BYU Football Countdown: Recap 89-100

No. 90a: Bronson Kaufusi – Defensive End – 2012-2015

The Kaufusi brothers are two different people with basically the same story. Both players played basketball and found little success ultimately deciding to focus on football. Both players are huge (Bronson is 6’7″ and Corbin is 6’9″) and both players emerged as difference makers later in their careers.

The reason why both of these players are at No. 90 is because both of them honestly are ranked around the same exact spot but for different reasons. One of the players earned it with his statistics and size, whereas the other brother earned it with his heart and true team leadership that honestly may be unmatched by any other player until we get into the Top 10 players of all time.

Bronson Rankings

Impact C

Bronson unlike Corbin does not score as many points in the impact column although he should. The reason is he caused a lot of havoc to teams, however it was rarely in the biggest games. That isn’t to say he didn’t have good games against better teams, he just wasn’t the kind of player that necessarily rose up to the occasion against those teams such as Corbin, Kyle Van Noy or Kai Nacua. For example, his five best games were against Cincinnati, UNLV, Missouri, Fresno State and a blowout loss to Boise State . The Missouri game was a big game for him, but besides that most of his big impact games were against teams that he didn’t need to have a huge game in.

Statistics B+

Bronson Kaufusi lit up the stat sheet. Over his career he had 44.5 tackles for loss, 26.5 sacks, two interceptions, five forces fumbles, three fumble recoveries and 15 passes broken up and at least two blocked field goals. The 26.5 career sacks is good for fourth all-time at BYU. It is also worth noting that Kaufusi was able to do all of this without much help on the other side. Kaufusi was undoubtedly the dominant defensive end this last three seasons on the team meaning defenses ran away from whatever side he lined up on. Watching some games, it is crazy to see how much teams avoided him, and yet he still managed to pull off the stats that he did.

Memorable Moments D+

Bronson doesn’t really have any memorable moments like most of the other players on this list, and unlike his brother, but there are a few things that do stick out. The first is the size. Bronson was huge in college (he still is but so is everyone else in the NFL). Although not as tall as Corbin he was definitely bigger than Corbin. Because of this, when he tackled he didn’t really tackle he kind of just bear hugged the offensive player and fell on him. The second memorable moment I recall is the interception and havoc he created against UConn. UConn was a game that BYU was supposed to win by 20+ points and yet the Cougars were down 10-7 late in the 3rd quarter. Kaufusi had other ideas though and had a key sack, two tackles for loss and finally an interception that turned the tide for BYU to pull away late.