Five-star quarterback Ryder Lyons entered Tuesday as the highest-rated uncommitted quarterback prospect in the country. Now, he’s heading to BYU.
Lyons, a Folsom, Calif. native, made the announcement on “The Pat McAfee Show” in what will go down as one of the biggest recruiting moments in BYU football history.
“To be honest, I’m just so blessed,” he said on McAfee’s show. “I’m so blessed, but I’m just appreciative. It’s been incredible. It’s been a long journey. I got my first scholarship in eighth grade, so we’ve been at this for a while.”
Lyons, ranked No. 19 overall and the No. 5 QB in the 247Sports Composite, had narrowed his choices down to the Cougars and Oregon. He visited Oregon on June 13 and took a final visit to BYU over the weekend.
“He’s been pretty thorough and he narrowed it down to two schools. It’s not like he’s pulling a hat out of a bag with 15 schools that are just logos up there,” said Folsom coach Paul Doherty. “He said no to Ohio State, Ohio State just won the national freaking championship. He’s had to do it all that and navigate it, so I guess my best perspective is I’m proud of him for being the kid that he is and staying pretty grounded and being thorough with the process.”
Should he sign, Lyons would become BYU’s second-highest-rated prospect of the modern recruiting era, behind only five-star quarterback Ben Olson in the Class of 2002. (Olson never played a down at BYU, redshirting and then transferring to UCLA after serving a two-year Mormon mission.) BYU also made a huge splash on the basketball recruiting trail, signing AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 player in the Class of 2025.
With a player of Lyons’ stature, NIL was clearly part of the decision.
“It’s hard,” he told McAfee. “It’s hard for sure. I do have someone who handles it for me. I have an agent, I have a whole team. But it definitely makes it just confusing. You’re thrown a lot of money from a lot of different places, but I think you’ve got to, obviously, stay humble and money’s not the biggest part. The biggest part is making it to the NFL, because that’s where the serious money is. That’s where the long-term money is.”
Lyons threw for 3,011 yards with 46 touchdowns and six interceptions as a junior at Folsom. He also rushed 118 times for 585 yards and 14 more scores. Once considered a prime candidate to stay in-state and play for USC, he now heads to BYU — after he serves a one-year mission.
“I think they’re getting a great person,” Doherty said. “I think he’s genuinely a great kid. I think he’s committed to what he wants to do. He wants to play quarterback at a high level, he’s shown that he’s certainly capable and he is a kid that is owning every step of progress that’s necessary. He’s not a kid that’s stuck up or entitled or snobby or gonna blame someone else or pretend he knows something that he doesn’t. … He’ll ask questions if he doesn’t know and he’ll work on it, he’ll own it.”
(Photo of Kalani Sitake: Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
