BYU safeties have rolled with punches, but can they slow down Kansas' Jalon Daniels?

PROVO — Almost every time Tanner Wall's number was called in BYU's 38-31 win at Arkansas, he was ready to make a play.

The redshirt sophomore wide receiver-turned-safety had a career-high six tackles in the Cougars' upset victory over the Razorbacks, which may be more than he would have liked.

Wall, who isn't afraid to acknowledge that he is "still a walk-on," was the backup free safety to Malik Moore for Saturday's game. When Moore was forced to the take time off late in the game, the former Yorktown High standout from Arlington, Virginia, who speaks three languages, was the last line of defense against KJ Jefferson and the Hogs' offense.

"We knew that KJ's comfort zone was throwing over the middle of the field, in between the hashes, so we were really prepared for that," Wall said Tuesday. "We prepared all week knowing that would be his primary look ... and I think another thing that really helped us out in the defensive backfield was how much pressure we got from the defensive line."

Plenty of credit is owed to BYU's pass rushers, which kept Jefferson off balance and helped contribute to 14 penalties for 125 yards that hampered the Razorbacks (2-1). But credit also goes to the Cougars' secondary — including Wall and the standout cornerback room that includes Jakob Robinson, Eddie Heckard and Kamden Garrett — for that role, as well.

The Cougars will likely start two walk-ons at free and strong safety when they open Big 12 play Saturday at Kansas (1:30 p.m. MDT, ESPN) where transfer receiver Darius Lassiter went to high school. But defensive coordinator Jay Hill isn't concerned.

After presumed starting strong safety Micah Harper was lost for the season with a knee injury suffered in fall camp and Talan Alfrey went down with a non-season ending shoulder injury before the first week, Hill's unit has adjusted on the fly.

Wall was listed as the No. 1 free safety on Monday's depth chart ahead of the Cougars' conference opener with the Jayhawks (3-0), with Ethan Slade listed at strong safety.

Behind the former Orem High safety who starred for the Tigers before walking on at BYU sits Crew Wakley, the Utah State transfer who is doubtful for Saturday's game after an apparent head injury suffered in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The only other strong safety on the two-deep is freshman Raider Damuni, the one-time Timpview star.

At free safety, Wall sits in front of a trio of safeties that include Moore, redshirt freshman Chika Ebunoha and redshirt freshman Preston Rex, who have both played two of the Cougars' first three games of the season.

Hill said the positioning of Wall over Moore and the rest of the free safeties wasn't based on injury or a "performance-related" demotion, as it were.

"I don't know if that's performance as much as the other guys are doing a good job and deserve to play," Hill said. "Our expectations for everyone are that you have to go in and perform.

"I trust Malik. I trust all of our DBs. I trust our defense right now," he added. "That doesn't change the fact that whoever's in the game has got to do what they're supposed to do, and go in and play at the level I expect them to play."

Despite the depth and injury concerns at safety, Hill doesn't anticipate moving any other players to the spot — not even as the Cougars prepare for Big 12 preseason offensive player of the year Jalon Daniels, the Kansas quarterback with 4,167 passing yards, 28 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 24 games over the past four years.

"The guys that we have in our room, we can win with. They're doing a good job," he said. "They've got to continue to prepare the right way, and when their number's called, they've got to go in and perform like Tanner's done and like Slade has done."

The 6-foot, 220-pound signal caller out of Lawndale, California, is the modern-day quarterback when combining his arm with a quick, shifty ability to run and extend plays from the pocket. But so, too, was Jefferson, the 6-foot-3, 247-pound mobile quarterback for the Hogs.

"We have similar respect for him and how he plays the game. Being the preseason Big 12 offensive player of the year, he's got a lot of respect from coaches and everyone," Wall said of Daniels. "We know he's got a strong arm, and he likes to throw the ball down the field. He makes quick reads, and he's elusive, too. I think he's probably a little faster than KJ. We've got to be prepared for that."

BYU's defense has earned its trust, including in players like Wall, who has nine tackles, including two solo stops, on the year.

"I'm just extremely excited, to be honest," Wall said. "It's something I've been working for and dreaming about my whole life. I've always lived by the mentality that things are earned, and not given. It's been a long-time coming, even with my position change and I'm really excited to be where I'm at now. But I'm going to continue to get better every day and earn the right to be confident and show up in ever game and make plays."

Wall was a standout two-way player at Yorktown High, where he caught 55 receptions for 857 yards and 17 touchdowns en route to 1,650 all-purpose yards on offense to add to 131 tackles, nine tackles for loss, two interceptions and eight pass breakups on defense as a senior.

But when the Liberty Conference's player of the year was being recruited, he found scarce interest. High-academic schools lilke Columbia, Harvard, Yale, William and Mary and Virginia were interested, but none had a scholarship (Ivy League athletes are, by definition, not on scholarship but offer need-based financial aid available to all students).

So Wall accepted a preferred walk-on spot at BYU after serving a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Maceio, Brazil, from 2018-20. He returned to the wide receivers room in Provo, but after standing out in fall camp and finding scarce playing time, he made the move to the defensive backfield.

Three years later, Wall said he never considered leaving BYU for other opportunities, even with the transfer portal in its current state of high usage. He believes Hill and head coach Kalani Sitake will play the best players, regardless of their financial status.

Wall wants to be one of those best players.

"I just kind of take that walk-on mentality approach to life in everything I do, whether it's in school, outside of school, in church, and in my personal life," he said. "As I said earlier, everything is earned and not given. So working hard to be where I'm at today, the joy is in the journey, I would say; now it's about seeing some fruits of my labor. But all those cold, dark months in January and February, lifting and doing everything necessary to prepare for now — that's really where the joy comes and understanding how hard and how disciplined me and all the other walk-ons have."

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