BYU Football Breakout Players for 2020: No. 8 - Keenan Pili

This is the continuation of a series where we'll countdown 10 BYU Football players that are primed for a breakout season.

Casey Lundquist | May 23, 2020

BYU Football Breakout Players for 2020: No. 8 - Keenan Pili /

It's time to countdown the top 10 BYU football players that are primed for a breakout season in 2020. Obviously, we're going to assume that football happens this fall. Before we get started, it's important to define what a breakout season means. For the purposes of this series, a breakout season means a player takes on a much bigger role than the prior season. That could be from role player to starter or starter to playmaker. Let's get started!

Honorable Mentions

Keenan Ellis, Ben Bywater, D'Angelo Mandell, Dax Milne, Alema Pilimai

No. 10 - Gunner Romney

No. 9 - Seleti Fevaleaki

No. 8 - Keenan Pili

Keenan Pili BYU Football Boise State Football

Keenan Pili, the brother of Trajan Pili and 2020 signee Logan Pili, was a highly-touted recruit coming out of high school. Pili signed with BYU over offers from Cal, Utah, Vanderbilt, and Washington State.

Pili battled a shoulder injury throughout his Freshman campaign. In total, the shoulder injury sidelined Pili for four games and limited his reps in various other games. Pili tallied 26 total tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and 1 sack in 9 games.

Pili is one of the fastest Linebackers on BYU's roster. His sideline-to-sideline speed makes him a versatile asset for the BYU defense. He can help in coverage but he becomes really dangerous when he is able to use his speed in the open field. I'd like to see more of him off the edge like we saw against Liberty:

Pili has a chance to take on a bigger role in 2020 if he can stay healthy. I expect him to go from a contributor in 2019 to a physical playmaker on BYU's defense in 2020.

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Published May 23, 2020

CASEY LUNDQUIST

Casey Lundquist is the publisher and lead editor of Cougs Daily. He has covered BYU athletics for the last four years. During that time, he has published over 2,000 stories that have reached more than three million people.