Four-Star Wide Receiver Cody Hagen Commits to BYU
2022 wide receiver and four-star recruit Cody Hagen has committed to BYU, he announced on Thursday. Hagen’s commitment is a major recruiting victory for the BYU football program who has had Hagen at the top of their board for several months. Hagen picked the Cougars over fellow finalists Utah, USC, Stanford, and Michigan. He also received offers from the likes of Oregon, Arizona, and Oregon State during his recruitment.
BYU started recruiting Cody Hagen in April of 2020 when they were the first FBS school to offer him a scholarship. BYU wide receivers coach Fesi Sitake extended the offer and has been Hagen's main recruiter throughout the duration of his recruitment.
Coach Fesi took to Twitter to celebrate the commitment on Wednesday night in true BYU fashion: the eyeball emoji.
In this author's opinion, Cody Hagen is one of the best wide receiver prospects to ever come out of the state of Utah. Listed at 6'1, 175 pounds, Hagen had over 1,100 yards receiving in 2020, and he is averaging nearly 130 receiving yards per game as a senior.
It’s not just his stats, however, that make Hagen such an intriguing prospect. Hagen is very well-rounded. He runs good routes, he is lightning fast (like 10.52 100M fast...blazing), he is able to track deep balls in the air, he can get open in the red zone, and he is strong and tough to make contested catches over the middle. You can check out his junior highlights below.
Over the Summer, I attended a 7v7 camp where Hagen competed with his Corner Canyon teammates. Hagen’s abilities were on full display that day. Below is my description of his performance that day.
BYU has had Cody Hagen at the top of their board ever since they offered him in April of 2020...Hagen was simply the best skill player in attendance on Saturday. Between his 10.5 speed, his reliable hands, and his crisp routes, he was impossible to defend. Hagen is currently a three-star recruit according to 247Sports. I would be very surprised if he is not elevated to four-star status by the end of this recruiting cycle.
At the tournament, everyone knew the ball was going to Cody Hagen but nobody could stop it. Corner Canyon went on to win the tournament in convincing fashion. Since the time of that article, Hagen was upgraded to four-star status by 247Sports.
Like any four-star recruit, BYU was up against very stiff competition to land Hagen’s commitment. While any recruiting win over USC and Michigan is reason to celebrate, there were a few details specific to Hagen’s situation that make this recruiting win all the more impressive.
- Hagen comes from a Utah family - his father Sean played wide receiver at Utah for one season
- Academics are very important in the Hagen household, so Stanford was a legitimate threat the moment they extended an offer
Successful, consistent recruiting is like baking a cake. It requires all the ingredients and proper preparation. Rarely, if ever, will a recruit make a college decision based on the outcome of a single game or a single facility upgrade. While on-field success and facilities are important, they must be paired with the other ingredients. For example, conference affiliation, NFL track record, academic success, relationships with the coaching staff (this might as well be flour in our analogy, everything else goes out the window without good relationships), brand recognition, and geography, to name a few. Every recruit will prioritize those key ingredients differently, but successful recruiting boils down to a school’s ability to bundle those key cornerstones into a recruiting pitch.
Since Kalani Sitake was brought on as BYU’s head coach, the coaching staff (especially coaches like Fesi Sitake) has been able to create meaningful relationships with highly-touted recruits that signed elsewhere. That will happen, recruiting is competitive! But there a few recruits that come to mind that probably would have signed with BYU if the Cougars’ recruiting pitch looked back then like it does now.
Think about the different arrows BYU has added to its quiver over the last 12 months. The Cougars went 11-1 last season and finished no. 11 in the final AP poll. Five former Cougars were selected in the 2021 NFL draft including Zach Wilson who was taken second overall. Now you pair those things with wins over Utah (where dozens of recruits were in attendance, including Cody Hagen) and two other PAC-12 schools, a top 15 ranking in the AP poll, receiving and accepting an invitation to join the Big 12 (peep the Big 12 logo in Hagen's announcement), and recent improvements to the player experience including facility upgrades. BYU is trending up in many of the key areas and recruits, like Cody Hagen, are taking notice.
Aisea Moa is another 2022 four-star recruit in the state of Utah - Moa backed off his Utah commitment on Wednesday. Now that Moa is back on the market, plenty of schools will be competing for Moa's services over the next few months. Things can change quickly in the recruiting world, but BYU's current momentum gives them the opportunity to be right in the mix.
Tapuvae "Snoop" Amaama is another in-state recruit who is weighing offers from BYU, Miami, Virginia, and Syracuse among others.
Hagen is the 16th commitment in BYU’s 2022 class and he is the highest-rated recruit in the class according to 247Sports. He is the second Corner Canyon player to commit to the Cougars - he joins linebacker Micah Wilson.
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