Kaufusi’s athleticism eases his transition to linebacker


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PROVO — Bronson Kaufusi was initially recruited to play collegiately as a tight end.

His time in high school saw him excel on both sides of the football, as well as on the basketball court.

Add that experience to a strong football pedigree — his father Steve, who serves as the defensive line coach at BYU following multiple years on Utah’s coaching staff, played two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, and Kaufusi has multiple uncles that either featured on the gridiron for the Utes or Cougars — and the junior’s move from defensive line to outside linebacker doesn’t seem as monumental as it would be to the average Division I player.

“Not as much as I thought,” Kaufusi said of the level difficulty involved in the switch.

On top of learning a new position, he’s inheriting the Will (weakside) linebacker job previously managed by one of the best defensive players to wear BYU blue in Kyle Van Noy.

“I look at it more as filling a position. You can’t really replace players, because every player’s different,” Kaufusi said.

That isn’t to say the expectations and challenges associated with the move will be simple. The Timpview High graduate is leaving the trenches, where much of the unheralded dirty work is done to free up playmakers on the edge.

“In our defense, (my) position really makes a lot of the plays, which is nice,” he said with a smile. “To come from D-line, where your job is to take the gaps and really allow everyone else to feed off how you play, and now being the guy that makes the plays, you’re just grateful for the guys up front.”


I feel way more athletic, way more fluent. I feel like I can run with guys who are smaller than me, just because I'm so much lighter. It's nice to be at that natural weight because your body just feels better. Because it feels it better, you can play faster and play longer.

–Bronson Kaufusi


Kaufusi earned an appreciation first hand for the guys battling at the line with 300-plus pound blockers — even bigger than him — and he knows without them there wouldn’t be any plays to be made at linebacker.

But he is looking forward to his new role. He said an intensive workout plan allowed him to drop about 30 pounds off the 290-pound frame he needed to work out of three- and four-point stances against the thicker bodies last year.

“I feel way more athletic, way more fluent. I feel like I can run with guys who are smaller than me, just because I’m so much lighter,” he said. “It’s nice to be at that natural weight because your body just feels better. Because it feels it better, you can play faster and play longer.”

No longer plagued with the stress of maintaining an unnatural mass, Kaufusi has gotten to work learning his responsibilities.

“Outside linebacker, in this defense, you’re making a lot of adjustments, according to what they line up in,” he said. “So the call comes in and you have to know what to do after the fact. For me, that was probably the hardest thing.”

Despite the significant slim down, Kaufusi won’t be making it back to the hardwood anytime soon, but his brother, Corbin, who returned from his LDS mission this summer, could be the family’s next dual-sport star.

BYU's Kyle Van Noy, left, and then-defensive lineman Bronson Kaufusi talk about BYU's 2013 NIT basketball game (while Kaufusi was also playing for the basketball team) after a BYU football practice Monday, March 18, 2013, in Provo.
BYU's Kyle Van Noy, left, and then-defensive lineman Bronson Kaufusi talk about BYU's 2013 NIT basketball game (while Kaufusi was also playing for the basketball team) after a BYU football practice Monday, March 18, 2013, in Provo. (Photo: Tom Smart/Deseret News)

“Maybe my little brother. Everyone’s going to think it’s me, but it’s going to be my little brother,” Kaufusi said. “He’s a good basketball player. He grew on his mission. He’s almost 7 feet (tall).”

BYU defensive coordinator Nick Howell loves the versatility Kaufusi and the linebacker corps provides, and wouldn’t rule out the possibility of moving them around.

“We have a stockpile of outside backers, and so we’re not saying that you are an outside backer,” Howell said. “We’ve got all these good linebackers, well why are we just going to say, ‘OK, you’re a Will, you’re a Sam (strongside)?’ Let’s put our best four out there and see what we can do.”

No matter how the Cougars end up utilizing the athletes on Howell’s squad, Kaufusi echoed what numerous teammates have stated — the 2014 BYU defense will be better than a season ago, which produced four NFL players.

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