BYU depth chart: Can Cougars’ defense become one of the best in the country in 2025?

Senior safety Tanner Wall says Cougars are ‘a championship-caliber team’ if they stay focused and healthy

Ask any of the returning starters on BYU’s defense that was one of the best in the Big 12, if not the country, in 2024 what the unit needs to do in 2025 to get into even more rarified air, and the response is almost always the same.

Get better on third down.

Fans might point to the pass rush, or lack thereof, as perhaps the greatest area of need, but returning players such as Tanner Wall, Isaiah Glasker, Jack Kelly and Logan Lutui and defensive coordinator Jay Hill say the top priority for the defense this coming season will be to get off the field on a more regular basis.

The Cougars went 11-2, finished in a four-way tie for first place in the Big 12’s regular-season race, defeated their biggest rival on its home field, and crushed Colorado 36-14 in the Alamo Bowl, so there’s not a lot to nit-pick about on either side of the ball. But oh, what might have been, say, if the Cougars had figured out a way to keep Arizona State and Kansas from controlling the clock so much in their only two losses in an otherwise stellar season.

BYU’s defense was 85th in the country in third-down conversion percentage, allowing opponents to convert on 41.1% of their chances.

That’s not good enough, Hill said midway through the Cougars’ recently completed spring football camp, if BYU hopes to go further in 2025 than it did in 2024.

“Certainly, we’ve got to do a better job of getting off the field, getting the ball back to our potent offense,” Hill said, while reminding reporters that BYU’s defense forced 29 turnovers — 22 interceptions and seven fumbles — and was one of the top teams in turnover margin, 24th, in the country.

What will BYU’s defense look like in 2025? What will be its calling cards as head coach Kalani Sitake, Hill and the other defensive coaches attempt to replace the likes of four key defensive linemen — John Nelson, Blake Mangelson, Isaiah Bagnah and Tyler Batty — and one of the best cornerbacks in the Sitake era, Jakob Robinson?

“The defense is always changing, and the change is based on personnel. It changes based on opponent,” Hill said. “Whether I feel like we can stop the run with the guys that we have, or do we have to add one to the box, or do we gotta try to slant and move a little bit?

“It is just always changing. Like last year, we didn’t really have a 300-pounder playing for us.

“So we were doing a little bit more slants and stunts and some things to eat up gaps and try to keep offenses (guessing) exactly where we were going to be, and it worked. This year is a little different. Because we added some guys and subtracted some guys.”

The biggest addition, obviously, is junior defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa, the 301-pound transfer from the University of Utah. Other key acquisitions include returned missionary Hunter Clegg, former Texas defensive end Tausili Akana and former SUU defensive end Anisi Purcell, who will play on the interior for BYU.