BYU football announces 10 mid-year enrollees

BYU has announced 10 mid-year enrollees to the football team. The 10 players can be seen here:

Wayne Kirby (Oregon) and Austin Lee (Utah) are two transfers from other FBS programs. Wayne Kirby informed Vanquish The Foe that he is seeking to a NCAA waiver to become immediately eligible, and expects to find out this summer the status of that waiver. Lee played at Utah during the 2015 season and attended SLCC in 2016, so he will be eligible to play for BYU in 2017.

The next three on the list are returned LDS missionaries that were committed to other schools before their missions.

Ula Tolutau (RB): Tolutau was committed to Wisconsin prior to his mission. The Utah prep star ran for 2,465 yards and 31 touchdowns his senior year of high school. Tolutau will be expected to immediately fight for carries with Squally Canada and Riley Burt.

A.J. Lolohea (DL): The West High School product was committed to Weber State prior to his mission.

Joe Tukuafu (TE): The East High School product was committed to Utah State before his mission. Tukuafu played both tight end and defensive end in high school, but is expected to stay at tight end at BYU.

One exciting addition is defensive lineman Keanu Saleapaga. Saleapaga is a 2016 commit, but did not enroll at BYU this past year. He was once committed to USC, but flipped to BYU after Kalani Sitake was named head coach. Coaches expect Saleapaga to put on enough weight to play inside at defensive tackle during his BYU career.

The final four players listed above are recently returned missionaries that were committed to BYU before their missions. One player that may contribute right away is tight end Matt Bushman; Bushman had over 1,500 receiving yards and 26 touchdowns as a high school senior in Arizona.

The good news about these 10 additions is that they will all be eligible to participate in BYU’s spring football practices. While some may redshirt, we could see some make a real impact in 2017.