Four Cougars top Athlon Sports preseason All-Big 12 list
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- BYU running back LJ Martin (4) is stopped after making a catch by Texas Tech cornerback Brice Pollock (14) in the second half of a Big 12 Conference championship NCAA college football game Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Arlington, Texas.
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- BYU’s Faletau Satuala (11) and Tanner Wall close in on TCU’s Jeremy Payne in a college football game at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025.
Led by preseason All-America selections LJ Martin, Bruce Mitchell, Faletau Satuala and Cade Uluave, 13 BYU football players have been named to the Athlon Sports 2026 Preseason All-Big 12 Team. The four national honorees headline a strong contingent of Cougars recognized in the publication’s annual College Football Preview Magazine.
Martin, a senior running back and the reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, was joined by senior center Bruce Mitchell on the Athlon Sports 2026 All-America Third Team. Meanwhile, Faletau, a junior safety, and Uluave, a senior linebacker, were named to the Athlon Sports 2026 All-America Fourth Team. Faletau is coming off a strong sophomore season that saw him earn second-team All-America recognition from the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA). Uluave transferred to BYU this season after receiving first-team All-ACC honors last season at Cal.
The All-American foursome is joined by senior cornerback Evan Johnson, whose five interceptions tied for the most picks in the Big 12 last year, on the magazine’s 2026 All-Big 12 First Team.
In addition to the five first-team honorees, eight other Cougars received Athlon Sports All-Big 12 recognition on the second, third and fourth teams. Overall, seven defensive and six offensive players from BYU garnered All-Big 12 honors from Athlon.
Athlon Sports 2026 All-America Team
Third Team: RB LJ Martin, C Bruce Mitchell
Fourth Team: S Faletau Satuala, LB Cade Uluave
Athlon Sports 2026 All-Big 12 Team
First Team: LJ Martin (Sr., RB), Bruce Mitchell (Sr., C), Faletau Satuala (Jr., S), Cade Uluave (Sr., LB), Evan Johnson (Sr., CB)
Second Team: Isaiah Glasker (Sr., LB), Bodie Schoonover (Sr., DE), Kyle Sfarcioc (Sr., OL)
Third Team: Keanu Tanuvasa (Sr., DL), Therrian Alexander III (Jr., CB), Andrew Gentry (Sr., OL)
Fourth Team: Bear Bachmeier (So., QB), Jojo Phillips (Jr., WR)
BYU’s preseason Big 12 selections have proven on the field they are poised for a strong season in 2026. Martin, Mitchell, Faletau and Uluave enter the 2026 season with outstanding resumes (see below) along with a strong contingent of experienced players expecting to make the Cougars contenders again this year.
Among the other honorees, Isaiah Glasker was an All-Big 12 Third Team linebacker last season, while Evan Johnson, Keanu Tanuvasa and Bodie Schoonover received All-Big 12 honorable mention. In his true freshman campaign last year starting at quarterback, Bear Bachmeier earned 2025 Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors and was a semifinalist for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award.
BYU is coming off a 2025 season that saw the team reach the 12-win mark for the fifth time in school history and first time since 2001 (2025, 2001, 1996, 1984, 1980). BYU finished the year with its second-straight bowl victory over a ranked opponent, defeating Georgia Tech of the ACC. BYU’s two-year run with 23 wins in 2024-25 has only been bested by Cougar squads in 1983-84 (24 wins) and 1984-85 (24 wins), a stretch when BYU won the 1984 national championship.
The Cougars’ five wins last season against teams with nine wins or more set a new program best and their seven wins against teams with winning records overall marked the second-most in school history, trailing only the eight wins recorded in 1980. BYU’s FBS opponents had a record of 102-64 for a winning percentage of .614. Ten wins against Power 4 opponents also set a new record at BYU, topping 2024’s nine victories.
