Power conference pride is on the line Saturday night when the Big 12’s BYU plays host to the ACC’s Stanford at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
For the Cougars, who are 1-2 all-time against the Cardinal, there’s also another important element to the Week 2 game — a possible edge in recruiting.
That’s because BYU (1-0) and Stanford (0-1) aren’t major rivals on the field, but they are when it comes to trying to lure top high school prospects from the Beehive State to their respective schools. Stanford’s roster currently includes two Utahns, both from Salt Lake City: former Olympus High standout Scotty Edwards, a safety, and former Skyline and Corner Canyon star Bo Tate, a linebacker. BYU recruited both, as did several other schools in the West.
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Of course, BYU has won some recruiting battles with the Cardinal over the years, but lost just as many. A case could be made that Stanford is BYU’s biggest recruiting rival outside of Utah.
Then there are guys that began their careers at Stanford, then landed at BYU, including recent additions Tiger and Bear Bachmeier. Fullback Houston Heimuli followed that rout a few years ago.
Nearly three years ago, BYU got star running back LJ Martin to flip from Stanford after beating the Cardinal 35-26 in what turned out to be the final game for the winningest coach in Stanford football history, David Shaw.
“Yeah, I think the recruiting (battle) is always going to be that (way),” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said Monday. “All these tough programs that we recruit against, Stanford’s one of them. They have a really good system in place there with education and what they have with the football program, so the standard they have is still there.”
Martin mentioned that lure of a Stanford education on Monday as well when he was asked about flipping from Stanford to BYU after a spectacular prep career in El Paso, Texas.
“Yeah, I really wanted to go to Stanford. My mom really wanted me to go there as well. They had a coaching change right when BYU beat them that first time. So I had to consider other options. BYU came into being a factor,” Martin said. “I met coach Harvey (Unga) for the first time that December and came down for the visit, really liked it, and had to convince my mom a little bit, why I shouldn’t get a Stanford education. But it has worked out pretty good so far.”
Martin ran for a career-high 131 yards on just nine carries in BYU’s 69-0 blasting of Portland State last week. Stanford was idle on Aug. 30, after falling 23-20 to Hawaii in Week Zero.
“We’re always going to recruit against everybody, especially in the west side (of the country) and they’re an academic institution of higher learning, and so it’s really difficult to get into school there,” Sitake said. “So we have a lot of common ground when it comes to getting guys that can be accepted to BYU too. So we’re going to battle them always. I don’t think that’s ever going to change.”
Stanford’s “secret weapon” for recruiting Utah kids between 2007-2022 was former Idaho State linebacker Lance Anderson, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a returned missionary, and a solid recruiter for the Cardinal. After Shaw resigned, Anderson spent the 2023 season as a senior analyst for Boise State and is now the head coach at Utah Tech.
Anderson has always been in that shallow pool of candidates for the BYU head coaching job.
Starting middle linebacker Siale Esera was a four-star recruit out of nearby Timpview High before he chose BYU over Stanford and other Power Four programs in 2023.
“I looked at Stanford very seriously. One of my things that was big for me coming out of high school was education. They are up there in terms of status with education with everything they hold with that right there,” Esera said. “So it was a big opportunity for me to look at Stanford. Yeah, it was good.”
Sitake had offered Esera in the eighth grade. In the end, it was that strong connection to BYU’s coaching staff that put the Cougars past the Cardinal. Esera said even though Anderson is gone, Stanford still recruits the state of Utah vigorously.
“I met coach Harvey (Unga) for the first time that December and came down for the visit, really liked it, and had to convince my mom a little bit, why I shouldn’t get a Stanford education. But it has worked out pretty good so far.”
— BYU RB LJ Martin
“I have talked to a couple of the guys still in high school right now who say they reach out here and there,” Esera said. “Yeah, I would say they are still prominent here in the Utah area.”
BYU is No. 17 in ESPN’s FPI, and Stanford is 77. The Cougars are almost three-touchdown favorites, but to a man they’ve said all week that the Cardinal is much better than it showed in the loss at Hawaii, which is always a difficult place to play.
“They are a good team. They just had a couple small mistakes that happen in the first week of football. We expect them to come out there and be ready to play,” Martin said. “We just gotta be prepared and stick to what we have been doing. Our preparation doesn’t change. It is another game and it is another opportunity to showcase what we can do.”
It is also a showcase game for the Big 12, and BYU’s only chance to represent its league against another Power Four nonconference foe in the regular season.
“Yeah, it is a huge deal. This has playoff implications. This (is about representing) our conference, and who we are,” said BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill, who noted how big TCU’s crushing of North Carolina on Labor Day was for the Big 12. “We have an opportunity against another conference in this game, and we need to go out and play (well). As far as the team goes, we need mojo. We need to continue to keep the hype going and we need to take care of business.”
Meanwhile, Sitake downplayed the importance of representing the Big 12 well, just as he did last year before BYU edged the ACC’s SMU 18-15 in Dallas, a win that took on more significance as the season wore on because of SMU’s success after that.
“I am going to keep it as simple as possible. We want to play at our best. Regardless of the opponent, we want to be at our best. We were really close to that last week, and I hope we can get even closer this week, that that’s what it comes down to,” Sitake said. “So our job is to be the best that we can. And whatever happens from that, I think it’ll be a positive if we can do that. But let’s just focus on one thing first.”
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