BYU Football Cracks the ESPN Post-Spring Top 10

Casey Lundquist | May 9, 2025

BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff against Arizona / BYU Photo

The Spring transfer portal has come and gone. The Cougars lost a pair of projected contributors in Keelan Marion and Harrison Taggart. They also added potential contributors like Justin Kirkland and Tiger Bachmeier. After the Spring transfer window, ESPN updated its way-too-early Top 25 for the 2025 season. BYU came in at no. 10.

The Cougars came close to making the CFP last season, and with Retzlaff, Martin, Roberts and Marion returning, they should be more explosive on offense. The Cougars will have to replace three starting offensive linemen; Isaiah Jatta (Colorado Buffaloes) and Gentry are ready to take over at tackle.
BYU is searching for more depth on the defensive line, where Tanuvasa and Akana were competing for starting jobs. The linebacker corps suffered a blow when returning starting middle linebacker Harrison Taggart transferred to California in the spring. The group is still in good shape with Glasker and Kelly returning. Wall and Johnson lead a very experienced secondary.

- Mark Schlabach

Schlabach forgot to exclude Keelan Marion from his commentary, but from a high-level, his analysis is fair. The Cougars bring enough pieces back on offense to expect a step forward on that side of the ball. The defensive line was the biggest area of concern following the 2024 season and the Cougars went to the transfer portal to fill that void. The Cougars brought in Keanu Tanuvasa, Justin Kirkland, Tausili Akana, and Anisi Purcell.

BYU is the highest-ranked team in the Big 12, just ahead of Arizona State who comes in at no. 12. In total, there are five Big 12 teams inside the top 20. BYU has two road games against projected top 20 teams in Iowa State and Texas Tech. Below is the full Top 25 from ESPN.

1. Penn State
2. Clemson
3. Texas
4. Georgia
5. Ohio State
6. LSU
7. Notre Dame
8. Oregon
9. Alabama
10. BYU
11. Illinois
12. Arizona State
13. South Carolina
14. Iowa State
15. SMU
16. Texas Tech
17. Indiana
18. Kansas State
19. Florida
20. Michigan
21. Miami
22. Louisville
23. Texas A&M
24. Ole Miss
25. Oklahoma