The BYU Cougars will kick off the 2026 season in 16 days against Utah Tech. As we count down the days until kickoff, today we will profile the player who wears No. 16 - redshirt senior linebacker Isaiah Glasker.
Isaiah Glasker's background
Before breaking out as a 2024 All-Big 12 player and All-American Honorable Mention by Sports Illustrated, Isaiah Glasker came from relatively humble beginnings when compared to most college football stars.
Glasker played his high school football at Bingham in the Sale Lake Valley, so just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Provo. In the class of 2021 he was a low-end three-star prospect with an 82 rating from 247 Sports, making him the No. 23 prospect in the Beehive State. He was lightly recruited coming out of high school with his only two reported offers coming from Weber State and BYU.
Isaiah had strong ties to BYU as his father played baseball at BYU and his mother played volleyball for the Cougars. Before beginning his college football career he served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Uruguay.
Glasker's past and present with BYU
Like many unheralded freshmen, Glasker's career got off to a slow start early on. He redshirted in 2022 and didn't appear in any games. As a redshirt freshman in 2023 he appeared in eight games with three tackles.
He would go absolutely nuclear a season later.
In 2024, his redshirt sophomore season, he had a breakout campaign with 70 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, and three interceptions. He was flat out dominant, and a star was born in Provo. His stellar play earned him All-Big 12 Honorable Mention from the Big 12 coaches and All-Big 12 First Team from the College Football Network. He capped his outstanding season by being named Defensive MVP of the Alamo Bowl in BYU's thrilling win over a Colorado team with Deion Sanders as coach, Shedeur Sanders at quarterback, and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter.
Isaiah Glasker picks off Shedeur Sanders and breaks out the ‘Deion Shuffle’
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace) December 29, 2024
BYU has made life miserable for Colorado tonight
pic.twitter.com/eR36foAPpI
Exiting the 2024 season it looked like Glasker would play one more year for BYU then move on to the NFL.
But his 2025 campaign didn't turn out exactly as planned. An ankle sprain in September against Colorado and a broken finger later in the season had him "toughing it out" for much of his redshirt junior year. Even then, he still had an outstanding season with 67 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, and two interceptions. He received Third-team All-Big 12 honors. It was a really, really good season, but Glasker was hoping for great before potentially entering the NFL Draft.
He instead decided to return to BYU for one more go-round.
Entering his redshirt senior season this year, Glasker is poised to simply dominate this season. The 6-foot-5, 240-pound veteran has seen and done it all in college football, except for making it to the College Football Playoffs. With another dominant season in the middle of BYU's defense, Isaiah Glasker is impactful enough to help propel the Cougars to a Big 12 title and entrance into the CFP.
If all goes according to plan this year, he will take BYU to unprecedented heights as a Power Four school, then hear his name called early in next year's NFL Draft.
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