The BYU Cougars will kick off the 2025 season in 63 days against Portland State. As we continue counting down the days until kickoff, today we will profile the player who wears No. 63 - redshirt junior center Bruce Mitchell - by providing three interesting, fun facts:
Fun fact No. 1 - He's the most surprising starter on the team
Prior to the 2024 season last year, Bruce Mitchell had been a defensive player during his time at BYU. As a composite three-star recruit (.8011 rating) from South Summit High School in tiny Kamas, Utah, Mitchell played both offense and defense in high school. He arrived in Provo with the class of 2019 and was moved to the defensive side of the ball.
In 2022 he appeared in seven games with three tackles, including one tackle for loss. In 2023 Mitchell played in four games with six tackles. But in 2024 he made the switch to interior offensive lineman and was buried on the depth chart. Then, after a rash of injuries along the offensive line, Mitchell was quite unexpectedly thrown into the starting center role after Connor Pay broke his foot. Mitchell ultimately started six games last year and played very well.
A year ago it seemed impossible that Bruce Mitchell would not only be starting at center this year, but that he would be more than prepared to excel in this role.
Fun fact No. 2 - He's a returned missionary
According to his player profile at BYU's website, Mitchell served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Washington Seattle mission from 2019-2021.
D&C 6:36 pic.twitter.com/NrDbB6H1BS
— Bruce (@BruceSMitchell) July 9, 2019
Fun fact No. 3 - He's a true student-athlete
In this era of the transfer portal and NIL, it's getting increasingly difficult to remember that football players are also full-time students. Kudos to Bruce Mitchell for earning Academic All-Big 12 First Team honors in 2023. And he's not studying underwater basket weaving, either. He's majoring in business management at BYU's esteemed Marriott School of Business.
Given his solid on-field performance last year, he could very well be setting himself up for an NFL career after his days at BYU are done. But if that dream goes unfulfilled, he's going to have a great education when he leaves Provo.