BYU Special Teams Will Feature New Faces Across the Board

On Friday, BYU wide receiver and kickoff return specialist Cody Hagen retired from football. Hagen retired for medical reasons. While Hagen was expected to be in the wide receiver rotation in 2026, he was also the kickoff return specialist in 2025. With Hagen out of the picture, BYU will feature new faces at every key position on special teams.

In this article, we'll look at those positions and who could take over

Special Teams Coordinator

Since 2023, Kelly Poppinga has been the special teams coordinator while also serving as the defensive ends coach. Poppinga was promoted to defensive coordinator and former linebackers coach Justin Ena took over as special teams coordinator. Ena will be the first position coach in the Kalani Sitake era to focus entirely on special teams.

BYU was aggressive on special teams under Kelly Poppinga. It remains to be seen how BYU's philosophy will change, if at all, under Justin Ena.

Punter Returner

In terms of punt return touchdowns, Parker Kingston was one of the best punt returners in the history of the BYU football program. Kingston returned three punts for touchdowns over the last two seasons. Kingston is no longer on the roster, so BYU will turn to a new punt returner in 2026.

In 2025, Tiger Bachmeier took over punt returning duties after Kingston fumbled a few punts. Bachmeier, frankly, struggled and was later replaced by Kingston. If Bachmeier can improve his decision making while fielding the punts, he is probably the frontrunner to return punts for BYU in 2026.

Cannon DeVries is another name that could factor in. DeVries returned a pair of punts for BYU last season. Jonathan Kabeya is another option at this spot. The defensive back was a dangerous kick returner in high school. Terrance Saryon is a true freshman wide receiver that is dangerous in the open field. Perhaps he could carve out a role for himself as a true freshman as a punt returner.

Kick Returner

Cody Hagen returned the majority of kickoffs for BYU in 2025. BYU could turn to Cannon DeVries, Jonathan Kabeya, or Tiger Bachmeier to replace Hagen.

Legend Glasker, a true freshman wide receiver, could potentially factor in as well. Glasker is one of the fastest players on the team and he had success returning kicks in high school.

BYU commit Legend Glasker is electric in the open field. He ran a 4.42 forty earlier this year and he has some wiggle!

That move he made right before the 30 was smooth.pic.twitter.com/IKg1vepkRc
— Casey Lundquist (@casey_lundquist) October 10, 2025

Kicker

Will Ferrin will go down as one of the best clutch kickers in BYU history. Now, Ferrin is off to the NFL and there are three kickers competing for the starting job: Matthias Dunn, Ian Sanches, and Brody Laga.

After Spring Camp, Justin Ena described the battle for the starting spot as "wide open." Brody Laga, who recently returned home from his mission, will compete for that job despite not participating in Spring Camp. Laga was signed as a scholarship player out of high school.

Matthias Dunn was the favorite to start coming out of spring, so we give him the early edge to win that job.

Punter

Sam Vander Haar was the punter for BYU over the last two seasons. His backup, Fuller Shurtz, is the favorite to become the starter in 2026. Shurtz made an appearance for BYU in the TCU game - his debut didn't go as planned. Shurtz fumbled a snap and turned the ball over in BYU territory.

Ena said Shurtz has a "big leg."

Deep Snapper

Garrison Grimes was the longsnapper for BYU last season. He was signed by the New York Jets. Ty Smith is the only deep snapper on BYU's roster as of this writing and is in line to start.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on X and Facebook for the latest news.

Add us as a preferred source on Google