BYU Position Rankings: BYU's Defensive Tackles Look the Part, but Will They Produce?

Defensive tackle has been a traditional position of weakness for BYU, with one defensive tackle taken in the NFL draft in the 21st century. That should be alarming, the state of Utah has no shortage of history producing professionals at the position. BYU has poured a ton of resources into elevating this position in the Big 12 era, but will 2026 finally be the year that the defensive line stops being just a hypothetical?

Projected Depth Chart:

1. Keanu Tanuvasa, Justin Kirkland

2. Viliami Pouha, Anisi Purcell

Strengths: Maturity

BYU defensive end Viliami Pouha against Arizona | BYU Photo

When opposing coaches can’t stop harping on how BYU is comprised of a bunch of grown men, they might actually be correct about the defensive tackle group. BYU’s top three defensive tackles are fifth-year seniors, have played a combined 4,000 career snaps, and average just over 6’3, 305 pounds. That is a massive group to move when the average starting center in the NFL is around 6’3, 308. Coupled with that experience, though, is skill. For years, BYU’s defensive tackle group has been the island of misfit defensive ends asked to gain 20 extra pounds because BYU did not have the bodies or the talent to sustain a full season against a Power 4 schedule. No longer.

Keanu Tanuvasa was a preseason first team all-conference selection earlier this summer and was 3rd among Big 12 defensive tackles in total pressures. Before sitting out most of 2025 with an injury, Justin Kirkland was the 8th best run defender at his position in the Big 12 per PFF and has a stated goal (and ability) to break the NFL combine record of 49 reps of 225 lbs on the bench press. Anisi Purcell was 4th on the team in sacks last season despite playing the 10th most snaps as a pass rusher.

Behind them is a slew of talented youth including junior Viliami Pouha, who had the highest pressure rate among defensive tackles last season, and redshirt freshman Uluvai Feituli, who was the most touted recruit in this group by a pretty wide margin. If the stars in this group can live up to their NFL ceiling, it could lead to this being the best BYU defense of all time.

Still need to prove: Playmaking

BYU defensive Keanu Tanuvasa gets a sack against Stanford | BYU Photo

Much like an offensive tackle, the effectiveness of a defensive tackle is not measured by their own counting stats, but by the impact they have on the rest of the team. As a run defense, BYU was good, not great, ranking 31st in EPA per rush, 34th in success rate against the rush, and 46th in yards per carry allowed. While the defensive tackles might not have been the entire problem, they also weren’t the solution. Fair or not, the face of that disappointment for many was Keanu Tanuvasa. The former Utah transfer was viewed as one of the biggest recruiting wins in recent memory because he was so much more disruptive than just a block eater. On the field, Tanuvasa regressed from what he showed at Utah, with his stop rate dropping from 7.7% to 2.9%.

The hope is that that had a lot more to do with BYU’s personnel than Tanuvasa’s talent. With the injury to Justin Kirkland, BYU ran significantly more 3 man front than initially expected, meaning Tanuvasa played more than twice as many snaps at nose tackle than in his previous 3 seasons combined. More time at nose tackle meant taking on more double teams. More double teams meant less opportunity to make plays. Now that BYU can go 5 deep at defensive tackle for what seems to be the first time in a generation, Tanuvasa will have the freedom to do what he does best. Last season, Texas Tech’s AJ Holmes led all Big 12 defensive tackles in sacks with 5. With 2 sacks and 2 QB hits last season, Tanuvasa has the talent to hit that number. If he does, this will be the best BYU defensive line of the last 20 years.

Position group ranking: 9

BYU DT Anisi Purcell gets a sack against Iowa State | BYU Photo

The defensive tackles come in just ahead of the wide receivers at no. 9. For the sake of BYU’s defense, we hope we are proven wrong here. The floor of this group is high. Tanuvasa and Kirkland are the most complete pair of defensive tackles the program has had in the Kalani Sitake era. They have both played defensive tackle their entire career (low bar but look at the history) and proven they can produce at the Power 4 level for multiple seasons. That is something we haven’t said about the defensive tackle group in a long time. The ceiling, however, did not show to be consistently high last season. To take that next step, we need to be hearing announcers calling the names of defensive tackles for doing more than just being difficult to move, and until we do, there are other groups on the roster with both better talent and historic production for us to move the defensive tackles higher in our ranking.

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