The BYU Cougars will kick off the 2026 season in 79 days against Utah Tech. As we count down the days until kickoff, today we will profile the player who wears No. 79 - redshirt junior tackle Kaden Chidester.
Kaden Chidester's background
Chidester played his high school football in Richfield, Utah and despite the small school status was still rated as a three-star prospect in the class of 2021. Back then he was a 6-foot-8, 240-pound tight end who also played on the defensive line. He was classified as an "athlete" coming out of high school.
His journey to BYU was untraditional in that he wasn't a long-term recruiting target for the Cougars. Instead, according to Jeff Hansen, the coaching staff saw the massive, two-way talent at a camp and offered him a scholarship on the spot. Kaden, in turn, immediately accepted the offer and quickly became a Cougar.
Locked in🔒@BYUfootball pic.twitter.com/ywn1H68Oey
— Kaden Chidester (@Kaden_Chid) December 14, 2021
Chidester's past and present with the Cougars
Fast forward four years and Kaden Chidester has grown from a 6-foot-8, 240-pound high schooler into a 325-pound mauler of an offensive tackle. Now entering his redshirt junior campaign, he has appeared in 22 games over the last two seasons.
In 2024, his redshirt freshman season, he played 12 of 13 games with most of his work coming on special teams. Last year he played in 10 games with most of those snaps coming on field goal and extra points with the special teams. While he hasn't been starting, Chidester has been an important role player in BYU's massively successful past two seasons.
Special teams contributions from guys like Chidester are crucial, but they often go overlooked. Some of BYU's biggest plays over the team's incredible run over the last two seasons have happened on special teams, including the game-winning field goal over Utah. He may not be in the limelight, but his coaches trust him enough to put him on the field in some of the biggest moments of the game. And Chidester has delivered as a blocker on special teams time and again.
Reasonable expectations for 2026 is that he continues his special teams work. Andrew Gentry will likely be starting at right tackle. The depth of talent across the offensive line has exploded at BYU in recent years, including at Kaden's position. He will likely be battling for backup duties with Bott Mulitalo and Ethan Thomason. Mulitalo was the No. 136 recruit nationally in the class of 2025 with offers from Oregon (who he decommitted from), Tennessee, USC, and a host of others. Thomason was a whisker away from four-star status and had offers from the likes of Tennessee, Texas A&M, Indiana, and almost every Big 12 team.
Kaden Chidester is going to have his work cut out for him to crack the two-deep rotation.
Even then, as a relatively unheralded recruit from small town Utah, he has carved out a meaningful special teams role with the Cougars and has contributed over the last two years to one of the nation's most successful programs.
Add us as a preferred source on Google