Jake Murphy likes football and baseball so much that when pressed to choose one, he says he likes them both equally.

BYU has agreed to let him try and play both sports.

Wednesday morning, Murphy, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound senior wide receiver/defensive back from American Fork made it official as he signed a letter of intent to play football with BYU.

"Everyone said it's going to be a ton of work, but I'm up to trying it for at least one year to see how it is," Murphy said. "I like baseball a lot, it's been my favorite sport growing up. Then football came into the picture, so it's kind of hard to give up baseball since I've played it my whole life. I like them both exactly the same."

Football will get the first shot.

Murphy said he was offered by BYU, Stanford and Utah State to play football. He canceled an official visit to Colorado two weeks ago and said Arizona State was interested in him, but did not want to wait for him to serve an LDS church mission.

Murphy, who is the son of former Major League Baseball player Dale Murphy, plans on serving a mission this summer. He will then return to get ready to try and play both football and baseball.

"I'll play whereever. It depends on where they need me," Murphy said. "It could be receiver, tight end, linebacker, safety. Just wherever they need me, depending on how big I get. If I get bigger, then we'll see, but preferably I'd like to play receiver or something on offense."

Murphy was a handful of Utah Valley athletes who officially signed on Wednesday. Murphy's teammate Justin Jensen, a 6-6, 310 lineman, signed to play with Southern Utah.

"I had a couple of options, but I was just really impressed with the program. It hasn't been the best program over the last couple years, but from what I saw when I went down there I was really impressed with the new coaching staff," Jensen said. "The money issue to get down there was also a key because I don't have the full support of a dad to get me down to college. So that was a big thing, too. Not having to pay any money to start of college is a great thing. That's what every kid goes for."

American Fork coach Davis Knight had high praise for both Murphy and Jensen.

"They're part of a group that talked to me before the season started who told me, 'coach, we just don't want to be an ordinary football team. We want to push extra hard,' " he said. "These two, Jake is a captain and Justin is a great two-way player. They type the kind of senior year they can talk to their grandkids about."

Knight said Robbie Lusk turned down an offer from Boise State and will serve a church mission and then explore his options when he returns. Zach Enosa will likely play for Snow College and All-Valley running back Chris Wernli is still keeping his options open.

In other signings around the Valley, Timpview continued to keep BYU well-stocked. Mike Alisa and Kevin Bills, a pair of linebackers, are headed to BYU.

"This has been my dream since I started playing football to play at BYU," Bills said. "They offered me a scholarship last summer, but since then it's just been waiting. I'm excited to go to BYU. I live in this town and it will be nice to be close to my family and friends. I know some people want to go out of state for school but I'm fine staying here."

Bills and Alisa will be joined by Springville defensive back Cameron Comer and Timpanogos quarterback Christian Stewart.

The University of Utah now has two Krugers. David, a senior at Timpanogos, will be joining his brother Paul at Utah.

"It really feels great. It goes by faster than you think it does. Suddenly it hits you that you're a senior heading off to college," David Kruger said. " It's really exciting that all of the hard work came together. It's a great opportunity and I can't wait to get up there. I've been neutral about BYU and Utah for a long time. Both recruited me and when I was undecided, people didn't bug me about it. When I decided to go to Utah, people were really supportive. Now a lot of them are saying they're going to start watching Utah because I'm up there."

Lone Peak's Kevin and Kyle Whimpey both signed to play at Idaho State.

A batch of players also announced they are preparing to play at different levels. Timpview lineman Greg Unga will be attending BYU as a walk-on. Timpview quarterback Quinn Mecham is headed to Snow College. Teammate Vilami Halasima will join him in Ephraim and both Vaughn Greening (Timpview) and Dominque Moe are headed to Dixie State.

Valley players who signed to play Division I

BYU

Jake Murphy 6-4, 215 WR/DB (American Fork)

Cameron Comer 6-1, 180 DB (Springville)

Mike Alisa 6-2, 210 LB (Timpview)

Kevin Bills 6-3, 225 DE (Timpview)

Utah

David Kruger 6-5, 250 DT (Timpanogos)

Division I-AA

Southern Utah

Justin Jensen 6-6, 310 DT/OT (American Fork)