The BYU Cougars will kick off the 2025 season in 66 days against Portland State. As we continue counting down the days until kickoff, today we will profile the player who wears No. 66 - redshirt freshman tackle Sione Hingano - by providing three interesting, fun facts:
Fun fact No. 1 - He's continuing the Chandler, Arizona pipeline
BYU has had success in recent years recruiting from Chandler (Arizona) High School. As the Deseret News Jay Drew pointed out, this same school produced wide receiver Gunner Romney, quarterback Jacob Conover, and linebacker Tate Romney. Considering how few players sign in each recruiting class, it's an impressive pipeline coming from a school located outside of the state of Utah.
Fun fact No. 2 - He was a 3-star high school prospect
Hingano was part of the class of 2021 and was a three-star prospect with an 82 overall rating from 247 Sports. He was the No. 26 prospect coming from the state of Arizona that year and barely cracked the Top 150 for his high school position of tackle, coming in at No. 148. As with many players who signed back in 2021, his offer sheet coming out of high school was lighter than most current commits with smaller schools like Weber State, Southern Utah, Idaho, and Northern Arizona, but no other Power Four offers.
C O M M I T T E D🔵⚪🔵⚪#GoCougs pic.twitter.com/wK1v1JLetc
— Sione Hingano (@Sione61850980) November 19, 2020
Fun fact No. 3 - He is a returned missionary
According to his player profile at BYU's website, Sione served a two-year, full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Roseville, California. His profile notes he speaks Tongan, but doesn't indicate if he used his language skills on his mission. After returning from his mission he redshirted last year as he got back into playing shape and learned TJ Woods's new system and schemes for the offensive line.