are also represented.
Sitake said "recruiting is always a daily thing for us" and that more signings are expected when the traditional signing period begins the first Wednesday of February. There's also room for some transfer portal additions, but Sitake and Hill emphasized that BYU's overriding recruiting philosophy is to focus on high school players, develop them, and fill in the holes with transfers.
"Defensively speaking, I would still prefer to bring in freshmen who are great fits at BYU and then develop them the right way, and then fight like crazy to keep those guys that have made plays for us, that we know everything about, try to keep those guys here intact," Hill said.
Sitake said talent is not the be all and end all of building a recruiting class at BYU, and won't be as long as he's the coach.
"One thing we have to focus on is the culture of the team, protecting the culture," he said. "Talent (alone) doesn't just get you wins. You still need culture, you still need strategy. … They are adding to the culture. They are not just coming in here and feeding off it."
Sitake said BYU's success this season — the No. 18 Cougars are 10-2 and will find out their bowl destination and opponent Sunday — "might get some eyes turned our way" but wasn't the key this year because all but a few of the recruits had committed before the season began.
Success "is not the factor that we are relying on to be the huge carrot that is dangling in front of all these recruits," Sitake said. "The key is I want them to see our team. I want recruits to watch our team and say, 'I want to be on that sideline. I want to be in that jersey, and I want to play for those fans.' That's what we are trying to focus on."
BYU doesn't have an immediate need at quarterback — Jake Retzlaff has another year of eligibility and is entrenched as the starter . Utah State transfer McCae Hillstead, Western Michigan transfer Treyson Bourguet and 2024 signee Noah Lugo add good depth.
Wednesday, BYU signed Oregon three-star quarterback Nolan Keeney, but he's headed on a church mission. The Cougars are calling the 6-foot-5 Keeney an "athlete" and aren't ruling out having him play tight end or outside linebacker when he returns in 2027.
"Nolan is a good quarterback, first of all. He is a good passer. He is a big, athletic guy that can run and make plays. He is the type of guy that could play a lot of different positions," Roderick said. "He can do a lot of different things. He is a very good basketball player. Super athlete. He is a great fit for our program."
Offensive lineman Austin Pay, who Rivals.com has as a four-star prospect, could end up being the gem of the class, although he will also go on a church mission first. The 6-foot-7, 295-pounder is the No. 5 overall player in Utah, and BYU's only top-five instate recruit.
Andrew Williams and Siosiua Finau are offensive linemen who could contribute immediately for second-year OL coach TJ Woods.
"We didn't have one position where we were going to be extremely deficient this year. So we signed a few offensive linemen, signed a few tight ends, a couple of running backs, a receiver, one quarterback/athlete guy in Nolan Keeney," Roderick said. "… We feel like our overall roster is in really good balance. We are a young team right now and we have a lot of good players returning next year, and so there wasn't any real drastic needs anywhere for immediate help."
Three offensive players who will be on the roster in 2025 are running back Cale Breslin, receiver LaMason Waller and tight end Tucker Kelleher. Waller is a Rivals.com four-star recruit from Oak Hills High in California and scored 41 touchdowns in his prep career.
"We don't want wholesale portal transactions going on every year. It should be filling in a gap or two each year, and then the rest of our team should be developing these young guys that we signed out of high school," Roderick said.
Breslin, Waller, Kelleher and Williams, the offensive lineman from Missouri, are expected to be mid-year enrollees.
BYU stands to lose five starting defensive linemen next year — Blake Mangelson, John Nelson, Logan Lutui, Tyler Batty and Isaiah Bagnah. There's a lot of young talent ready to take their places, but Hill knows you can never have enough quality defensive linemen.
They added Kelepi Finau (identical twin brother of OL Siosiua Finau) and four other defensive linemen: Sale Fano, Ulavai Fetuli, Vincent Tautua and Kendal Wall. Fano will serve a mission before enrolling.
"You can see that we were trying to add some good youth to our defensive line group, and some height and size, which I think we did a great job of," Hill said. "We have added some linebackers who I think will be very good players moving forward. Last year, we did sign a bunch of safeties, so we were really not in that market for this recruiting class."
The two LBs BYU signed are Tyler Payne of Weber High in the Ogden area and Taaniela Makasini out of Timpview. Payne will be a mid-year enrollee, while Makasini plans to serve a mission first.
Payne "plays the game at linebacker a lot like his dad (Matt) did at punter, just knocking the heck out of people. I am super excited about him. I think he brings something to our linebacker room that is going to make the whole group better," Hill said. "He is another kid that is close to BYU in our backyard in the state of Utah that we need to do a great job recruiting and continuing to get here at BYU. Our backyard is a high, high priority for us."
Will Walker, kicker, 6-5, 210 Riverton, Utah (Riverton High)
Tyler Payne, linebacker, 6-1, 220 Pleasant View, Utah (Weber High)
Blake Bryce, tight end, 6-5, 235 Camarillo, California (Newbury Park High)
Kelepi Finau, defensive lineman, 6-5, 250 Oakland, California (Oakland High)
Cale Breslin, running back, 5-11, 186 Las Vegas, Nevada (Faith Lutheran High)
Sale Fano, edge rusher, 6-4, 225 Saratoga Springs, Utah (Westlake High)
Nolan Keeney, athlete, 6-5, 226 Tualatin, Oregon (Tualatin High)
LaMason Waller, wide receiver, 6-1, 178 Hesperia, California (Oak Hills High)
Tucker Kelleher, tight end, 6-6, 225 Alpharetta, Georgia (Alpharetta High)
Ulavai Fetuli, edge rusher, 6-4, 245 Laie, Hawaii (La Habra High, California)
Jackson Doman, tight end, 6-6, 220 Canby, Oregon (Canby High)
Kendal Wall, edge rusher, 6-5, 215 Herriman, Utah (Mountain Ridge High)
Andrew Williams, offensive lineman, 6-8, 277 Kirksville, Missouri (Kirksville High)
Vincent Tautua, edge rusher, 6-3, 250 Honolulu, Hawaii (St. Louis High)
Taani Makasini, linebacker, 6-1, 200 Provo, Utah (Timpview High)
Kingston Keanaaina, running back, 6-0, 205 Union City, California (St. Francis High)
Austin Pay, offensive lineman, 6-7, 295 American Fork, Utah (Lone Peak High)
Siosiua Finau, offensive lineman, 6-6, 295 Oakland, California (Oakland High)
