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BYU's Tyler Herget (3) and teammate Jon Stanley celebrate a point during a men's college volleyball match against Princeton at the Smith Fieldhouse on Monday, January 23, 2024.

Rebecca Fuentes, BYU Photo

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BYU's Tyler Herget (3) is introduced before the start of a men's college volleyball match against Princeton at the Smith Fieldhouse on Monday, January 23, 2024.

Abby Shelton, BYU Photo

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BYU's Tyler Herget sets the ball during a men's college volleyball match against Princeton at the Smith Fieldhouse on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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In the modern era of college sports, athletes in the transfer portal are often wooed with offers of financial gain, playing time or starting positions.

When Penn State setter Tyler Herget decided to transfer to BYU, he was promised nothing.

All Herget was told was that he could pay his own way into school and have an extended fall tryout.

On Tuesday, Herget made his fourth start for the eighth-ranked Cougars in a sweep of No. 14 Princeton, posting 33 assists, a service ace and four digs while directing his team to a .370 hitting percentage.

“Tyler brings really, really good energy and he’s very, very competitive,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. “He’s moving the ball with good tempo to the hitters and he’s making a lot of good decisions in transition. And he’s become really, really consistent from the service line. That gives our defense a chance to make plays.”

Herget’s father, Todd, played linebacker at BYU in 1987 and 1991-93. Tyler has two older brothers (Todd Jr. and Tim) who play college volleyball, but he was never offered by his father’s alma mater out of high school. Tyler Herget played wide receiver at Darien High School in Connecticut but followed his older brothers into the world of college volleyball. After serving a church mission to Argentina and Provo during the COVID outbreak (2019-2021), he joined his older brother Tim in Happy Valley at Penn State in 2023. Tyler Herget didn’t play his freshman season and decided to look elsewhere.

“I kind of just felt like I needed a change in my life,” Herget said. “I decided to go for it and ended up at BYU and the guys are great. I love the team. The coaches are phenomenal. And I think that they’ve really helped me become a better player. I’m really grateful for my coaches and teammates back at Penn State as well. They helped me become the player who I am as well and I’ve enjoyed my journey. To say the least, I’m really happy to be here.”

Olmstead, who admits he probably made a mistake not recruiting the 6-foot-2 Herget out of high school, said he’s happy to have him in the gym now.

“I think his story is remarkable,” Olmstead said. “Up until the start of school he still wasn’t really a part of our team because we weren’t certain he was going to get into classes. He did everything with that on his own, so it’s a credit to him. When we finally knew he was in and everything was cleared, I brought him into my office and I said, “Hey, you can have an extended tryout, but I can’t make any promises, man.'”

Through November and December, Herget worked out and scrimmaged with the team.

“I told him we’d put him on the roster and we’ll see where it goes, but there were no promises and no guarantees,” Olmstead said. “He just said, ‘Let’s do it.’ And very, very quickly we were like, ‘OK, we’ve got to keep this kid around.’ I told him we were still kind of waiting for the timeline to play out but he’d didn’t care. That’s all he wanted. The guys never treated him any other way because they love him and right from the start they were giving him a nickname — ‘Hergy.'”

Last year’s starting setter, Heath Hughes, was a one-year transfer from Grand Canyon so the position was wide open for 2024. Candidates included Noa Haine, who started when Hughes missed eight matches due to an injury last season, highly touted 6-9 freshman recruit Kyle Sauer, sophomore Cooper Jarman and Herget.

Haine started the first three matches but the Cougars ran into trouble at Lewis University, falling behind early and struggling on offense. Olmstead made several subs to change things around in the second set, including Herget at the setter spot. BYU ended up losing the match in five sets but the Cougars went from hitting .200 in Set 2 to .286 in Set 3, .455 in Set 4 and .444 in Set 5.

On Jan. 20, Herget led BYU to a season-high .455 hitting percentage in a sweep of UC Santa Barbara. Herget’s 40 assists in three sets is the most in the MPSF this season. In total, he’s started six matches and contributed 7.74 assists per set, nine aces, seven block assists and 1.35 digs per set, which is third on the team.

“I think in practice as a team we play really competitively and we have a mindset of team over anything else,” Herget said. “Team over any individual. I think that this motto has helped the team come together. We’re just all happy that everyone is getting the opportunity to play.”

Herget said he has no hard feeling about not being recruited by BYU — “I don’t want an apology from Shawn. He doesn’t need to do that” — and that he feels like Provo is the right place for him.

“When I went into the transfer portal, BYU was definitely an option,” Herget said. “I had that in the back of my head. I reached out to Shawn and things kind of settled. I ended up getting into school and coming here.”

Now, Herget is making the most of his opportunity to play for the Cougars.

“Tyler just wanted a chance and I love that,” Olmstead said. “When we reached out to Penn State they had nothing but unbelievable things to say about him. They said he’s every bit of the kind of kid you want on your team.”