Special Teams Player of the Year: #24 Ryan Rehkow
In a season where BYU's inconsistency on special teams was a reflection of the team's broader issues, Ryan Rehkow stood out as a reliable presence—a legitimate weapon who helped the Cougars control field position and gave their defense a better chance at success. It's not always easy to quantify a punter's impact, but a really good punter can make life miserable for opposing offenses. Rehkow is one of those really good punters. It's weird to talk about a punter as a legit NFL prospect, but Rehkow is that exceptional. And the best part is that he still has two more seasons of eligibility left.
Defensive player of the year: #2 Ben Bywater
While the BYU defense wasn't great for most of the 2022 season, there were multiple individual players who really stood out. Bywater was the most prominent. He was all over the field, racking up 107 total tackles. That led the team...by a lot. Second place went to Max Tooley, who had 70. The really wild thing is that Bywater has been producing like this for two straight seasons now—he had 102 total tackles in 2021, which led the team (again) over Max Tooley's 68. In other words, Bywater hasn't just been the best tackler on the team in back-to-back years—he's virtually lapped the field. He's been the best defensive player in a BYU uniform for two full seasons, and incredibly, he still has two years of eligibility left. I'll frankly be shocked if he uses both—provided he can stay healthy through 2023, I think the NFL draft is his most likely landing spot in 2024.
Honorable Mention: #31 Max Tooley
Tooley doesn't just get this spot because he's been second on the team in tackles for two straight years. He gets it because he has a convincing argument for being the Cougars' highest-energy defensive player in 2022. Tooley isn't quite as fundamentally sound as Bywater, but he might just be more athletic and he's definitely got better hands, as his team-high four total interceptions and two pick-sixes attest. If Bywater is the gritty, grind-it-out tackler who always puts himself in the right spot, Tooley is the slightly crazy and hyper-aggressive heart and soul of the defense. The BYU defensive scheme left a lot to be desired in 2022 (that's putting it kindly), and it was sometimes easy for opposing offenses to build momentum against the Cougars' bend-but-don't-break approach. Tooley had a way of stifling that momentum. He hit hard, he read the QB well, and he could inject energy into the defense in a way nobody else could. Rewatch the Utah State game and you'll see what I mean. The 2023 season will be Tooley's last at BYU, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him get an NFL opportunity thereafter.
Offensive Player of the Year: #71 Blake Freeland
There were several players who could have taken this spot, but I had to give it to Freeland in the end. Everything about Blake Freeland is on a grand scale, from his 6'8", 302 lb. frame to his ridiculous 37" vertical jump (an all-time NFL combine record for offensive linemen) and 4.98-second 40-yard dash (best in his class). And he's not just an athletic freak—his fundamentals are exceptionally sound. He recorded a season grade of 90.9 from Pro Football Focus, which made him one of the highest-rated tackles in the nation. He was third in the FBS in pressure rate, walling off Jaren Hall's blind side completely as he earned AP Third Team All-American honors. Freeland was deservedly the first Cougar taken in the 2023 NFL Draft (4th round, 106th overall).
Honorable Mention: #3 Jaren Hall
No, Offensive Player of the Year isn't just a quarterback award, and Blake Freeland earned his laurels in 2022. But man, Jaren Hall was special. His combination of athleticism and arm talent made him a joy to watch when healthy. Those last two words are an important qualifier, though—Hall struggled with injuries this year, which sometimes put the Cougars in a tough spot. Baylor Romney's surprise retirement from football after 2021 left Hall with Jacob Conover and Sol-Jay Maiava-Peters as his understudies. Aaron Roderick's lack of trust in that less-than-dynamic duo caused him to play Hall at less than 100% several times throughout the season, resulting in lackluster performances against teams like Notre Dame and Liberty. But when Hall was healthy, oh, did he sparkle. His passes were crisp and accurate. His arm strength let him put the ball anywhere on the field. He was a commanding field general, rallying his troops and maximizing Roderick's offensive scheme. He was a compassionate and uplifting leader off the field, as evidenced by the touching moment between him and distraught kicker Jake Oldroyd after the Cougars survived two gut-wrenching missed field goals against Baylor. Hall's most striking characteristic, though, was his intelligence. When he spoke in interviews, he didn't just sound like a quarterback—he sounded like a Professor of Football Studies presenting a lecture. It was clear that he understood his position on a remarkably deep level and that he was passionate about his craft. Hall actually finished 2022 with a higher passer rating than he had in 2021 despite playing hurt in multiple games, which might be his most remarkable achievement of all. And while I'm calling Freeland the Cougars' fundamentally best offensive player of the year, Hall was their most important.
Surprise of the Year: #94 John Nelson
I did not see John Nelson coming in 2022. Neither did most opposing quarterbacks, which partly explains his pass rushing success—six TFL's, three sacks, and a tipped pass at the line that Max Tooley took the other way for a pick-six against Utah State. No, those numbers wouldn't raise eyebrows on many FBS defenses, but keep in mind that Ilaisa Tuiaki ran a default drop-8 scheme for much of the 2022 season, minimizing the individual impact of pass rushers. Furthermore, Ed Lamb's unorthodox hockey line changes in the front seven decreased individual players' opportunities for big statistical performances. In the context of those less-than-ideal circumstances, Nelson did very well for himself. And with Lamb and Tuiaki both getting the boot this offseason, Nelson will be playing in a very different defensive scheme in 2023. Jay Hill and Sione Po'uha have the potential to unlock a new level to Nelson's game, and I fully expect him to have an electric 2023 campaign.
Inspirational Story of the Year: #1 Micah Harper
Micah Harper burst onto the scene as a true freshman in 2020. In his first-ever start for the Cougars against Troy, he recorded seven tackles (including assisting on a TFL). In total, he appeared in eleven of the Cougars' twelve games during the 2020 season, starting five of them. But then, disaster struck as Harper suffered a season-ending injury in the 2021 offseason. He sat out the entirety of the Cougars' 2021 campaign, and to be frank, the depth chart somewhat passed him by. Early in the 2022 season, you might have been forgiven for forgetting that Harper was on the roster. Then, he decided to forcefully remind everyone. Against Utah State, he led the team with ten tackles (five solo) and forced a fumble. It was an astonishing breakout performance, but it wouldn't be Harper's last in 2022. By the end of the season, he was the Cougars' third leading tackler (behind only the aforementioned Bywater and Tooley) with 68 tackles, 39 of them solo. From missing an entire season and barely playing through the Cougars' first four games of 2022, Harper rose to become one of the best defensive players on the BYU roster.
But there's another, more tragic, layer to Harper's story. On November 13, 2022, while the Cougars were wrapping up their bye week and preparing for their final home game of the season against Utah Tech, a mentally unstable former Virginia football player opened fire on a bus that was carrying him and his classmates back from a trip to Washington, DC. Three students, all UVA football players, were killed. Among the dead was Devin Chandler, Micah Harper's childhood best friend. Just a couple of weeks earlier, Harper had been trying to convince Chandler to make the trip out to Liberty University to watch him play. Harper had to play the final three games of the season while carrying the weight of his best friend's senseless murder. It's hard to imagine trying to play football under such circumstances, but Harper did it—and in the process, he gave us yet another example of what it means to succeed through adversity. In many ways, it's been the hallmark of his career.