‘Has all the traits that you look for in a tight end’: Why former BYU basketball forward Caleb Lohner is playing football at Utah

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‘Has all the traits that you look for in a tight end’: Why former BYU basketball forward Caleb Lohner is playing football at Utah

Former BYU and Baylor basketball player Caleb Lohner (81) goes through drills during fall camp at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The former college basketball player not only changed schools, but sports too. | Utah Athletics

Joe Coles · Deseret News

Tue, Aug 6, 2024 ·

12 min read

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Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

After everyone had left the practice field on Monday, Caleb Lohner was the only player that remained.

The sound of the JUGS machine pierced the air, with Lohner catching ball after ball, putting in extra work after Utah's first padded practice. Playing organized football for the first time since the eighth grade, the former BYU basketball player is taking all the reps he can get.

In 2019, Lohner signed to Utah's basketball program , and since then, it's been a journey that led him back to the school he originally pledged to — but now in a different sport.

'I was just blown away': Lohner signs with the Runnin' Utes

Lohner arrived at Wasatch Academy from Dallas in 2019, moving to Mount Pleasant, Utah, to bolster his game and play on one of the most talented prep basketball teams in the nation.

At Wasatch Academy, he was a star on a team that finished with a 27-2 record and a No. 3 national ranking in MaxPreps' final high school basketball poll. Lohner averaged 14.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game on that loaded team, and his 6-foot-6, 230-pound frame, along with his skill and agility, made him a key target for a lot of college teams.

"The thing that makes him so special is that he really does move like a guard, being as tall as he is, and as big as he is," Wasatch Academy coach Dave Evans told the Deseret News in 2020. "He already has a strong body, unlike a lot of top high school players, and he really works hard to get better."

At the time, Lohner was ranked as a top-100 recruit in the nation, and had offers from a host of schools, including BYU, Baylor, Kansas State, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Michigan State, Stanford and San Diego State.

But Utah — which was a late entrant to Lohner's recruitment — closed strong, and despite Lohner's family ties to BYU (his dad, Matt, played for the Cougars in the 1990s), he signed an NLI with the Utes in November 2019.

"I kept seeing Utah coaches at some of the camps I'd attend over the summer and just decided I owed it to them to at least give them a look," Lohner told the Deseret News at the time. "So I went up there and I was just blown away and really, really liked everything about the school, but especially the coaches there."

Flipping to BYU

Seven months later, however, Lohner requested to be let out of his letter of intent by head coach Larry Krystkowiak, and Utah honored his wishes . A few weeks later, Lohner signed on the dotted line again, this time for Mark Pope and BYU, which was coming off of a 24–8 season and was set to play in the NCAA Tournament before it was canceled due to COVID-19. Utah, meanwhile, was four years removed from its last NCAA Tournament appearance in 2016.

Brigham Young Cougars forward Caleb Lohner (33) is upset after being fouled at the end of the game by Utah in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 27, 2021. BYU won 75-64. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

The future in Provo was a little more uncertain when Lohner committed to Utah after Dave Rose's retirement — Lohner said he didn't know Pope very well — but after seeing a season under Pope, he flipped from red to blue.

"His coaching style is so impressive, but even more so is his ability to get everyone to buy into what he's coaching," Lohner told the Deseret News in 2020. "You saw it last year, and if we can get everyone to buy in like that team did last year — I just think more great years are ahead, and I definitely want to be part of it."

The former Wasatch Academy star spent two seasons with Pope and the Cougars, taking on a starting role in his sophomore season, and while he never quite lived up to the lofty offensive expectations, he was a positive on defense and grabbing rebounds. Lohner averaged 7 points on 44% shooting, 6.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists over his Cougar career.

Just as BYU was set to move into the Big 12, Lohner decided it was time for a change, transferring to conference-mate Baylor — which won the 2021 national championship — ahead of the 2022-23 season. In Waco, Lohner settled into a bench role, averaging 10.7 minutes per game, 2.8 points on 54.5% shooting and 2.9 rebounds per game over the last two seasons.

With his college career waning — Lohner has a year of eligibility remaining, and a redshirt year available — his thoughts started trending toward a different sport.

'Has all the traits that you look for in a tight end'

Taking questions from the media following his first padded college football practice ever, Lohner certainly looks the part of a football player, and when you add in his trademark fluidity at his size, it's easy to see why Utah thinks he has potential in the sport — at least from a physical standpoint.

Standing at 6-foot-8, Lohner has bulked up to about 250 pounds — around the weight of most of the NFL's top tight ends, but two inches taller than Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce , for example.

The Utes reached out to him about converting to football, and just days after entering the NCAA transfer portal, he attended Utah's spring football game with tight end coach Freddie Whittingham.

A month later, it was official. Lohner signed a letter of intent for Utah, this time to try his hand at football.

"I just think maybe it was a long time coming," Lohner said of his decision to play football. "I think I've been given certain gifts, my body and just the way I move that it kind of made sense. And again, Utah came to me and presented an opportunity and I just kind of felt like I'd be a fool not to take it."

Getting back into the sport after years away — Lohner stepped away after eighth grade to fully focus on basketball — presents a challenge, but one he's been excited to take head on.

Part of the reason he was drawn to Utah's plan to convert him to a football player was due to the culture that Kyle Whittingham has established and the school's reputation for player development.

"You see it every day in practice, even in the film room, it's just coaches hold you to a high level of accountability, and I think as an athlete, that's where you want to be. You want to be somewhere you're going to be pushed and excel," Lohner said.

Since arriving in May, Lohner has thrown himself into the sport, participating in player-run practices during the summer to rave reviews.

"Caleb is a guy that has all the traits that you look for in a tight end," Freddie Whittingham said. "He's tall, he's 250 pounds now. He can run, he's got good hands, and I would say from when he arrived in May through all of the summer work that was done, he'd get a grade of an 'A' for everything that he was able to do in summer ball."

Lohner has essentially had to relearn football — and do it fast, with just three months from the time he arrived on campus to Utah's first game against Southern Utah on Aug. 29.

His teammates, along with the coaching staff, have been helping him every step of the way, answering all of his questions, even when he's asking them about things they "learned in fifth grade."

"I think learning the offense, learning how to be a football player," Lohner replied when asked about the biggest challenge he's facing. "For the last four years I've heard all basketball, right? I played with incredible athletes, incredible basketball players. But now making the transition into a football program, a football offense, football language, that's been the biggest adjustment."

One of the biggest differences that Lohner has seen between the two sports is that basketball has more freedom while on the court, while football is more regimented.

"Football is very fundamental. It's very much, 'Hey, this is where you're going, this is the moves you're making, this is what you're reading.' I feel like basketball is a little bit more free in a sense that you can kind of go play. That's been an adjustment," Lohner said.

While Freddie Whittingham was especially complimentary of the work that Lohner did in the summer, he noted that right now, when the pads go on, is the next test. The former basketball player has passed every test without the equipment on.

Now, how will Lohner react to the physicality?

"That's going to be another benchmark for him, another stepping stone for him to be able to display that he can catch on quickly to the physicality and the speed of the game," Freddie Whittingham said. "But as far as just pure skills that would show up at an NFL combine, he is elite."

It's tough to say, with three weeks still remaining until Utah's first game, just how much Lohner will see the field this season. Utah's tight end room is stacked — the return of veteran Brant Kuithe , rising star Landen King, UCLA transfer Carsen Ryan and Dallen Bentley, plus blocking tight end Miki Suguturaga — but there's still situations where Lohner could get snaps this year.

Lohner's basketball size gives him an advantage — at 6-foot-8, he's the tallest pass-catcher on Utah's roster, two inches taller than wide receiver Damien Alford — especially in red-zone situations.

"He's got range like no one I've ever played catch with," quarterback Cam Rising said. "He will catch them high. He will catch them low. You just got to put it in the vicinity and he will bring it in. Just being that big of a body, there's not very many people that can guard him, so got to figure out a way to get him the ball."

The move to football has been a bit like drinking out of a firehose for Lohner, but even as he progresses through fall camp and is growing more comfortable with everything, he's the first to admit that he needs more practice.

That's why he was at the JUGS machine, working away even as everyone else on the team had left.

"I think just more reps. More reps, reading the defense kind of in the top of routes, and I think just learning every day how to become kind of a football player, the lingo, how to identify defenses, how to kind of understand what I'm doing within the play calls," Lohner said.

What about basketball?

Lohner's commitment announcement on social media featured a photo of him in a full football uniform while also holding two basketballs.

"I'm very excited and grateful to announce my commitment to play football at the University of Utah. This presents a unique opportunity to potentially contribute on the court as well. I look forward to embracing the challenge and privilege to represent the Utes with pride," Lohner wrote at the time.

Lohner is currently on both the football and basketball rosters at the University of Utah, but was completely focused on football during the summer. That'll continue as the Utes continue their march toward the season-opener.

"I'm 100% football right now. My goal is to help this team in any way that I can, and my goal at the end of the day is to win a Big 12 championship," Lohner said.

Playing football and basketball in the same season is pretty rare in the modern era. Besides the lack of recovery time — Lohner could theoretically play competitively in two sports from August until March with no break — the seasons conflict.

Utah's football campaign could potentially go through Dec. 31, and beyond, if Utah were to make the College Football Playoff.

Though Utah hasn't officially released its 2024-25 basketball schedule, that would put them near or at the start of Big 12 Conference play. Could Lohner jump in at that point and contribute without having been around the basketball team for preseason practices through nonconference play?

It's basically a risk-free proposition for the Runnin' Utes, since Lohner will be receiving a football scholarship and won't count against Craig Smith's scholarship allotment.

Though he's not expected to be one of the main stars on Kyle Whittingham's squad, Lohner is one of the more intriguing prospects on the 2024 team. T here's been plenty of basketball players that had successful NFL careers as a tight end — Tony Gonzalez, who played both football and basketball at Cal before a Hall of Fame career as one of the greatest NFL tight ends ever, Antonio Gates and Jimmy Graham come to mind.

We're not saying to compare Lohner to those greats, but just to illustrate that there have been successful crossovers from basketball to football before.

Only time will tell if Lohner finds success in the sport too.

"Caleb Lohner, our basketball transfer, doing a nice job," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.

Utah tight end Caleb Lohner makes a catch during fall drills at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The former college basketball player will be strapping on a helmet for the Utes this fall. | Utah Athletics

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