- Kaue Akana, a former soccer player, became a top football recruit at BYU.
- Akana, a versatile player, committed to BYU over offers from UCLA and Alabama.
- He joins a strong recruiting class, including top prospects Ryder Lyons and Brock Harris.
OREM — Kaue Akana grew up in the shadow of LaVell Edwards Stadium, but playing football at BYU wasn't ever really his childhood dream.
Playing football — at least, the American kind — wasn't really dream of his until recently.
Akana grew up playing soccer, a way to bond with his Brazilian mother and a sport he came to be pretty good at.
But the now 6-foot-2, 200-pound senior at Orem High discovered American football as an eighth grader, played on a 7-on-7 team before he got to high school — and had earned a scholarship offer to the University of Utah before the first snap of his full-sided tackle football career.m That helped show Akana that, with a lot of work, he had the ability to play college football.
"Right from the beginning, I knew I had the talent," he told KSL.com of the days before his freshman season. "But I've just tried to hone and develop it year after year, and I feel like I've gotten better and better."
Since then, he's played everywhere from cornerback to safety and linebacker — even at kicker and on special teams — and currently stands out as one of the Tigers' top receivers.
And back on July 1, the No. 9-rated player in Utah's 2026 recruiting class by 247Sports committed to play college football — not at the university that first offered him, but at BYU, where he grew up going to games and chose the Cougars over scholarship offers from UCLA, Alabama and Arizona, among others (including Utah).
The chance to play close to home, near friends and family, under defensive coordinator Jay Hill was too much to pass up.
"I would go to BYU games, and I could really feel the connection, like a family," Akana said. "The fans are awesome; LaVell (Edwards Stadium) is a great place, and coach Hill always made me feel like a priority."
With his commitment firmly in place, Akana has his eyes set on his senior season with the Tigers, who also boast Alabama quarterback commit Tayden Ka'awa and Utah safety commit Aisa Galea'i.
The trio helped Orem (2-2) open Region 7 play last Friday with a 17-14 win over Springville, a win that included Ka'awa connecting with the former 5A second-team all-state honoree on a 15-yard touchdown as part of Akana's five-catch, 57-yard performance in his return from a hamstring injury.
"Me and Tayden are really close," he said. "Last year, we had a great connection and I thought we were a little rusty. But he's like a brother to me, as all my teammates are, and I really wanted to score in my first game back."
Rust or not, his coaches and teammates are happy to have him back — even to line up to kick point-after touchdowns in relief of kicker Ben Bradley.
"He's a good player," Orem coach Lance Reynolds Jr. said. "What he's done is played almost every position over four years. We can put him almost anywhere and he knows what he is doing."
Akana's commitment came during a tidal wave of recruiting momentum for the Cougars, a class that ranks 22nd nationally by 247Sports with 19 commitments led by five-star quarterback Ryder Lyons and two of the top-three prospects in Utah in four-star tight end Brock Harris (Pine View) and offensive tackle Bott Mulitalo (Lone Peak).
Akana got to know all of them, as well as other players like Lehi's Legend Glasker, a fellow "athlete" who ranks just ahead of Akana in 247Sports Utah ratings with a .8878 rating in the 247Sports Composite. He already knew Lyons from the 7-on-7 circuit — the two played on the same Cold Hearts squad on the Overtime 7-on-7 circuit.
"He was telling me there's a chance he could go to BYU, and I knew that was going to be a legendary recruiting class," said Akana, mentioning Harris and Mulitalo, specifically.
"I just felt like these were the guys I wanted to play with," he added. "They were going to make BYU a special place, and I wanted to hop on."
