The BYU Cougars will kick off the 2026 season in 72 days against Utah Tech. As we count down the days until kickoff, today we will profile the player who wears No. 72 - redshirt sophomore guard Joe Brown.
Joe Brown's background
Joe Brown is a local product who prepped at American Fork High School. He was a solid prospect in the class of 2022 with a three star rating and an 86 overall grade. He was the No. 16 prospect in the state of Utah that year. Virginia, Indiana, and BYU were the only Power Four teams to offer him, and the Cougars almost didn't land him.
Brown originally committed to Virginia and former BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall. But Mendenhall's departure from Virginia in 2021 opened Brown's recruiting back up, and he ultimately flipped to the Cougs. He was a nice pickup for BYU to help bolster an already deep offensive line. Before enrolling at BYU it appears he served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though that fact isn't listed on his player profile on the BYU team page.
I’M COMING HOME!! @Coach_DFunk @kalanifsitake pic.twitter.com/pe4YdtHbAU
— Joe Brown (@joebrown_72) December 11, 2021
Joe Brown's past and present at BYU
Brown's BYU career got off to an unfortunate start after he tore his ACL before his 2024 freshman campaign and missed the entire season due to injury. As a redshirt freshman last year he saw action in three games, logging snaps against Portland State, TCU, and UCF, three games the Cougars won in lopsided fashion.
Last year he was also named to the Fall Academic All-Big 12 Team, so he's also a diligent student.
While it's somewhat easy to downplay the fact that he "only" played in three games during his redshirt freshman season last year, that action does send us a sign. BYU's coaching staff is strategic in how they allocate game action to younger guys on the bottom end of the roster, which was the case for Brown last year. The Cougars have a large number of offensive linemen the coaches could have given those snaps to, and they chose Brown. They were sending a signal to him, and to us as fans, that they see him as part of BYU's future.
And the future may be now for the 6-foot-4, 310-pound mauler.
Brown is among the short list of candidates vying to lock down a starting guard spot this year. He will most likely battling Trevin Ostler, Andrew Williams, and Zak Yamauchi for a position on the two-deep lineup, and Brown has the talent to make it as a redshirt sophomore.
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