This time last year, Hunter Clegg was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Clegg was scheduled to get home in December of 2024 and enroll at the University of Utah. Fast forward to today and the former four-star recruit is a true freshman defensive end at BYU, and he’s already playing an important role for the BYU defense.
Clegg arrived home from his mission and flipped his commitment to BYU. He enrolled at BYU in January and participated in Spring Camp. Clegg slowly climbed the depth chart during Fall Camp after playing with the third-team defense during the Spring.
Clegg went into the season as a co-backup behind Logan Lutui. After one game, Clegg became the outright backup and his snap count reflects that.
Viliami Po’uha and Logan Lutui have played the most snaps at defensive end for BYU with 50 and 45, respectively. Behind those two, Clegg has played the most snaps with 38 total snaps.
Most notably, Clegg’s snap count increased against Stanford. Only 15 BYU defenders played more than 20 snaps against Stanford and Clegg was one of them with 22 total snaps. Clegg was often used in pass rush situations against the Cardinal. When BYU had the chance on obvious passing downs, Clegg replaced starter Logan Lutui. Of the 22 total snaps, Clegg was tasked with rushing the quarterback on 15 snaps. Lutui, for comparison, had 12 pass-rush snaps against Stanford.
Clegg registered one quarterback hit in that game. He has tallied three total quarterback pressures this season in 22 pass rush attempts.
Clegg was already poised to become a key part of BYU’s defense when he committed to the Cougars. However, Clegg has played a bigger role in the first two games than anticipated. Clegg has all the tools to be an all-star pass rusher in Jay Hill’s defense.
Behind the top three at defensive end, Bodie Schoonover, Orion Maile-Kaufusi, and Tausili Akana have been the other defensive ends in the rotation. Akana is a Texas transfer that BYU added back in December. Maile-Kaufusi flipped from Oregon State to BYU after his mission.