The BYU Cougars kick off the 2025 season in 35 days against Portland State. As we continue counting down the days until kickoff, today we will profile the player who wears No. 35 - redshirt freshman safety Jarinn Kalama - by providing three interesting, fun facts:
Fun fact No. 1 - He was one of the better signings in the class of 2022
Coming out of Wasatch High School in Heber City, Utah in the class of 2022, Jarinn Kalama was a three-star talent at 247 Sports with a solid 86 grade. He was the No. 14 prospect in the state of Utah that year and was the sixth-highest rated player in BYU's 2022 class. His high school recruiting profile doesn't list offers from any other school, but that's mostly because he was recruited heavily by BYU and the team locked up his commitment early.
Excited to announce my commitment to BYU ! Go cougs 🔵⚪️ #RoyalCrew22 @BYUFBRecruiting @kalanifsitake @fsitake @bangulo @BrandonHuffman @levelupelitesFB @kards87 @adamgorney @kawej_16 @WasatchFB pic.twitter.com/B1wFd0zwXJ
— Jarinn Kalama (@JarinnKalama) March 25, 2021
Fun fact No. 2 - He's big and versatile
At 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, Kalama has ideal size for a safety. But as a two-way star in high school, there were questions about which side of the ball the Hawaii native would play. According to this piece by 247 Sports Jeff Hansen, in two seasons at Wasatch Kalama had over 1,500 receiving yards on offense plus 65 tackles on defense as a "ball hawking safety with the strength to punish receivers over the middle."
Hansen reported that if BYU's defensive staff hadn't offered Kalama a scholarship on that side of the ball, the offensive staff would have offered him as a receiver. The defensive staff seems to have won out on the big, versatile athlete.
Fun fact No. 3 - He's a returned missionary
According to his player profile page at BYU's website, Jarinn served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Mexico. He redshirted in 2024 to knock off the mission rust and will now compete for snaps, most likely on special teams, as a redshirt freshman in a deep, talented safeties room.