The BYU Cougars will kick off the 2026 season in 3 days against Utah Tech. As we count down the days until kickoff, today we will profile the players who wear No. 3: redshirt junior wide receiver Kyler Kasper and senior safety Raider Damuni.
Is Kyler Kasper BYU's answer at wide receiver?
Three of BYU's four leading wide receivers are gone from a season ago in Chase Roberts, Parker Kingston, and Cody Hagen. Jojo Phillips would have had a significant role last year but saw his season limited by injury, and he's the only proven guy in BYU's system.
The Cougars are hoping Kyler Kasper, an Oregon transfer, can immediately step in as a starting impact player in a seemingly thin wide receiver room. He definitely has the talent to do just that.
The towering 6-foot-6, 212-pounder was a four-star talent with a 93 rating in the class of 2022. He was a Top 175 recruit nationally and the No. 29 wide receiver nationally. He committed to Oregon out of high school but never took off with the Ducks. Foot injuries limited him to just a handful of receptions at Oregon.
Coming into 2026, few BYU players are going to have a bigger opportunity to truly break out than Kyler Kasper. The Cougars are hungry for difference makers at wide receiver, and he could be the player who fills that void. With quarterback Bear Bachmeier now having a year in Aaron Roderick's system plus massive talent at both tight end and running back, BYU's wide receivers could have monster seasons. And if all goes well, Kasper will be one of them.
True freshman BYU QB Enoch Watson goes deep to Oregon transfer WR Kyler Kasper. pic.twitter.com/7vXGb7K1aY
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) March 7, 2026
Raider Damuni's football life has been building up to this moment
I'm going to admit my bias: I'm a Raider Damuni homer.
While I've never met the senior safety, he's one of my favorite Cougars. He can almost do no wrong in my eyes.
My pro-Raider stance began in February 2017 when he committed to BYU as a very, very young man while in the eighth grade. Crazy, isn't it, that he committed to BYU over nine years ago?! And BYU was wise to lock him down early. As his high school football career unfolded, so did his profile. He was a four-star recruit in the class of 2021 and tied for the highest-rated recruit in BYU's class that year.
Despite offers that would eventually come from the likes of Oregon and Stanford, Damuni stayed loyal to BYU.
While BYU fans have grown somewhat accustomed now as a competitive Big 12 team to signing 4-star talents and beating out the Oregon's of the world for players, it rarely happened back in 2021. I've had my eye on Raider Damuni since then.
Since coming to Provo, he has done everything right.
He served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to California. He has grown increasingly impactful in each of his previous three seasons with the Cougars, registering 21 tackles as a freshman, 26 as a sophomore, and 43 tackles last year. He also had an interception and three passes defended a season ago.
His impact has been limited to a degree by playing behind Tanner Wall (now a rookie with the Las Vegas Raiders) and Faletau Satuala, who could be an early-round NFL pick as early as next year. Damuni didn't pout about the somewhat limited playing time. He didn't complain. He didn't transfer.
And now, the time is his. Raider should start this year, and it just feels like the three previous seasons have all been leading up to what could be a statement senior season.
Add us as a preferred source on Google