If this were a horse race, the television announcer would be getting ready to shout, “Down the stretch they come” as the furious effort to sign five-star quarterback Ryder Lyons nears the finish line — and BYU is running strong as a contender.
“I think there are three schools that all think they have got him. If I am Ryder Lyons, that is exactly where you want to be,” Jeff Hansen of 247Sports.com and CougarInsider.com, told the “Y’s Guys” podcast this week. “Oregon, USC and BYU all feel like they are No. 1. I think BYU is in it as much as anybody.”
Lyons is 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds from Folsom, California. BYU senior quarterback Jake Retzlaff is 6-1 and 205 pounds from Corona, California, and the comparisons don’t end there.
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“I think the way (Jake) Retzlaff developed this last season has spoken loudly to Lyons. A year ago, BYU was an afterthought.”
— college football recruiting guru Jeff Hansen
“They aren’t too different. I think Lyons has an extremely high upside, but the way they see the game, the way they evade pressure and use their legs to extend plays, there are a lot of similarities there,” Hansen said. “I think Ryder has seen Jake and thought, ‘OK, plug me into that system and I can be really, really good.’ I think that has played a role.”
Retzlaff took a team that was picked to finish 13th in the Big 12 and went 11-2, won the Alamo Bowl and finished ranked No. 13 in the final AP Top 25. Along the way, he threw for 2,947 yards and 20 touchdowns. He also ran for 417 yards and six touchdowns.
“I think the way Retzlaff developed this last season has spoken loudly to Lyons,” Hansen said. “A year ago, BYU was an afterthought.”
Source link : https://www.deseret.com/sports/2025/05/20/byu-cougars-narrowing-in-on-5-star-recruit-ryder-lyons/
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Publish date : 2025-05-21 03:00:00
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