{"id":938486,"date":"2026-07-06T20:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/938486\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T20:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:03:12","slug":"byu-lands-6-preseason-all-big-12-honors-led-by-returning-rb-lj-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/938486\/","title":{"rendered":"BYU lands 6 preseason All-Big 12 honors, led by returning RB LJ Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"

PROVO \u2014 LJ Martin<\/a> is ready for an encore.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound senior tailback from BYU was named the Big 12 preseason offensive player of the year Monday in a vote of media members that cover the league’s 16 institutions.<\/p>\n

Martin, who won Big 12 offensive player of the year honors a year ago after piling up 1,305 yards en route to the Cougars’ 12-2 campaign and a spot in the Big 12 championship game<\/a>, was one of six Cougars selected to the All-Big 12 preseason team.<\/p>\n

The senior from El Paso, Texas, who was injured before the end-of-year Pop-Tarts Bowl<\/a> was joined by center Bruce Mitchell<\/a>, the 6-foot-4, 305-pound lineman who was a Rimington Trophy candidate last year in his first season as a full-time starter \u2014 as well as four defensive players.<\/p>\n

Senior cornerback Evan Johnson<\/a> and junior safety Faletau Satuala<\/a> were honored a year after helping the BYU defensive to a top-10 mark in interceptions with 17 and defensive touchdowns with three.<\/p>\n

Senior defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa<\/a> and linebacker Cade Uluave<\/a> rounded out BYU’s preseason haul. Tanuvasa was a team captain who started all 14 games a year ago at BYU en route to All-Big 12 honorable mention honors, while Uluave \u2014 a 6-foot-1, 235-pound senior from Mountain Ridge High School \u2014 earned All-ACC first-team honors a year ago after totaling 237 tackles, six sacks, three interceptions and two forced fumbles in three seasons at Cal.<\/p>\n

Utah returner Mana Carvalho<\/a> also earned All-Big 12 preseason honors as a punt\/kick returner. The 5-foot-9, 175-pound sophomore from Laie, Hawaii, was second in the Big 12 last year with 212 punt return yards and one fo three Big 12 returners with a touchdown en route to all-conference honorable mention honors.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech defensive lineman A.J. Holmes was named All-Big 12 preseason defensive player of the year, and Drew Mestemaker took preseason newcomer of the year honors after the redshirt-sophomore quarterback transferred to Oklahoma State from North Texas.<\/p>\n

Here’s the complete list of honorees:<\/p>\n

2026 Preseason All-Big 12 TeamOffenseQuarterback: Noah Fifita, QB, Arizona, RS-Sr.Running Back: Cam Cook, RB, West Virginia, Sr.Running Back: LJ Martin, RB, BYU, Sr.Fullback: Kayden Luke, FB, West Virginia, Jr.Wide Receiver: Omarion Miller, WR, Arizona State, Sr.Wide Receiver: Amare Thomas, WR, Houston, Sr.Wide Receiver: Wyatt Young, WR, Oklahoma State, Jr.Tight End: Terrance Carter Jr., TE, Texas Tech, Sr.Offensive Line: Joe Cotton, OL, Cincinnati, RS-Sr.Offensive Line: Shadre Hurst, OL, Houston, Sr.Offensive Line: Bruce Mitchell, OL, BYU, RS-Sr.Offensive Line: John Pastore, OL, Kansas State, Sr.Offensive Line: Evan Tengesdahl, OL, Cincinnati, RS-Jr.DefenseDefensive Line: C.J. Fite, DL, Arizona State, Sr.Defensive Line: Wendell Gregory, DL, Kansas State, So.Defensive Line: A.J. Holmes Jr., DL, Texas Tech, Sr.Defensive Line: Keanu Tanuvasa, DL, BYU, RS-Sr.Defensive Line: Adam Trick, DL, Texas Tech, Sr.Linebacker: Ben Roberts, LB, Texas Tech, Sr.Linebacker: Austin Romaine, LB, Texas Tech, Sr.Linebacker: Cade Uluave, LB, BYU, Sr.Defensive Back: Will James, DB, Houston, Jr.Defensive Back: Evan Johnson, DB, BYU, RS-Sr.Defensive Back: Jamel Johnson, DB, TCU, Sr.Defensive Back: Brice Pollock, DB, Texas Tech, Sr.Defensive Back: Faletau Satuala, DB, BYU, Jr.SpecialistsKicker: Stone Harrington, PK, Texas Tech, Sr.Punt\/Kick Returner: Mana Carvalho, PR\/KR, Utah, So.Punter: Palmer Williams, P, Baylor, Sr.\"UtahUtah Utes wide receiver Mana Carvalho (28) looks to his right during a punt return for a touchdown as Utah and Cincinnati play at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (Photo: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PROVO \u2014 LJ Martin is ready for an encore. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound senior tailback from BYU was named…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1954,1953,7,1956,1955,820,49,48,88,1958,1959,9,1957,1951,1599,1952],"class_list":["post-938486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-cars","tag-classifieds","tag-football","tag-homes","tag-jobs","tag-local","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-news","tag-radio","tag-salt-lake","tag-sports","tag-television","tag-traffic","tag-utah","tag-weather"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116874825154405320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938486","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=938486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}