With BYU flipping four-star edge rusher Nusi Taumoepeau from Stanford, many BYU recruiting nerds were hoping to see a little bump in the team's 2025 recruiting rating. It didn’t happen. And it’s not Taumoepeau’s fault. Some of the blame can go directly to the primary source of recruiting rankings: 247 Sports.
After reviewing BYU’s mediocre 2025 recruiting ranking of No. 66 nationally, I did a little digging and found something very curious about how three of BYU’s recent high-profile transfers were rated.
Recent transfers defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa, offensive tackle Andrew Gentry, and edge rusher Tausili Akana are - or were - heralded talents. They also have very curious 247 Sports grades as transfer prospects.
Take a look at the 247 Sports high school ratings for BYU’s recent additions, then compare it to their bizarrely low rating as transfers:
Keanu Tanuvasa, DT
High school: .8663 (3-star) -> Transfer: .8600 (3-star)
I’m not sure how a redshirt sophomore coming off an All-Big 12 Honorable mention season is rated a .8600, but here we are. This is a guy who has anchored a very good Utah defensive line for the past couple of seasons. Tanuvasa is not a mid-three star football player, period.
Andrew Gentry, OT
High school: .9628 (4-star) -> Transfer: .8600 (3-star)
When Gentry finished high school in 2020 he was ranked as the No. 147 prospect in the country by 247 Sports. Fast forward a few years and he has now served a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and spent three years at Michigan. With the Wolverines he appeared in 26 games (two starts) and won a national championship in 2023. While he didn’t crack Michigan’s starting lineup full-time, I doubt he’s regressed from one of the best high school prospects in the nation to a mid-level 3-star talent.
Tausili Akana, Edge
High school: .9397 (4-star) -> Transfer: .8500 (3-star)
Akana was one of the best high school prospects in the entire class of 2022. 247 Sports ranked him as the No. 52 recruit in the country that year. Over the last two seasons he played sparingly at Texas, appearing in nine games with just one tackle. As a .8500 transfer, 247 Sports is bumping him down from one of the best high school prospects in the country a couple of years ago to a below-average Power Four player. Weird.
There seems to be a glitch in how 247 Sports evaluates transfers who don't earn starting gigs on massively talented teams like Michigan and Texas where nearly every player on the roster is a 5-star or 4-star guy. Just because players like Gentry and Akana didn't start for some of the deepest, most talented teams in the nation, it doesn't mean they immediately regress to being average 3-star talents upon hitting the transfer portal.
In the end, the rating players are given by 247 Sports is secondary to how they perform on the field.
I’m expecting to see a lot from Tanuvasa, Gentry, and Akana for the BYU Cougars in 2025.
Don’t be surprised when they significantly outperform their dubious 247 Sports ratings.