BYU Defensive Coordinator Jay Hill Wants Someone to Separate Themselves at Strong Safety

Casey Lundquist | Oct 23, 2024

BYU safety Crew Wakley seals the game with an interception against Baylor / BYU Photo

On Friday against Oklahoma State, BYU strong safety Crew Wakley started for the BYU defense. After coming off the bench for the first two games of the season, Wakley has started five consecutive games at strong safety. However, BYU continues to rotate multiple players at that position.

Crew Wakley played 31 snaps against the Cowboys. Raider Damuni played nearly as much as Wakley at 28 total snaps. Micah Harper also played nine snaps at strong safety.

BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill says he is waiting for one of those three to separate themselves and earn most of the reps.

"I would still like to see one of those guys step up and take the big majority of the reps," Jay Hill said on Tuesday. "Crew Wakley did that in the Baylor game. That doesn't mean I'm discontent with any of those guys, I would just like to see one of those guys separate themselves from the group...I wouldn't be surprised if you continue to see multiple guys play."

You can listen to Hill's comments in their entirety at the top of this article.

Wakley has played the most at that spot this season at 225 total snaps. Wakley's best game of the season came against Baylor. In that game, he had a quarterback sack and he had the game-sealing interception on Baylor's final drive.

Raider Damuni has played 123 snaps for the BYU defense this season, the second most of any player. Damuni is an extremely talented players. He was one of the top recruits in the state in his class coming out of Timpview High School. At Timpview, he created tons of havoc from the safety position. That side of his game hasn't been put on display yet at BYU. If he can get acclimated to the speed of the game and allow his playmaking abilities to surface, he is capable of winning the job outright.

Micah Harper started the season opener at strong safety, but he hasn't started since. Harper got banged up early in the season and he hasn't quite fit back into the rotation ever since. Harper is one of the best players on defense when he's healthy, but he hasn't looked quite right since suffering a second ACL injury last season.

Talan Alfrey started for BYU at strong safety against SMU. Since then, he has fallen out of the rotation. He played 14 snaps against Wyoming and he has played only one snap in conference play.