BYU football: Five odd questions going into the 2017 season
By Adam Gibby
Question 1: Who will be the next Kai Nacua, Kyle Van Noy or Ziggy Ansah?
Every single year there seems to be a “rise in the moment” star on the BYU defense. These players don’t really show up until the big moment. Most of the time, this star comes from nowhere. The last two seasons it was Kai Nacua. Before the 2015 season, nobody really knew who he was, and yet he played in every single game in 2014, as well as many games in 2013. Given his stats in 2015 and 2016 he does not seem extremely impressive either. He averaged just over three tackles per game and only had one sack this past season.
Despite this however, he is seen as a hero because he saved games multiple times in his career. Against Boise State in 2015 he had three interceptions including the game winner. Against Wyoming last year in the Poinsettia Bowl he had the interception that saved the game from at least going into overtime. Nacua also had huge interceptions against UCLA, Arizona, Mississippi State and two against Utah during those two seasons. Nacua was just the type of player that showed up in the right time.
We could say the same kind of things about Kyle Van Noy, Bronson Kafusi or Ziggy Ansah. The question is, who will be that player this year?
It could be Corbin Kafusi. Maybe it will be Butch Pau’u or perhaps a dark horse player like Motekiai Langi.