{"id":858222,"date":"2026-04-07T05:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/858222\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T05:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:02:18","slug":"new-byu-tight-end-roger-saleapaga-excited-to-be-back-home-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/858222\/","title":{"rendered":"New BYU tight end Roger Saleapaga ‘excited to be back home’ \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top college football players have various reasons for entering the transfer portal, most of them related to playing time, or lack thereof, and the desire to maximize their earnings in this day and age of revenue sharing and name, image and likeness opportunities.<\/p>\n

But for new BYU tight end Roger Saleapaga<\/a>, an Orem High product who was at Big Ten powerhouse Oregon the past two seasons, the decision was much more simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to get back home again,\u201d the 6-foot-4, 245-pounder told the Deseret News after the Cougars\u2019 third spring practice<\/a> in March. \u201cThat\u2019s the bottom line, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last time college football fans saw Saleapaga, he was catching a touchdown pass in the Ducks\u2019 humbling 56-22 loss to Indiana in the Peach Bowl, otherwise known as the College Football Playoff semifinals on Jan. 9. But that highlight wasn\u2019t really indicative of his time in Eugene; he caught only three passes for 26 yards in 2025 as UO\u2019s third tight end. <\/p>\n

\"\"Oregon tight end Roger Saleapaga (83) pulls in a touchdown pass against Indiana defensive back Devan Boykin (12) during the Peach Bowl college football playoff semifinal, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Atlanta. | AP <\/p>\n

Saleapaga, who was a four-star recruit out of Orem, according to Rivals.com, and a three-star recruit and the No. 32 tight end in the country, per 247Sports, appeared in 11 games his freshman season but did not record a reception.<\/p>\n

Saleapaga has two seasons of eligibility remaining with a redshirt still available to use; he entered the transfer portal on Jan. 12, and almost immediately heard from BYU, which had recruited him heavily out of high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a feeling that BYU was going to be the first school to call. … I ended up taking a visit, and almost instantly I said, \u2018Yeah, I am coming back home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0new BYU tight end Roger Saleapaga<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a feeling that BYU was going to be the first school to call,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 I ended up taking a visit, and almost instantly I said, \u2018Yeah, I am coming back home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Saleapaga\u2019s brother, Keanu, played on the offensive and defensive lines for BYU from 2017-21 after joining the Cougars out of La Mirada High in California. The entire Saleapaga family moved to Utah County during Keanu\u2019s career, so Roger grew up in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve pretty much known about BYU and been in and out of their facilities my whole life,\u201d Saleapaga said.<\/p>\n

During his freshman season at Oregon, Saleapaga converted to the faith that supports BYU, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He remains the only member of the church in his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in (the church) going on two years now,\u201d he said. \u201cI love it, yes sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roger said Keanu is a barber now and has specialized in cutting the hair of professional athletes and musicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has just been a blessing (to be at BYU) and everything I expected it to be,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been fun to play with new guys and learn a new offense and just make new relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was the third offensive player from a Big Ten school to transfer to BYU, joining USC tight end Walker Lyons<\/a> and Oregon teammate Kyler Kasper, a 6-6 receiver who also turned a lot of heads in BYU camp.<\/p>\n

Schools from the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 contacted him when he was in the portal, but he quickly set his sights on BYU, and committed on Jan. 16, a mere four days after he entered the portal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am blessed in that I had options,\u201d he said. \u201cI would say I had a good amount of (interest), even from the big boys, but BYU had my attention almost from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saleapaga said he went into the situation with his eyes wide open, knowing that BYU was losing stud tight end Carsen Ryan to the NFL but gaining another potential star in USC\u2019s Lyons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I still have to fight for a spot,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the tight ends in the room are capable of playing and starting. Obviously, I wanted to put myself in a good position where I could compete for a starting spot. \u2026 Every day I come out here like I\u2019m eighth string.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyons is also a junior with a redshirt available. Ryan caught 45 passes for 620 yards and three touchdowns last fall.<\/p>\n

Tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride said redshirt sophomore Noah Moeaki (two catches, 16 yards, one touchdown) and senior Keayen Nead also picked up valuable experience last year and have handled the increased competition \u201cincredibly well and in an incredibly mature way.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI am blessed in that I had options. I would say I had a good amount of (interest), even from the big boys, but BYU had my attention almost from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0BYU tight end Roger Saleapaga<\/p>\n

There are now 10 tight ends on the spring roster, but few are as talented as Lyons and Saleapaga.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere they\u2019re great is in their awesome approaches, which are very comparable to Carsen\u2019s approach,\u201d Gilbride said of Lyons and Saleapaga. \u201cNo. 1, they are bright, just like Carsen. They are football smart, and they dove right in and learned the playbook pretty quickly, which is somewhat unheard of. That\u2019s not easy to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s been great,\u201d Gilbride continued. \u201cThey\u2019re ahead of where I\u2019ve seen other transfers coming in, other than Carsen. Carsen was right with there with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbride said redshirt freshman Jacob Nye will contribute \u201conce his knee is fully healed,\u201d along with redshirt sophomore Will Zundel, who was a solid contributor on special teams last year.<\/p>\n

Snow College and New Mexico State transfer Ethan Wood, freshman Josh Davis, freshman returned missionary Matthew Fredrick and redshirt freshman Cole Clement, a converted receiver and solid route runner, are also in the mix.<\/p>\n

BYU\u2019s tight ends on 2026 spring roster45 Keayen Nead, senior (New Mexico)7 Walker Lyons, junior (USC)2 Roger Saleapaga II, junior (Oregon)24 Ethan Wood, junior (New Mexico State)83 Will Zundel, redshirt sophomore82 Noah Moeaki, redshirt sophomore86 Cole Clement, redshirt freshman80 Jacob Nye, redshirt freshman44 Josh Davis, freshman87 Matthew Fredrick, freshman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top college football players have various reasons for entering the transfer portal, most of them related to playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48,3309],"class_list":{"0":"post-858222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-news-feed-local"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}