Depth Chart Projection for The BYU Defensive Line in 2025

Casey Lundquist | Feb 2, 2025

BYU defensive line against Baylor / BYU Photo

On Saturday, BYU veteran defensive end Logan Lutui announced his plans to return for the 2025 season. Lutui, who started three games for BYU in 2024, will be the most experienced defensive end on the roster by a wide margin. Lutui's return shakes up the projected depth chart for BYU's defensive line in 2025. The future defensive line depth chart will start to get clearer during Spring camp, but today, we're taking a way-too-early stab at the defensive line depth chart.

In our preliminary roster projections a few weeks ago, we forecasted as many as 11 newcomers in the defensive line rooms.

BYU Defensive Line Depth Chart

Defensive Ends

1. Viliami Po'uha
2. Bodie Schoonover OR Tausili Akana OR Hunter Clegg

1. Logan Lutui
2. Ephraim Asiata OR Kinilau Fonohema

We'll start with the defensive ends. The battle for the starting defensive end positions are going to be some of the most heated competitions of Spring and Fall camps.

These battles could come down to upside vs experience. BYU's two most experienced defensive ends are Logan Lutui and Bodie Schoonover. However, BYU's defensive ends with the highest upside are Hunter Clegg, Tausili Akana, Kinilau Fonohema, and Viliami Po'uha.

In our way-too-early projections, we're going with Viliami Po'uha to win one of the starting jobs. In limited reps last season, Viliami Po'uha had six quarterback pressures in just 35 pass rush snaps. His 17% pressure rate was the best among BYU defensive lineman. Logan Lutui and Bodie Schoonover had pressure rates of 4% and 6%, respectively. Po'uha will be a name to watch in Spring. His weight makes him a candidate to potentially slide inside.

Opposite of Po'uha, we're penciling in Logan Lutui as the other starter at defensive end. We think BYU's coaching staff will lean on his experience.

There are a lot of question marks surrounding the other players in the room. Will Hunter Clegg be ready to play that many snaps less than a year removed from a mission? Can Tausili Akana put on enough weight to be a three-down defensive end? Can Ephraim Asiata put on enough weight to be in the rotation? Kinilau Fonohema was a coveted recruit coming out of Springville High School - will he be ready to compete as a redshirt freshman? Can Bodie Schoonover become a full-time contributor?

If nobody is ready, BYU could look to move Jack Kelly from linebacker to defensive end. Kelly played defensive end at Weber State and he lined up at defensive end multiple times against Colorado.

BYU has a lot of questions to answer at defensive end during Spring camp.

Defensive Tackles

1. Keanu Tanuvasa
2. Sani Tuala OR Joshua Singh

1. John Taumoepeau OR Anisi Purcell
2. Luke Toomalatai

Utah transfer Keanu Tanuvasa was arguably the most important transfer addition for BYU. Tanuvasa was a two-year starter at Utah, and you can put him in the projected starting lineup for BYU in 2025.

Next to Tanuvasa, the other starting spot will be up for grabs. We expect at least a few defensive ends to make the transition inside to play defensive tackle. Due to his size, we have moved Sani Tuala to defensive tackle.

Anisi Purcell, a two-year starter for SUU, transferred to BYU and will compete for time at this spot. Purcell started 19 out of 21 games from 2023 to 2024. He has tallied 52 total tackles, 11 tackles for loss, and 5 sacks over the course of his career. He has been credited with 58 total quarterback pressures over the last two seasons.

Purcell was listed as a 265-pound defensive end at Southern Utah. Given BYU's need at defensive tackle, it's most likely that he will slide inside and play defensive tackle for the Cougars. BYU had success moving defensive ends to defensive tackle in 2024, they could be looking to use the same strategy in 2025. We expect him to compete for a starting job.

John Taumoepeau and Luke Toomalatai were rotational players for BYU in 2024 and they are currently set to return in 2025. Taumoepeau played more snaps than Toomalatai in 2024, so we gave him the slight edge to win the starting job.