BYU Football Staff Visits a Pair of Coveted Recruits in Hawaii

Casey Lundquist | Apr 23, 2025

Lavell Edwards Stadium - BYU vs SIU / BYU Photo

It's recruiting season for the BYU football program and the BYU coaching is one the road visiting priority recruits. The BYU staff was recently in Hawaii to visit two of the most coveted recruits on BYU's recruiting board.

The first was offensive line prospect Malakai Lee. Lee recently named six finalists and BYU made the cut alongside Texas, USC, Michigan, Alabama, and Georgia.

The BYU coaching staff has made Lee a top priority in the 2026 recruiting class. Most of BYU's offensive staff had been out to Hawaii to visit him earlier in the recruiting cycle. Earlier this year, he was visited by Kalani Sitake, Fesi Sitake, TJ Woods, and Sione Po'uha among others. He will take an official visit to BYU in the Summer.

The second recruit to get a visit from the BYU staff was four-star linebacker Talanoa Ili.

The four-star linebacker named his seven finalists back in February and BYU made the cut alongside Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, USC, and UCLA. Ili plans to take an official visit to all seven of his finalists.

Ili picked up competing offers from Ohio State, Florida, Miami, Kansas, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Missouri, Washington, Utah, Texas A&M, North Carolina, and Tennessee among others during his recruitment.

Ili is one of the top recruits in the 2026 recruiting class. He is a top 35 recruit according to 247Sports and one of the top five linebackers in the country. Ili is a man among boys at the high school level. He is bigger, faster, and stronger than just about everyone he faces at Orange Lutheran High School.